Challenge

Challenge is a common English word that is used generically for many different named competitions and for things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory.

Quotes

• If not, resolve, before we go,
  That you and I must pull a crow.
  Y' 'ad best (quoth Ralpho), as the Ancients
  Say wisely, have a care o' the main chance.
  • Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part II (1664), Canto II, line 499.

• Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
  • T.S. Eliot, Preface to Harry Crosby, Transit of Venus (1931), p. ix.

• Never measure the height of a mountain, until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
  • Dag Hammarskjold, Markings (1964).

• only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.
  • Robert F. Kennedy, Day of Affirmation Address (1966).

• Those to whom no distant horizons beckon ... for whom no challenges remain ... though they have inherited a Universe ... they possess only empty sand!
  • Silver Surfer # 1 (August 1968), written by Stan Lee Norrin Radd, p. 7

• Parsons treated magic and rocketry as different sides of the same coin: both had been disparaged, both derided as impossible, but because of this both presented themselves as challenges to be conquered. Rocketry postulated that we should no longer see ourselves as creatures chained to the earth but as beings capable of exploring the universe.

Similarly, magic suggested there were unseen metaphysical worlds that existed and could be explored with the right knowledge. Both rocketry and magic were rebellions against the very limits of human existence; in striving for one challenge he could not help but strive for the other.

• George Pendle, Pendle, George (2005). Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons. p. 18.

• The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.
  • Bertrand Russell, as quoted in Crainer's The Ultimate Book of Business Quotations (1997), p. 258.

• I never in my life
  Did hear a challenge urg'd more modestly,
  Unless a brother should a brother dare
  To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
  • William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I (c. 1597), Act V, scene 2, line 52.

• There I throw my gage,
  To prove it on thee to the extremest point
  Of mortal breathing.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard II (c. 1595), Act IV, scene 1, line 46.

• But thou liest in thy throat; that is not the matter I challenge thee for.
  • William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act III, scene 4, line 172.

• An I thought he had been valiant and so cunning in fence, I'ld have seen him damned ere I'ld have challenged him.
  • William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act III, scene 4, line 311.

• Every challenge along the way
  With courage I will face
  I will battle every day
  To claim my rightful place
  • John Siegler and John Loeffler, Pokémon Theme. (1997)