you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make her drink

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink, and while suffrage was prepared for Louisville women with all due formality, they either didn’t care for it or weren’t prepared for it. It seems very apparent from the big difference between the number of women entitled to a vote in suffrage communities and the number who use it, that the majority is far from demanding it.

1914 January 9, “Kentucky Women and the Vote”, in The Paducah Evening Sun, volume XXXVII, number 8, Paducah, Ky., page 4, column 2

Coaches are assessed by their ability to motivate their players. This is not really an accurate assessment of the coach’s ability. Motivation is the player’s responsibility as well as the coach’s. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink.” This statement seems to sum up the coach. The coach can lead and help the players, but in the final analysis, the players must have the desire and motivation to perform.

2003, Gerald A. Walford, Gerald E. Walford, “Mental Skills”, in Coaching Girls’ Ice Hockey, Terre Haute, Ind.: Wish Publishing, →ISBN, section III (Mental Skills), page 54

“Still, to say it was Free Vampires?” Ivy tapped a pencil against her teeth. “Every living vampire out there is going to be hunting them.” / “Maybe that was the intent. Keep them so busy they can’t make more trouble.” / “I swear, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink,” Jenks said loudly, and I threw the fork at him. […] / “Leave her alone, Jenks,” Ivy said as I stomped to the silverware drawer for a new one.

2014 February 25, Kim Harrison [pseudonym; Dawn Cook], The Undead Pool (Hollows), New York, N.Y.: Harper Voyager, →ISBN, page 218