Ovid — Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.
Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.Ovid
Ovid, 'Ars Amatoria'
No single drop achieves anything. That is the point. The stone yields not to strength but to repetition so patient it barely looks like effort at all.
This is exactly how a language is learned. Not by one heroic study session, but by small daily drops that seem to do nothing — until the stone is hollow.
Words that widen the world
Continuing firmly despite difficulty or slowness.
Synonyms: perseverance, tenacity, doggedness
Persistence, not force, wore the stone away.
To make a hole or empty space in something.
Synonyms: carve, excavate, wear away
Water hollows stone over years.
Common questions
It means steady repetition accomplishes what sudden force cannot — persistence gradually achieves great things.
From the Roman poet Ovid's 'Ars Amatoria'.
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