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Nothing so difficult as a beginning
In poesy, unless perhaps the end.

Lord Byron
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Don Juan, Canto 4, st. 1 (1821)
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Added on 11-Jun-24 | Last updated 11-Jun-24
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A bad beginning makes a bad ending.

[κακῆς <ἀπ'> ἀρχῆς γίγνεται τέλος κακόν]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Æolus [Αἴολος], frag. 32 (TGF)
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Nauck frag. 32. (Source (Greek)). Alternate translation:

A bad ending comes from a bad beginning.
[tr. Collard & Cropp (2008)]

 
Added on 30-Apr-24 | Last updated 30-Apr-24
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There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.

Francis Drake
Francis Drake (c.  1540-1596) English explorer, sea captain, politician
Letter to Francis Walsingham, from Sagres, Portugal (17 May 1587)
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Added on 11-Jul-22 | Last updated 11-Jul-22
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You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
(Spurious)
 
Added on 17-Mar-22 | Last updated 17-Mar-22
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The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy: the building of a house, the writing of a novel, the demolition of a bridge, and eminently, the finish of a voyage.

John Galsworthy
John Galsworthy (1867-1933) English novelist and playwright
Over the River, ch. 1 (1933)
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Added on 4-Dec-20 | Last updated 4-Dec-20
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The great majority of men are bundles of beginnings. There is not one who has not felt the sacred fire of virtue many a time kindling up within him. He resolved to read, he resolved to give, he solved to abstain, to speak well, to think in a train, to serve God, to imitate Christ. Something he did toward realizing his purpose — but it was most unlucky time — some very unseasonable circumstances occurred and the good purpose was postponed. Who is there here who does not remember his defeats?

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1829-12-07)
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Added on 13-Nov-20 | Last updated 27-Mar-23
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Babies are such a nice way to start people.

Don Herold (1889-1966) American humorist, cartoonist, author
There Ought To Be A Law (1926)
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Added on 12-May-20 | Last updated 12-May-20
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Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
Florentine Histories, Book 3, ch. 2 (1521-5)

As commonly given, specific translation unknown. Alt. trans.:
 
Added on 14-Jan-20 | Last updated 14-Jan-20
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The beginnings of all things are small.

[Omnium rerum principia parva sunt.]

Cicero - beginnings of all things - wist_info quote

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, Book 5, ch. 58

Alt. trans.: "Everything has a small beginning."
 
Added on 15-Aug-16 | Last updated 15-Aug-16
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I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.

Priestly - bit of magic waiting - wist_info quote

J. B. Priestley (1894-1984) English author, dramatist [John Boyne Priestley]
Delight (1949)
 
Added on 13-Jul-16 | Last updated 13-Jul-16
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Every morning is a fresh beginning,
Listen my soul to the glad refrain.
And, spite of old sorrows
And older sinning,
Troubles forecasted
And possible pain,
Take heart with the day and begin again.

Coolidge - begin again - wist_info quote

Susan Coolidge (1835-1905) American author [pseud. for Sarah Chauncey Woolsey]
“New Every Morning”
 
Added on 20-Apr-16 | Last updated 20-Apr-16
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Start now. Start where you are. Start with fear. Start with pain. Start with doubt. Start with hands shaking. Start with voice trembling but start. Start and don’t stop. Start where you are, with what you have. Just … start.

Umebinyuo - start now - wist_info quote

Ijeoma Umebinyuo (contemp.) Nigerian poet
“Start now” (27 Sep 2014)
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Added on 3-Feb-16 | Last updated 3-Feb-16
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Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes: work never begun.

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) English poet
Time Flies: A Reading Diary, “January 5” (1886)
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Added on 5-Jun-15 | Last updated 4-Dec-20
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The hardest part is starting to write.

Michael Crichton (1942-2008) American author, producer, director, and screenwriter
(Attributed)
 
Added on 26-May-15 | Last updated 26-May-15
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Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
(Spurious)
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Frequently attributed to Stevenson, but not found in his works.
 
Added on 26-Jan-15 | Last updated 26-Jan-15
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A tower of nine storeys begins with a heap of earth.
The journey of a thousand li starts from where one stands.

Lao-tzu (604?-531? BC) Chinese philosopher, poet [also Lao-tse, Laozi]
Tao-te Ching ch. 64 [tr. Wing-Tsit Chan]

Popularized in the west by John F. Kennedy, "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step," announcing the atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty (26 Jul 1963).
 
Added on 19-Jan-15 | Last updated 6-Apr-17
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He who is outside the door has already a good part of his journey behind him.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Dutch proverb
 
Added on 12-Jan-15 | Last updated 12-Jan-15
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‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asked.

‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said, gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’

Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. 12 (1865)
 
Added on 15-Dec-14 | Last updated 15-Dec-14
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Smile on this
My bold endeavour.

[Audacibus annue coeptis]

Virgil the Poet
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Georgics [Georgica], Book 1, l. 40ff (1.40) (29 BC) [tr. Rhoades (1881)]
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Great Seal of the United States (reverse)Calling on (now declared divine) Augustus Caesar to bless his poetry. This line, and a similar one in Virgil's Aeneid (9.625), inspired the phrase "Annuit cœptis" ("He [God] has favored our undertakings") on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Aid my bold design.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]

To my bold Endeavours add thy Force.
[tr. Dryden (1709), l. 60]

Aid my bold design.
[tr. Nevile (1767), l. 50]

Favour my adventurous enterprise.
[tr. Davidson (1854)]

Bid my gallant enterprise succeed.
[tr. Blackmore (1871)]

Favor my bold emprise.
[tr. Wilkins (1873)]

Our bold endeavor bless.
[tr. King (1882)]

Favor my adventurous enterprise.
[tr. Bryce (1897)]

Favour my bold endeavour.
[tr. Mackail (1899)]

Smile on this
My bold endeavour.
[tr. Greenough (1900)]

O smile upon this my bold emprise!
[tr. Way (1912)]

Give assent to my bold emprise.
[tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1916)]

Be gracious to this my bold design.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1940)]

Condone this enterprise
Of bold experiment.
[tr. Bovie (1956)]

I hope for an easy passage in this bold venture.
[tr. Slavitt (1971)]

Assent to bold undertakings.
[tr. Miles (1980)]

Smile on my enterprise.
[tr. Wilkinson (1982)]

Agree to my bold beginning.
[tr. Kline (2001)]

Assent to this work boldly begun.
[tr. Lembke (2004)]

Bless the boldness of this undertaking.
[tr. Fallon (2006)]

Approve my bold endeavour.
[tr. Johnson (2009)]

Grant me the right to enter upon this bold
Adventure of mine.
[tr. Ferry (2015)]

Look with favor upon a bold beginning.
[Bartlett's]

 
Added on 5-Nov-12 | Last updated 25-Oct-23
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HARRIS: Why is it that we don’t always recognize the moment when love begins but we always know when it ends?

Steve Martin (b. 1945) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, musician
L. A. Story (1991)
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Added on 7-Mar-12 | Last updated 29-Jan-24
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BRUTUS: There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures.

Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Julius Caesar, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 249ff (4.3.249-255) (1599)
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Added on 2-Dec-11 | Last updated 29-Jan-24
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sandman 57 p01

THE CRONE: Can’t say I’ve ever been too fond of beginnings, myself. Messy little things. Give me a good ending any time. You know where you are with an ending.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Sandman, Book 9. The Kindly Ones, # 57 “Chapter 1” (1993-02)
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As the eldest of the Kindly Ones (Fates, Moirai, etc.), the Crone's task, in the aspect of Atropos, is literally to cut the thread at the end of a life.
 
Added on 23-Feb-10 | Last updated 22-Feb-24
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If one begins all deeds well, it is likely that they will end well too.

Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Fragments, l. 715.
 
Added on 22-Dec-08 | Last updated 31-Aug-15
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There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
Lonely on the Mountain, ch. 1, opening paragraph (1980)
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Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 20-Nov-20
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Well begun is half done.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Politics [Πολιτικά], Book 5, ch. 4 / 1303b30 [tr. Jowett (1885)]
    (Source)

People attribute this to Aristotle largely because Jowett used a contemporary proverb in lieu of what Aristotle wrote: "As the proverb says -- 'Well begun is half done.'" The following alternative translations capture his original meaning more closely:
  • "The beginning is said to be half of the business." [tr. Ellis (1912)]
  • "The beginning as the proverb says is half of the whole." [tr. Rackham (1932)]
  • "The beginning is said to be 'half of the whole.'" [tr. Lord (1984)]
  • "The starting-point is said to be half the whole." [tr. Reeve (2007)]
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 26-Jul-22
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