"One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast withers as rapidly; and that which grows slow endures"
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A novelist’s version of a speed limit: slow down, sequence your ambitions, and stop mistaking velocity for progress. Holland’s line works because it frames patience not as meekness but as strategy. “One thing at a time” is the familiar self-help mantra, but the second clause sharpens it into a philosophy of time: “all things in succession.” You don’t renounce scale; you reorder it. The promise isn’t a smaller life, it’s a life built to hold its own weight.
The real bite is in the horticultural metaphor. “That which grows fast withers as rapidly” turns quick wins into a kind of botanical scam: lush on the surface, structurally flimsy underneath. Holland is quietly warning against the seduction of shortcuts, whether in character, craft, money, or public reputation. The slow-growing plant “endures” not because it’s prettier, but because it has roots. Endurance is presented as an engineering fact, not a moral prize.
Context matters here. Holland is writing in a 19th-century America intoxicated by expansion, industry, and the myth of the self-made climb. His sentence reads like a corrective to a culture that’s already learning what boom-and-bust feels like, economically and spiritually. For a novelist, “succession” also signals narrative sense: lives, like stories, become coherent when events earn each other. The subtext is almost stern: if you want something that lasts, build it slowly enough that it can survive you.
The real bite is in the horticultural metaphor. “That which grows fast withers as rapidly” turns quick wins into a kind of botanical scam: lush on the surface, structurally flimsy underneath. Holland is quietly warning against the seduction of shortcuts, whether in character, craft, money, or public reputation. The slow-growing plant “endures” not because it’s prettier, but because it has roots. Endurance is presented as an engineering fact, not a moral prize.
Context matters here. Holland is writing in a 19th-century America intoxicated by expansion, industry, and the myth of the self-made climb. His sentence reads like a corrective to a culture that’s already learning what boom-and-bust feels like, economically and spiritually. For a novelist, “succession” also signals narrative sense: lives, like stories, become coherent when events earn each other. The subtext is almost stern: if you want something that lasts, build it slowly enough that it can survive you.
Quote Details
| Topic | Perseverance |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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