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Who really said it

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance

Written by Samuel Johnson 1709–1784 · English writer, critic & lexicographer
Verified Free to reuse

From Johnson’s prose tale The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter XIII, where it is spoken by the poet Imlac to encourage the Prince as they tunnel through a mountain to escape. The first-edition text reads “not by strength, but perseverance”; the widely shared form adds a second “by.”

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance” Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), ch. 13 — spoken by Imlac. Original wording: "Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."

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Provenance

The source

Work
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Location
Chapter XIII, spoken by Imlac
First published
1759 (London)
Author
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

“Sir,” said his companion, “practice will enable us to continue our labour for a longer time. Mark, however, how far we have advanced, and ye will find that our toil will some time have an end. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance; yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigour three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe.”

Imlac reassures the Prince during their exhausting attempt to hew an escape passage through the mountain that walls their valley.

Rasselas, full text at Project Gutenberg

How we verified this

  • The exact sentence appears in the primary text: “Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance” — Rasselas, Ch. XIII, Project Gutenberg.
  • The reputable Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page attributes the line to Imlac in Rasselas and renders it “not by strength, but by perseverance.”
  • Johnson returned to the theme elsewhere: Wikiquote sources a companion passage on “the resistless force of perseverance” to The Rambler No. 43 (1750).
Public domain

Rasselas was first published in 1759, so both the work and its wording are firmly in the public domain in the United States (any work published before 1931 is PD).

Fact-check

Often misattributed

This one is genuinely Johnson’s — but two honest caveats travel with it.

Internet quotation culture paraphrase

The viral form “not by strength but by perseverance” smooths the first-edition text, which reads “not by strength, but perseverance” — see Rasselas, Ch. XIII. Reputable editions vary, so the added “by” is a normalization, not a fabrication.

Samuel Johnson vs. the character Imlac in-character

The line is voiced by the fictional poet Imlac inside the tale, not asserted by Johnson in his own person — a caution the Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page flags for all Rasselas quotations, though the sentiment is thoroughly Johnsonian.

Both the idea and the near-exact words are Johnson’s, from Rasselas (1759), Chapter XIII — the only liberty the internet takes is an extra “by.”

Context

Why it mattered

In Rasselas, the Prince of Abissinia is confined to a paradisal but imprisoning “happy valley.” Weary from trying to hew an escape passage through solid rock, he is tempted to give up. His companion Imlac answers with the maxim: monumental achievement comes not from a single burst of power but from steady, accumulated effort — the palace “raised by single stones.”

Johnson pressed the same conviction elsewhere, writing in The Rambler that the works “at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance.” The Rasselas line simply gives that belief its most portable, motivational shape.

“Yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness.”

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Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Work Success

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Rasselas — full textgutenberg.org

Primary source; Chapter XIII contains the exact sentence spoken by Imlac.
Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Pagesamueljohnson.com

Frank Lynch's scholarly Johnson quotation index; entry attributes the line to Imlac in Rasselas.
Samuel Johnson — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced Johnson quotations, including a companion perseverance passage from The Rambler No. 43.
Rasselas — overviewen.wikipedia.org

Background on the 1759 tale, its composition, and characters including Imlac.
Samuel Johnson — biographyen.wikipedia.org

Life and works of the author, 1709–1784.

The author

About Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

1709–1784 · English writer, critic & lexicographer

Samuel Johnson was one of the most quoted figures in English letters — essayist, moralist, poet, and compiler of the landmark Dictionary of the English Language (1755). His prose tale Rasselas (1759), reportedly written quickly to pay for his mother’s funeral, is a meditation on the pursuit of happiness. His balanced, aphoristic sentences made him a magnet for both genuine maxims and later loose paraphrase.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (London: R. and J. Dodsley and W. Johnston, 1759), chap. 13.

MLA (9th ed.)

Johnson, Samuel. The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. R. and J. Dodsley and W. Johnston, 1759, ch. 13.

APA (7th ed.)

Johnson, S. (1759). The history of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. R. and J. Dodsley and W. Johnston.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/great-works-are-performed-not-by-strength-but-by

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