I know one thing we did right Was the day we started to fight, Keep your eye on the prize, Hold on, hold on!

-Anonymous
Civil rights song, quoted in  Juan Williams Eye on the Prize (1987).

   Know ye not thatthey whichrun ina racerun all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Corinthians 9:24.

Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Philippians 3:13^14.

The deil cam fiddlin thro'the town, And danc'd awa wi' th' Exciseman; And ilka wife cries, auld Mahoun, I wish you luck o'the prize, man!

-Burns, Robert
  'The Deil's awa wi' th' Exciseman', stanza1.

Let old Timotheus yield the prize, Or both divide the crown: He raised a mortal to the skies; She drewan angel down.

-Dryden,John
  Of 'Divine Cecilia'.  Alexander's Feast, l.177^80.

   Not all that tempts your wandering eyes And heedless hearts, is lawful prize; Nor all that glistersgold.

-Gray,Thomas
  Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes, l.40^3. Derived from 'All that glitters is not gold', The Merchant of  Venice, act 2, scene 7.

The Nobel isjust another prize; itchangessomething but it doesn't change your being the way your first writing does.

-Heaney, SeamusJustin
Quoted in  Annalena Mc Afee (ed) Lives and Works: Profiles of Leading Novelists, Poets and Playwrights (2002).

A god is not so glorious as a king. I think the pleasure they enjoy in Heaven, Cannot compare with kingly joys in earth. To wear a crown enchased with pearl and gold, Whose virtues carry with it life and death; To ask and have, command and be obeyed; When looks breed love, with looks to gain the prize, Such power attractive shines in princes'eyes!

-Marlowe, Christopher
  Tamburlaine the Great (published1590), pt.1, act 2, sc.5.

Towered cities pleased us then, And the busy hum of men, Where throngs of knights and barons bold In weeds of peace high triumphs hold, With store of ladies, whose bright eyes Rain influence, and judge the prize Of wit or arms, while both contend To win her grace, whom all commend.

-Milton,John
c.1631 L'Allegro, l.117^24.

Meanwhile, you will write an essay on'self-indulgence'. There will be a prize of half a crown for the longest essay, irrespective of any possible merit.

-Waugh, Evelyn Arthur StJohn
  Decline and Fall, pt.1, ch.5.

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting.

-Whitman,Walt(er)
  Leaves of Grass,'Memories of President Lincoln','O Captain! My Captain!'