One of the most important factors, not only in military matters but in life as a whole, is ... the ability to direct one's whole energies towards the fulfillment of a particular task.
It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.
One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.
One principle reason why men are so often useless is that they ... divide and shift their attention among a multitude of objects and pursuits.
I can tell you how to get what you want: You've just got to keep a thing in view and go for it and never let your eyes wander to right or left or up or down. And looking back is fatal.
He who begins many things finishes but few.
Who begins too much accomplishes little.
Never try to catch two frogs with one hand.
If you run after two hares, you will catch neither.
The greyhound that starts many hares kills none.
The man who seeks one thing in life, and but one May hope to achieve it before life be done. But he who seeks all things wherever he goes Only reaps from the hopes which around him he sows A harvest of barren regrets.
Those who attain any excellence commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often granted upon easier terms. -Samuel Johnson No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
He who wishes to fulfill his mission in the world must be a man of one idea, one great overmastering purpose, overshadowing all his aims, and guiding and controlling his entire life.
Firmness of purpose is one of the most necessary sinews of character and one of the best instruments of success. Without it, genius wastes its efforts in a maze of inconsistencies.
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.... A determinate purpose in life, and a steady adhesion to it through all disadvantages, are indispensable conditions of success.
If you would be Pope, you must think of nothing else.
One should want only one thing and want it constantly. Then one is sure of getting it. But I desire everything, and consequently get nothing.
I care not what your education is, elaborate or nothing, what your mental calibre is, great or small, that man who concentrates all his energies of body, mind and soul in one direction is a tremendous man.
He who hunts two hares leaves one and loses the other.
He who serves two masters has to lie to one.