Achievement Quote by Seamus Heaney
“Getting started, keeping going, getting started again - in art and in life, it seems to me this is the essential rhythm not only of achievement but of survival, the ground of convinced action, the basis of self-esteem and the guarantee of credibility in your lives, credibility to yourselves as well as to others.”
About This Quote
Source Poetry Collection: Human Chain, Seamus Heaney, 2010
The cyclical process of starting, persisting, and restarting is essential for creative and personal survival.
In simple terms: Starting, persisting, restarting sustain life and art.
Key Takeaway
Embrace the rhythm of effort.
Themes
creativity
perseverance
growth
self‑esteem
credibility
Mood
inspirational
hopeful
Type
philosophical
motivational
When to use this quote
- personal development
- artistic projects
Key Concepts
habit formation
project cycles
learning loops
resilience training
Practical Applications
- creative work
Questions to Reflect On
- What routines help you sustain momentum?
- When is it wise to pause and restart?
A Different Perspective
Continuous effort can lead to burnout without rest.
![“One of the very first poems I wrote was Docker That fist would drop a hammer on a Catholic and one of the sturdiest was Requiem for the Croppies, written 50 years after 1916 [the year of the Easter Rising]. Being responsible and what it means, what it demands, have indeed preoccupied me maybe too…” quote by Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/5fb/seamus-heaney-1711_being-responsible_one-of-the-very-first-poems-i-wrote-was_181491.jpg)
![“Anything Can Happen is also, incidentally, a poem that arose from teaching. I'd talked about the Horace Ode (I, 34) [on which the poem is based] in a lecture I gave at Harvard in the fall of 2000 entitled Bright Boltsand remembered it after the Twin Towers attack.” quote by Seamus Heaney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2e6/seamus-heaney-1711_anything-can-happen_anything-can-happen-is-also-incidentally_181651.jpg)
