Grit Quotes

Arsenal play pretty-boy football. Good to watch on the telly, but there's no real grit in their play. ~ Karl Wiggins

Native Soil

There's
Nobody simpler than us, or with
more pride, or fewer tears.
(1922)

Our hearts don't wear it as an amulet,
it doesn't sob beneath the poet's hand,
nor irritate the wounds we can't forget
in our bitter sleep. It's not the Promised Land.
Our souls don't calculate its worth
as a commodity to be sold and bought;
sick, and poor, and silent on this earth,
often we don't give it a thought.
Yes, for us it's the dirt on our galoshes,
yes, for us it's the grit between our teeth.
Dust, and we grind and crumble and crush it,
the gentle and unimplicated earth.
But we'll lie in it, become its weeds and flowers,
so unembarrassedly we call it - ours. ~ Anna Akhmatova

The work of Jana Harris is unique in American writing. She has always had a voice of true grit - sometimes harsh, sometimes funny, always close to the bone, tart, and indomitable. ~ Alicia Ostriker

The force with which he wanted it both ways made him grit his teeth. What kind of fool wanted it only one way? ~ Maile Meloy

There is nothing like tasting the grit of fear for rediscovering that the umbilical cord is made of piano wire. ~ Moss Hart

Machine guns are taken through grit and determination. ~ Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig

When business is not all that it should be there is a temptation to sit back and say, Well, what's the use! We've done everything possible to stir up a little business and there is nothing doing so what's the use of trying! There is always a way. There was a way in and there is a way out. And success comes to the man who grits his teeth, squares his jaw, and says, There is a way for me and, by jingo, I'll find it. The stagnator gathers green scum, finally dries up and leaves an unsightly hollow. ~ Cliff Sloan

Long past the moment when her neck begins to stiffen and ache, she continues to stare into the darkness, even though none of the human secrets she needs to know are to be found in the stars but rather closer to the earth her boots stand upon. ~ Larry Watson

I like the man who takes the stones Upon his rocky road With smiling lips instead of groans, Whate'er his heavy load Who seizes each as on he goes, And neatly crumbles it, And turns his share of pebbly woes To stores of inner grit. ~ John Kendrick Bangs

When I was auditioning for 'True Grit,' I was on the Paramount lot. I was wearing clothes from the 1800s that were big and uncomfortable. ~ Hailee Steinfeld

The grit of the deathbed earth grows soft ~ Donald Revell

Only the middle ground of this wicked world mattered, the vast gap that stretched between, and those who were born with enough grit to brave it. ~ David Joy

With 'True Grit,' the language was very specific, as is Shakespeare. You couldn't really improvise, nor would you really ever have to. I never felt the need to. It was all so beautifully written, and it was all right there. ~ Hailee Steinfeld

To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do - to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst - is, by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still. The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed ~ Frederick Buechner

the ability to attend to a task and stick to long-term goals is the greatest predictor of success, greater than academic achievement, extracurricular involvement, test scores, and IQ. She calls this grit, and first discovered its power in the classroom, while teaching seventh-grade math. She left teaching to pursue research on her hunch, and her findings have changed the way educators perceive student potential. Gritty students succeed, and failure strengthens grit like no other crucible. ~ Jessica Lahey

But the slice-of-life novel is really not so much a world apart as an interlude - like the conference or the film set, the holiday hotel or the voyage by sea or air. You enter it, you live there for a while, you leave again. Perhaps it will alter you; usually it will not. I suspect that the book which takes you into a world apart must also _trouble_ you, at least a little. And the troubling stays with you, like the grit in the oyster, and afterwards you are changed. ~ Susan Cooper

What I will say is that you have to exercise your writing muscle. Write every day. Get better at it. Read a lot of good books. As a professional writer, I force myself to write when I don't feel like it. I don't wait to feel inspired. It takes discipline and grit and sacrifice to be able to bring a book out to the world. It's so much work, and it's very difficult, but it is also the most fun I've ever had. I love making things up. I love amusing myself. ~ Melissa De La Cruz

Nico grit his teeth. "Demigod blood. The blood of Olympus. ~ Rick Riordan

Four and I stay behind. I wait until the room is empty and the door is shut before looking at him again. He walks towards me. "Is your-" he begins. "You did that on purpose!" I shout. "Yes, I did," he says quietly. "And you should thank me for helping you." I grit my teeth. "Thank you? You almost stabbed my ear, and you spent the entire time taunting me. Why should I thank you?" "You know, I'm getting a little tired of waiting for you to catch on!" He glares at me, and even when he glares, his eyes looks thoughtful. Their shade of blue is peculiar, so dark it is almost black, with a small patch of lighter blue on the left iris, right next to the corner of his eye. ~ Veronica Roth

If you'll follow Christ's commands, you'll follow Christ straight to your calling and you'll have developed the strength, grit, and stability along the way to handle it. ~ Beth Moore

It is the manner of (Cadel) Evan's triumph that has particularly endeared him to his countrymen and women ... Australians place a premium on persistence in adversity ... His win in the year's tour was much more than an exhibition of pure sporting talent; it was a display of grit that will long be treasured by all who saw it. ~ Paul Ramadge

He pulled me toward him so that I was resting on my side. I coughed up some more water. He took off his wet shirt and folded it. Then he gently lifted me and placed it under my sore head, which hurt too much to appreciate his…bronzed…sculpted…muscular…bare chest.
Well I guess I must be okay if I can appreciate the view, I thought. Sheesh, I'd have to be dead not to appreciate it.
I winced as Ren's hand brushed against my head, shaking me from my reverie.
"You've got a major bump here."
I reached up to feel the giant lump on the back of my skull. I gingerly touched it and recalled the source of my headache. I must have lost consciousness when the rock hit me. Ren saved my life. Again.
I looked up at him. He was kneeling next to me with a look of desperation on his face, and his body was shaking. I realized that he must have changed to a man, dragged me out of the pool, and then remained by my side until I woke up. Who knows how long I've been laying here unconscious.
"Ren, you're in pain. You've been in this form too long today."
He shook his head in denial, but I saw him grit his teeth.
I pressed my hand on his arm. "I'll be okay. It's just a bump on the head. Don't worry about me. I'm sure Mr. Kadam has some aspirin tucked away in the backpack. I'll just take that and lie down to rest for a while. I'll be alright."
He trailed his finger slowly from my temple to my cheek and smiled softly. When he pulled back, his whole arm shook a ~ Colleen Houck

Peak performance is dependent on passion, grit, determination, and a willingness to do something poorly until you can do it well. ~ Zig Ziglar

As I wade into the still-freezing stream, the wind raises goose bumps on my body. A cloud of swallows skates across the sky; the water carries a slight taste of grit; my mother hums downstream. This is not any kind of happiness that I imagined. It is not what I chose.

But it's enough. It is more than enough. ~ Lauren Oliver

From the first winter afternoon in the Harvard ball fields, "Oh no
I need you" had become an admission and a clarion call
the tenet of dependency that forms the weft of friendship. We needed each other so that we could count the endless days of forests and flat water, but the real need was soldered by the sadder, harder moments
discord or helplessness or fear
that we dared to expose to each other. It took me years to grasp that this grit and discomfort in any relationship are an indicator of closeness, not it's opposite. ~ Gail Caldwell

Sometimes you have to grit your teeth and remain tenacious and just believe the end will come. Other times it's not an issue. You just write on and the end comes naturally. ~ Greg Lake

When someone's been gone a long time, at first you save up all the things you want to tell them. You try to keep track of everything in your head. But it's like trying to hold on to a fistful of sand: all the little bits slip out of your hands, and then you're just clutching air and grit. ~ Jenny Han

It's hard to look pleasant when anguish is present, and yet it is strictly worth while; Not all of your scowling and fussing and growling can show off your grit like a smile. ~ Walter Mason Camp

In Matthew 24:8, Jesus called these challenges birth pangs. Birth pangs must occur before a new birth. During this time the mother keeps focused on the end result, the moment she gets to hold that beautiful baby in her arms. She knows birth pangs don't last forever and they signal a new beginning in her life. Calamities and catastrophes are the earthly pains that must occur before the birth of the new world. Hold on. Grit your teeth. The next push could be the last. ~ Max Lucado

Nothing," said Richard. "I really don't want anything. Nothing at all." And then he realized how true that was; and how dreadful a thing it had become. "Have you ever got everything you ever wanted? And then realized it wasn't what you wanted at all?" "Can't say that I have," she said, picking the grit from the corner of her eyes. "I thought I wanted this," said Richard. "I thought I wanted a nice normal life. I mean, maybe I am crazy. I mean, maybe. But if this is all there is, then I don't want to be sane. You know? ~ Neil Gaiman

One white man on the platform in South Carolina asked us where we were going
we had got off the train to get some fresh air and to dust the grit and dust out of our clothes. When we said Africa he looked offended and tickled too. Niggers going to Africa, he said to his wife. Now I have seen everything. ~ Alice Walker

I want to see a thousand tiny places, smell their flowers, and taste the sauces made by their people. I want to feel the difference between the textures of grit in Sri Lanka and Morocco. I want to meet the woman who bakes the best bread i n the smallest town in New Zealand. I want to find the best vantage point to see Bosnia from Croatia. What do the Grand Marnier crepes taste like in Rouen? In Paris? There are untold numbers of tiny places and extraordinary people who occupy them. We will perhaps see a hundred of both. ~ Tsh Oxenreider

Once a man had thrust his hands into the soil and knew the grit of it between his teeth, he felt something rise within him that was not of his day or generation, but had persisted through birth and death from a time beyond recall. ~ Martha Ostenso

After sending Bella a Christmas card for years with no response, a few years before I'd decided to add something more personal- one of Mum's recipes. I had included various Christmas recipes each year since, from gingerbread to chocolate and cranberry brownies- Bella's favorite as a child. I saw these as a reminder of the good times we'd shared and hoped she'd feel the same. Just writing down those recipes reminded me of Mum in her kitchen- the soft, wobbly fold of flour into butter, the grit of sugar, the heady fragrance of chocolate, sweet vanilla and the warmth of ginger. ~ Sue Watson

It's definitely got a lot more grit to it. And, we don't pretend to be the smartest people there. We're not like, This is how we did it, and now we're just going to show you how we go catch them. The audience gets to figure it out with us. ~ Angie Harmon

How did you act when all was not good? Did you rise to the challenge? Did you display grit, resilience, and integrity in your response? Character isn't about being perfect or always doing the right thing. Character is how you respond to your own failures. It's when you screw up and life hits you in the mouth that you have an opportunity to reveal your inner strength. ~ Bill Courtney

Confidence gets you off to a fast start. Confidence gets you that first job and maybe the next two promotions. But confidence stops you from learning. Confidence becomes a caricature after a while. I can't tell you how many confident blowhards I've seen in my coaching career who never get better after the age of forty." -- Bill Walsh ~ Rich Karlgaard

I grit my teeth against the little stab of jealousy I feel.
What the hell's that all about?
Anyone will tell you I don't have a jealous bone in my body. There are too many willing women in the world to get all bent out of shape over one. Envy is just not in me.
Not usually. ~ Michelle Leighton

Are you fucking someone else?"
"We haven't spoken in weeks." I grit my teeth. "I haven't seen you in weeks, and this is the first thing you ask me? How about, 'Hello, Gillian. It's been a long time since we last spoke. How are you?'"
"Hello, Gillian." He mocks me, locking his eyes on mine. "It's been a long time since we last spoke. How are you?" He doesn't give me a chance to answer. "Are you fucking someone else? ~ Whitney G.

You can let the life and the family you were born into dictate the definition of your very being, regardless of what you do or do not have, or, with grit, self-sufficiency and self-reliance, you can rise above your circumstances, charter your own course and change your life, all the while empowering others to do the same ~ Elise R. Crawford

He had been hurt doing everything he had ever done. He expected it, even wanted it. Nothing centered a man like pain. Nothing drove the irrelevant bullshit our of your mind like the taste of your own blood. Duffy always wanted to tell people who were worried about the future of their children, or about God and the order of the universe, to go out and break a rib or two. A few broken ribs threw all thoughts of children, God and the order of the universe right out the window. Nobody with broken ribs ever had free-floating anxiety, or so Duffy was convinced. It was cheaper that a psychiatrist and never so humiliating. ~ Harry Crews

O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie
O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie,
gimme a break before I die:
grant me wisdom, will, & wit,
purity, probity, pluck, & grit.
Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind,
gimme great abs & a steel-trap mind,
and forgive, Ye Gods, some humble advice
these little blessings would suffice
to beget an earthly paradise:
make the bad people good
and the good people nice;
and before our world goes over the brink,
teach the believers how to think. ~ Philip Appleman

Solomon's Proverbs, I think, have omitted to say, that as the sore palate findeth grit, so an uneasy consciousness heareth innuendos. ~ George Eliot

A grit mind strengthens all of your strengths. ~ Pearl Zhu

Five thousand miles away and I can still feel your turbulence on my skin, Dustin; your grit stuck in the chambers of my heart ... and all the silence that has followed it.
Please write me back. ~ Brandon Shire

Solitude is good for a time, but not for all time. Don't forget to come back and embrace a community. Build one, if you must. Don't neglect the sharing of yourself. Even those parts that are not so clean have value. In fact, the best lessons you have to offer in life come from your struggles in the darkness and grit of life. ~ LaShawnda Jones

She had the grit to pray for Judus if she took the
notion - there warn't no back-down to her, I judge. ~ Mark Twain

I have known some horses and a good many more pigs who I believe harbored evil intent in their hearts. I will go further and say all cats are wicked, though often useful. Who has not seen Satan in their sly faces? ~ Charles Portis

Janet Mock's honest and sometimes searing journey is a rare and important look into la vida liminal, one that she manages to negotiate remarkably well, with grace, humor, and fierce grit. Mock doesn't only redefine what realness means to her, but challenges us to rethink our own perceptions of gender and sexuality, feminism and sisterhood, making this book a transcendent piece of American literature. ~ Raquel Cepeda

I remind myself that no one day of writing matters all that much. A story is built somewhat like a stalactite - one little drip of mud and grit at a time. ~ Joe Hill

The problem, as Randolph has realized, is that the best way for a young person to build character is for him to attempt something where there is a real and serious possibility of failure. In a high-risk endeavor, whether it's in business or athletics or the arts, you are more likely to experience colossal defeat than in a low-risk one - but you're also more likely to achieve real and original success. "The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure," Randolph explained. ~ Paul Tough

At hearing the news, he unsuccessfully tried to stop himself from being happy. He wondered how it happened that his average grades and middling job experience were somehow deemed weightier than genuine life skills--Renato's naked ambition, Angela's people skills, Vincent's quick thinking, Imaculada's grit--only because he articulated them better, just because he had the English nouns and verbs, the necessary tongue and lip placements, to say, 'I have made these myself. Listen. ~ Glenn Diaz

Brazen it out! Throw away the scabbard! Grit your teeth, buckle down, and die with your boots on! Or in other words, be determined and resolved until you accomplish the thing you set out to accomplish. ~ Richelle E. Goodrich

The man who has grit enough to bring about the afforestation or the irrigation of a country is not less worthy of honor than its conqueror. ~ J. Arthur Thomson

I grit my teeth and smile for the camera, already rehearsing rational explanations in my head. 'Oh, that. We were just rehearsing a scene for the movie, Dad. No, we don't actually kiss in the movie, but the director wanted to see what it would look like if we did... Yes, he does play my uncle, but the screenwriter was toying with an incest storyline'... CRAP. ~ Lauren Miller

Books that take us to an exotic place and never let the grit of that place get under our fingernails...are far less successful. One leaves the places of the book and never feels like one's really gotten one's imaginative passport stamped. ~ Andrew Lazo

The rural children who could, usually brought clippings from what they called The Grit Paper, a publication spurious in the eyes of Miss Gates, our teacher. Why she frowned when a child recited from The Grit Paper I never knew, but in some way it was associated with liking fiddling, eating syrupy biscuits for lunch, being a holy-roller, singing Sweetly Sings the Donkey and pronouncing it dunkey, all of which the state paid teachers to discourage. Even ~ Harper Lee

What is wrong with you?" I say in lieu of greeting. "You went to Morris's dorm and declared your intentions?"

He offers a faint smile. "Of course. It was the noble thing to do. I can't be chasing after another guy's girl without his knowledge."

"I'm not his girl," I snap. "We went on one date! And now I'm never going to be his girl, because he doesn't want to go out with me again."

"What the hell?" Logan looks startled. "I'm disappointed in him. I thought he had more of a competitive spirit than that."

"Seriously? You're going to pretend to be surprised? He won't see me again because your jackass self told him he couldn't."

Astonishment fills his eyes. "No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"Is that what he told you?" Logan demands.

"Not in so many words."

"I see. Well, what words did he actually use?"

I grit my teeth so hard my jaw aches. "He said he's backing off because he doesn't want to get in the middle of something so complicated. I pointed out that there's nothing complicated about it, seeing as you and I are not together." My aggravation heightens. "And then he insisted that I need to give you a chance, because you're a - " I angrily air-quote Morris's words " - 'stand-up guy who deserves another shot.'"

Logan breaks out in a grin.

I stab the air with my finger. "Don't you dare smile. Obviously you put those words in his mouth. And what the hel ~ Elle Kennedy

If you think about how broadcast mini-series approach historical events, there is a hagiography. There has been a soft, very glossy idea about history. And one of the things I like about Game of Thrones, for example, is just the grit and the authenticity. ~ John Landgraf

The South, to me, is fried chicken and catfish caviar
that's grits
and good-looking women. ~ Erk Russell

To succeed at anything worthwhile in life requires persistence, no matter how gifted, fortunate, or passionate you are. When I interviewed late bloomers for this book, nearly every one said that once you find your passion and your "pot," you need to hang in there--you need to persist. ~ Rich Karlgaard

We are souls, eternal and perfect, captains of our mystic ships: gods and goddesses of our universe. We are beautiful, we pearls of grit. We, the ember of everything. Our uniqueness IS what makes us special, and the expression of it is our gift to the rest of us. In order to feel happy and fulfilled, we must honour our own personal brand of creativity... let it out into the world... BE who we came here to BE. ~ Angie Karan

You don't need to like [a gun] to know you got to have it. I don't like gettin' a colonoscopy every five years, but I grit my teeth and drop my drawers and get it done just the same. ~ Dean Koontz

When a state trooper passes me on the highway, I grit my teeth, check my speed, and hope nobody put a dead guy in the trunk while I was in Wal-Mart last night at two a.m. ~ Diana Joseph

One didn't issue instructions to comets. Grown children did what they had to do, and parents could only grit their teeth and watch and pray for them to get through it. ~ Lisa Alther

I need grit and struggle and Los Angeles is terribly nice, but people, once they get there, cease to be real. Constant and repetitive fulfillment is not good for the human spirit. We all need rain and good old depression. Life can't be all beer and skittles. ~ Morrissey

All it takes to get along in this here man's town is a little shit, grit, and mother-wit. ~ Ralph Ellison

God," he choked out. "This can't happen."
"Oh, yes it can." Breathless, she worked the buttons of his trouser falls. "It will. It must." Having freed the closures of his trousers and smallclothes, she snaked her hand through the opening and brazenly took him in hand. Of course, now that she had him in hand, she wasn't quite sure what to do with him. She tentatively skimmed one fingertip over the smooth, rounded crown of his erection. In return, he pressed a single finger into her aching core.
"Cecily." He shut his eyes and grit his teeth. "If I don't stop this now ... "
"You never will?" She pressed her lips to his earlobe. "That's my fondest hope. You say you're done with fighting, Luke? Then stop fighting this."
He sighed deep in his chest, and she felt all the tension coiled in those powerful muscles release. "Very well," he said quietly, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Very well. To you, I gratefully surrender. ~ Tessa Dare

I grit my teeth to hold in the sob that wants to break free from my throat. I'm getting so fucking sick of how much the guilt of hurting him burns. I didn't kill anyone. I didn't ruin his life. He ruined mine. ~ Annie Anderson

Some people, you have to grit your teeth in order to stay in the same room as them, but you get on and ask the questions you assume most of the people watching want to ask. ~ Morley Safer

Be "that person" with grit. Remain dedicated, determined and strong in the face of adversity! ~ Jerry Gladstone

The part of the psyche that works in concert with consciousness and supplies a necessary part of the poem - the heat of a star as opposed to the shape of a star, let us say - exists in a mysterious, unmapped zone: not unconscious, not subconscious, but cautious. It learns quickly what sort of courtship it is going to be. Say you promise to be at your desk in the evenings, from seven to nine. It waits, it watches. If you are reliably there, it begins to show itself - soon it begins to arrive when you do. But if you are only there sometimes and are frequently late or inattentive, it will appear fleetingly, or it will not appear at all. ~ Mary Oliver

I deeply appreciate the people of Michigan. I love their grit. I love the way they face life. I love the family values they have. ~ Ernie Harwell

Love was the thing that kept a person going past exhaustion, beyond reason, after hope was at its end. Grit, ~ Laurie R. King

We're going to be OK because of the American people. They have more grit, determination and courage than you can imagine. ~ Joe Biden

I tried to bunked classes, I skipped lectures, I cheated in exams, I lied to my teachers and some stuff were taken for granted when I was a student before. I am not proud about it. Of course, I learned from that experience. I learned that everyone has a chance to change. It doesn't mean that if I am dumbass before and you call me the same thing now. Because now, I work hard, play the game well and strive for excellence. This is me now, a guy with a strong grit in my heart. ~ Nathaniel E. Quimada

One must avoid snobbery and misanthropy. But one must also be unafraid to criticise those who reach for the lowest common denominator, and who sometimes succeed in finding it. This criticism would be effortless if there were no "people" waiting for just such an appeal. Any fool can lampoon a king or a bishop or a billionaire. A trifle more grit is required to face down a mob, or even a studio audience that has decided it knows what it wants and is entitled to get it. And the fact that kings and bishops and billionaires often have more say than most in forming appetites and emotions of the crowd is not irrelevant, either. ~ Christopher Hitchens

Because any fool knows that to work hard at something you want to accomplish is the only way to be happy. But beyond that it is entirely up to you. You've got to do for yourself all the seeking and finding concerned with what you want to do. Anyone but yourself is useless to you there. ~ Eugene O'Neill

Oz closed his eyes and grit his teeth. For a few minutes I thought he wouldn't say anything at all, just haul me over his shoulder and lock me in the back room. I hugged Princess for protection. Claws, Princess! Start hissing! I've pet you for hours, now protect me! But she didn't understand the gravity of the situation. Groggily, she licked my chin and began to purr into my neck, as if I'd clung to her for dear life simply for her own benefit. ~ Katherine Pine

That is the most extraordinary fact about Britain. It wants to be a garden. Flowers bloom in the unlikeliest places - on railway sidings and waste grounds where there is nothing beneath them but rubble and grit. ~ Bill Bryson

You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion. ~ Nancy Kress

We head to that corner of the basement. Rev straddles the weight bench and sits down while Declan sits on a yoga ball and leans against the corner. They fall into these positions so easily that I wonder if this is their space, the way Rowan and I claim her room or the plush couch in my basement.

I'm not a violent person, but hitting something sounds really good.

I draw back a hand and swing, throwing my whole body into it.

Ow. Ow. The bag swings slightly, but shock reverberates down my arm. I think I've dislocated every joint of every finger, but I can feel it, and it's the first thing I've truly felt in weeks. It feels fantastic. I need one of these in my basement.

I grit my teeth and pull back my arm to do it again.

"Whoa." A hand catches my arm in midswing.

I'm standing there, gasping, and Declan has a hold of my elbow. His eyebrows are way up.

"So . . . yeah," he says. "I don't want to be sexist here, but after the way you talk about cars, I didn't expect you to throw a punch like that."

I draw back and straighten, feeling foolish. "Sorry."

"What are you apologizing for?" He looks at me like I'm crazy. "I just don't want to watch you break a wrist."

"Here." Rev half stands, holding out a pair of black padded gloves. He's pushed back the hood of his sweatshirt, and I wonder if he's grown more comfortable around me - or if he's just warm. "If you really want to beat ~ Brigid Kemmerer

As so many writers know, the experience of creating an imaginary world is closer to dreaming than it is to normal, grit-your-teeth work. It's preconscious rather than conscious. Ideas fall into your head, and the book writes you, rather than the other way around. ~ David Ignatius

Three failures denote uncommon strength. A weakling has not enough grit to fail thrice. ~ Minna Thomas Antrim

Your persistent actions are the bridge between mind and matter, between the inner and the outer. Do what you've been called to do. Do it with grit, do it with courage, do it with boldness and faith, and do it every day for the rest of your life. ~ Dragos Bratasanu

I read the newspapers with lively interest. It is seldom that they are absolutely, point-blank wrong. That is the popular belief, but those who are in the know can usually discern an embryo of truth, a little grit of fact, like the core of a pearl, round which have been deposited the delicate layers of ornament. ~ Evelyn Waugh

When humans say that someone "is full of grit", they mean full of courage. Before long the sisters were to prove that they were filled with grit in both senses of the word. ~ Dick King-Smith

She was temptation wrapped in seduction, a Southern beauty with a viper's tongue, a
rapier wit and a bone-deep grit that rivaled his own. Yes, she'd basically blown his mind with her
brilliant concept of time ~ Gena Showalter

I'm excited about going back to 'Today,' but, at odd moments, I'll grit my teeth in anxiety. I feel like a student before the start of school. I've got my new shoes and my book bag, but I'm not sure I'll remember how to do trigonometry. During my maternity leave, I haven't used many words of more than one syllable. ~ Jane Pauley

One of the greatest boons that can ever come to a human being is to be born on a farm and reared in the country. Self-reliance and grit are oftenest country-bred. ~ Orison Swett Marden

Grit depends on a different kind of hope. It rests on the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future. I have a feeling tomorrow will be better is different from I resolve to make tomorrow better. The hope that gritty people have has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with getting up again. ~ Angela Duckworth

Can you rework your past, the grit that rubs in you, until it is shiny and smooth as a pearl? ~ Anna Funder

It was 1988, I believe, that I met Grit. We were both appearing in a Canadian Folk Festival and as we sat backstage he handed me his guitar. I played it, loved it, and then found out that he'd made it himself. ~ Tom Chapin

Men are developed the same way gold is mined. When gold is mined, several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold; but one doesn't go into the mine looking for dirt - one goes in looking for the gold. ~ Andrew Carnegie

If relationships were hard, mariage was even harder ... it seemed like most couples struggled. It went with the territory. What did Nana always say? Stick two different people with two different sets of expectations under one roof and it ain't always going to be shrimp and grits on Easter. ~ Nicholas Sparks

She was trying to say something else; she was trying to say that the inability to articulate what one feels in any satisfactory way is one of our enduring tragedies. It wouldn't have been much, and it wouldn't have been useful, but it would have been something that reflected the gravity and the sadness inside her. Instead, she had snapped at him for being a loser. It was as if she were trying to find a handhold on the boulder of her feelings, and had merely ended up with grit under her nails. ~ Nick Hornby

Never tell her that something is impossible, because she'll kill herself proving you wrong. ~ Kate Lattey

Perhaps events had their own way of ordering themselves , perhaps beginnings and endings always had coincidences no ordinary person could penetrate. In the flood of time, human beings were no more than flecks of grit, borne along by the flow. ~ Chan Ho-Kei

I grit my teeth. Despite everything, I mutter with a smile, "No."
"No, what?"
"No, I'm glad you came."
"I haven't ... yet."I slap my book across his arm, blushing furiously.
"You're impossible."
"And you're incredible. ~ K.A. Tucker

To strip failure of its real emotional consequences is to scrub the concepts of grit and resilience of the very qualities that make them both so important - toughness, doggedness, and perseverance. ~ Brene Brown