Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed pay the price and it is yours.

Marden frames success not as luck or a favor to be won, but as an outcome produced by sustained effort. Calling it the “child” of drudgery and perseverance emphasizes that unglamorous, repetitive work and long-term endurance are the generative forces behind achievement. The line “It cannot be coaxed or bribed” rejects shortcuts—charm, influence, or wishful thinking—insisting that results follow a kind of moral economy: you must “pay the price.” In the context of Marden’s self-help philosophy, the quote functions as a bracing corrective to fantasies of effortless advancement, urging readers to accept discipline and persistence as the real currency of progress.