"The great thing, and the hard thing, is to stick to thing when you have outlived the first interest, and not yet the second, which comes with a sort of mastery"
About this Quote
The phrase "outlived the first interest" is brutal in its honesty. First interest is the honeymoon phase: the rush of a new project, a new vocation, even a new faith. To "outlive" it suggests not a failure of character but a natural mortality built into excitement. Then comes the second half of the sentence, the suspended time "not yet the second", where people quietly quit, not because they lack talent, but because they mistake the absence of thrill for the absence of purpose. Stuart dignifies that gap as the true test.
"Second" interest arriving "with a sort of mastery" reframes mastery as emotional, not just technical. You dont merely get better at the thing; you develop a thicker relationship to it. Mastery here is a return of desire, but changed: less infatuation, more earned intimacy. As a poet - and, historically, a woman writing in a culture that often romanticized womens "natural" feeling while underestimating their discipline - Stuart is also making a stealth argument for work. The subtext is almost anti-romantic: devotion isnt proven when its fun. Its proven when its flat, and you keep going anyway.
Quote Details
| Topic | Perseverance |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Stuart, Janet Erskine. (2026, February 17). The great thing, and the hard thing, is to stick to thing when you have outlived the first interest, and not yet the second, which comes with a sort of mastery. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-great-thing-and-the-hard-thing-is-to-stick-to-131565/
Chicago Style
Stuart, Janet Erskine. "The great thing, and the hard thing, is to stick to thing when you have outlived the first interest, and not yet the second, which comes with a sort of mastery." FixQuotes. February 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-great-thing-and-the-hard-thing-is-to-stick-to-131565/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The great thing, and the hard thing, is to stick to thing when you have outlived the first interest, and not yet the second, which comes with a sort of mastery." FixQuotes, 17 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-great-thing-and-the-hard-thing-is-to-stick-to-131565/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2026.
