Of these two literatures [French and German], as of the intellect of Europe in general, the main effort, for now many years, has beena critical effort; the endeavours, in all branches of knowledgeötheology, philosophy, history, art, scienceötoseethe object as initself it really is.

-Arnold, Matthew
On Translating Homer, lecture 2.

Le mal se fait sans effort, naturellement, par fatalite¤  ; le bien est toujours le produit d'un art. Evil is done without effort, naturally, it's destiny; good is always a product of art.

-Baudelaire, Charles
  Le Spleen de Paris,'Le Peintre de la vie moderne', pt.11.

Matilda told such Dreadful Lies, It made one Gasp and Stretch one's Eyes; Her Aunt, who, from her Earliest Youth, Had kept a Strict Regard forTruth, Attempted to Believe Matilda: The effort very nearly killed her.

-Belloc, (Joseph) Hilaire Pierre
  Cautionary  Tales,'Matilda'.

The only effort worth making is the one it takes to learn the geography of one's own nature.

-Bowles, Paul Frederick
  In the Sunday Times, 23  Jul.

   I remember my youth and the feeling that it will never come back any moreöthe feeling that I could last for ever, outlast thesea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effortöto death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expiresöand expires, too soon, too soonöbefore life itself.

-Connor, Sir William Neil pseudonym Cassandra
  'Youth'.

Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. It is not the effort or the failure tires. The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.

-Empson, Sir William
  'Missing Dates'.

What I really like is minimum effort for maximum effect. Like with Picasso's Bull's Headöa bike seat and handlebars.

-Hirst, Damien
  In the Idler,10  Jul.

Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to thinkclearly.

-James,William
  The Principles of Psychology, ch.6.

A decision of the courts decided that the game of golf may be played on a Sunday, not being a game within the view of the law, but being a form of moral effort.

-Leacock, Stephen Butler
  Over the Footlights,'Why I Refuse to Play Golf'.

   I have got the North Pole out of my system after twenty- three years of effort, hard work, disappointments, hardships, privations, more or less suffering, and some risks† The work is the finish, the cap and climax of nearly four hundred years of effort, loss of life, and expenditure of fortunes by the civilized nations of the world, and it has been accomplished in a way that is thoroughly American. I am content.

-Peary, Robert Edwin
  Diary entry, Apr. Quoted inTheNorth Pole (published1910).

Queen Elizabeth owned silk stockings. The capitalist achievement does not typically consist in providing more silk stockings for queens but in bringing them within the reach of factory girls in return for steadily decreasing amount of effort.

-Schumpeter,Joseph Alois
  Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, p.67.

I have never been able to decide whether, in mountain exploration, it is the prospect of tackling an unsolved problem, or the performance of the task itself, or the retrospective enjoyment of successful effort, which affords the greatest amount of pleasure.

-Shipton, Eric Earle
  Nanda Devi.

For me, exploration was a personal venture. I did not go to the Arabian desert to collect plants nor to make a map; such things were incidental. At heart I knew that to write or even to talk of my travels was to tarnish the achievement. I went there to find peace in the hardship of desert travel and the company of desert people. I set myself a goal on these journeys, and, although the goal itself was unimportant, its attainment had to be worth every effort and sacrifice.

-Thesiger, Sir Wilfred Patrick
  Arabian Sands.

   A constant effort to keep a party together, without sacrificing either principle or the essentials of basic strategy, is the very stuff of political leadership. Macmillan was canonized for it.

-Wilson of Rievaulx, (James) Harold Wilson, Baron
  FinalTerm:The Labour Government1974^76.

A team effort is a lot of people doing what I say.

-Winner, Langdon
Attributed.