Success in any undertaking comes of patient, unremitting effort. You cannot have it, unless you resolutely concentrate your energies upon your work; and resolutely refuse to be diverted by other subjects, no matter how important or interesting. When something else thrusts itself in, and demands notice, you must be ready to say: “I pass that by. I am going ahead.”

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. Volume II
c. 1852
Author: Harriet Beecher Stowe
An anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S., and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the American Civil War"

