Genius begins great works; but labour alone finishes them.
[Le génie commence les beaux ouvrages, mais le travail seul les achève.]
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 23 “Des Qualités de l’Écrivain et des Compositions Littéraires [On Writers and Literature]” ¶ 52 (1850 ed.) [tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 22, ¶ 19]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
Genius begins beautiful works, but only labor finishes them.
[tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 8]
Genius begins great works; labour alone finishes them.
[tr. Attwell (1896), ¶ 335]
Beautiful works. Genius beings them, but labor alone finishes them.
[tr. Auster (1983)], 1801]
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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 (c. 1540-1596) English explorer, sea captain, politician
Letter to Francis Walsingham, from Sagres, Portugal (17 May 1587)
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Boasts are wind and deeds are hard.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
Foundation and Empire, ch. 22 (1952)
(Source)
Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“American Civilization,” lecture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (1862-01-31)
(Source)
Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.
Edward Abbey (1927-1989) American anarchist, writer, environmentalist
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness, ch. 4, “Life and Death and All That” (1989)
(Source)
Sometimes incorrectly quoted as "Belief without action is the ruin of the soul."
Any damned fool can write a plan. It’s the execution that gets you all screwed up.
James F. "Jim" Hollingsworth (1918-2010) American military commander
(Attributed)
(Source)
In Harry G. Summers, Jr., On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War, ch. 4 (1982).
[The commander] must always think and plan two battles ahead — the one he is prepared to fight and the next one — so that the success gained in one battle can be used as a springboard for the next.