Poetry Friday: Don't You Quit!

I was reminded recently that often we are too quick to give up, on others and on ourselves. It is vitally important that we remember that some of the best minds in the world were early failures.

Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was four years old; he didn’t read until he was seven.

Sir Isaac Newton did not do well in school.

Ludwig Von Beethoven’s music teacher said, “As a composer, he is hopeless!”

Thomas Edison’s teachers claimed that he was too stupid to learn.

F.W. Woolworth went to work in a store when he was 21 but couldn’t work with customers because the manager said he “didn’t have enough sense.”

Walt Disney was fired from his job at a newspaper because he had “no good ideas.”

Enrico Caruso’s music teacher told him he couldn’t sing.

Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college.

Louis Pasteur did not do well in chemistry in college.

Louisa May Alcott was once told by an editor that her writing had no popular appeal.

Fred Waring was rejected from the high school chorus.

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade.


So as I look at my junior high students, I want to the one who totally believes in them, to forcefully encourage them--

Don't You Quit!

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
Whe he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It might be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.