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).

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

• 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.