My Top 10 Determination Quotes

3.3 min read

I may have had a bit of an ego when I was a young chef, but if there was one trait I had that got me places it was determination.

Sure, I was impatient at times but I never gave up when it came to achieving my goals. To be a chef, you have to want it, love it and be willing to accept failure when it hits but be able to pick yourself up and try again and again until you succeed.

When I was 19-years-old, Michael Roux turned me down when I wrote him a letter asking for a job at the Waterside Inn in London. He said no and told me to get on the 2-year waitlist. I was crushed but just couldn’t take no for an answer. So I called him up and told him I’d work free for a month and if I’m no good he can give me the boot. “See you in 2 week,” he said.

If you really want something, you have to be determined to take risks and go outside your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to ask the questions others aren’t because if you never ask, you’ll never know and things will never change.

So, to inspire you to never give up and keep working towards your dreams, here are 10 quotes on determination:

1. "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.
   The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."

   — Thomas A. Edison

2. “You cannot swim for new horizons until you
   have courage to lose sight of the shore.”

   ― William Faulkner

3. “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

   ― Leonardo da Vinci

4. “He that can have patience can have what he will.”

   ― Benjamin Franklin

5. “What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”

   ― Oscar Wilde

6. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”

   ― John D. Rockefeller

7. “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”

   ― Thomas Jefferson

8. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

   ― Winston Churchill

9. “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”

   ― Pablo Picasso

10. “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe.”

    ― Anatole France