Perseverance must have some practical end, or it does not avail the man possessing it. A person without a practical end in view becomes a crank or an idiot. Such persons fill our asylums.

The statement makes a practical goal the dividing line between useful persistence and fixation. Its harsh labels and reference to asylums intensify that judgment, reflecting the speaker's rhetoric rather than establishing a clinical explanation. The central claim is that effort needs a purpose to be valuable.

Context reviewed 23 September 2026