Dare to know.

"dimidium facti qui coepit habet:sapere aude, incipe" 

 This quote means "He who has begun is half done: dare to know, dare to begin." (sapere aude can also mean dare to be wise). To be honest, when I first translated this quote I was a little confused, but it made a lot more sense once I figured out where this quote originally came from. 

This quote was used in the first book of Epistles by Horace when a character decides to wait until the river stopped rushing water in order to cross it, which makes no sense, but that was Horace's point. The quote was meant to express the tenacity of individuals when trying to achieve goals no matter how difficult, challenging, or ridiculous they may be. In addition, it also shows the importance of effort. Trying your best and applying yourself to be the best of your ability is the key to success. For example, we as students, signed up for this course, but it is entirely on us to make the effort in order to make the best out of the information that is brought to us. What good is a book if you don't sit down and read it? The cover may be pretty or the title may be awesome, but you have to make the effort to open the book and carefully read it in order to be able to understand what the author wanted to portray. 

There is an old saying that states that instead of working harder, we need to work smarter. I agree with half of that statement. Personally, I believe that there is no substitute for hard work (quote from Thomas Edison), but what if we did both? Worked harder and smarter? Think about all of the possibilities and opportunities that would be created! We would not only better ourselves, but also the world around us.

Now, how is this quote relevant? This quote is relevant to both this course and our lives because no matter what your goal is (in either life or in this course) by working hard and trying your best to learn, we can achieve our goals and hopefully much more.