A Quote by Epictetus

It's so simple really: If you say you're going to do something, do it. If you start something, finish it.

Epictetus

Quote Topics

Finish Going Really Say Simple Something Start

Quote Author

Epictetus
Greek - Philosopher
50 - 138

Learn a lot about the world and finish things, even if it is just a short story. Finish it before you start something else. Finish it before you start rewriting it. That's really important. It's to find out if you're going to be a writer or not, because that's one of the most important lessons. Most, maybe 90% of people, will start writing and never finish what they started. If you want to be a writer that's the hardest and most important lesson: Finish it. Then go back to fix it.

Tad Williams

If I start something, I have to finish it. I know that's annoying - it drives my husband mad - but even if something's not going my way, I have to see it through.

Darcey Bussell

When you build a building, you finish a building. You don't finish a garden; you start it, and then it carries on with its life. So my analogy was really to say that we composers or some of us should think of ourselves as people who start processes rather than finish them. And there might be surprises.

Brian Eno

The mistake many people make when they go to a bespoke tailor is they often think they need to do something special - either an interesting design feature, or a particularly interesting or unique-looking cloth. I say do the opposite. Stick to something really simple, because this will be a suit that you will really want to wear, so start with something very straightforward and you will get an enormous amount of joy wearing it.

Patrick Grant

You say, "Something important really happened here. I really had hold of something I was visited by the muse." And that's enough to make you continue the months and years to finish the whole book.

Alan Lightman

If I start something I am going to finish it.

Rudy Boesch

Sometimes what happens I think is that actors finish a movie and they go, oh my god, I'm never going to work again, even big huge actors, and so they'll take something thinking that something else will never come along. But for me, I freak out - because I'm a bit of a workaholic - the second I finish a movie going oh my god, what am I going to do, but I can start writing the next day so it doesn't force me to make a bad choice acting-wise.

Jonah Hill

It's very helpful to start with something that's true. If you start with something that's false, you're always covering your tracks. Something simple and true, that has a lot of possibilities, is a nice way to begin.

Paul Simon

So many entrepreneurs approach me and say, 'I want to start the next big thing,' and I say, 'Well, what are you solving?' And oftentimes they say, 'Oh, I'm not sure. I want to start something big.' You can never start something big without solving something small, right?

Whitney Wolfe Herd

When I write something simple I'm always really proud of it. When you write something that simple with that much air in it and the whole premise behind it is something pretty obvious - that everybody wants to be happy and free - the song is sort of an exercise in not forgetting that's what you really want and what you really need. We can get caught up in a lot of other stuff.

Steve Earle

I think that's the direction we [the americans] are going to have to go, the idea of people understanding that if you see something, say something, as simple as it sounds.

William Bratton

I still start to get panicky each morning before I go on television. I'll say, 'I'm in awful shape, something is wrong,' and if I start to look like I'm going off the deep end, Jimmy Straka, the stage manager, will say, 'You're all right. Calm down.' Then Bryant Gumbel will grab me by the leg or something.

Willard Scott

You finish a project and start looking for something that might interest you. A lot of the films I've made are a reaction to something I've done right before.

Jim Sturgess

If you say you're going to do something, you do it. If you start it, you finish it. Yes sir, no ma'am. And you've got to have that kind of structure in your life. It kind of helped me be that disciplined person that I am, whether it's with workouts, film or just the game of football.

Robert Griffin III

Something good happened to my writing when I stopped being afraid to do something simple, for the fear that people might think I couldn't do something more complex. Don't be confused by the word simple. Simple is not easy, it is clear voiced, and fearlessly elegant.