There is more genuine joy in climbing the hill of success, even though sweat may be spent and toes may be stubbed, than in aimlessly sliding down the path to failure. If a straight, honorable path has been chosen, the gaining of the summit yields lasting satisfaction. The morass of failure, if reached through laziness, indifference or other avoidable fault, yields nothing but ignominy and sorrow for self and family and friends.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
The man who has done his level best, and who is conscious that he has done his best, is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
If you can’t accept losing, you can’t win.
—Vince Lombardi (1913–70) American Sportsperson
Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality, Businessperson, Actor
With the catching ends the pleasures of the chase.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State, Lawyer, Politician
What is success in this world? I would say it consists of four simple things — to live a lot, to love a lot, to laugh a lot, and from it all, to learn a lot.
—Richard J. Needham (1912–96) Canadian Humorist, Columnist, Writer
Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality, Businessperson, Actor
A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm.
—Charles M. Schwab (1862–1939) American Businessperson
Success doesn’t come to you — you go to it.
—Marva Collins (b.1936) American Educator
The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work. Many of those who fail most ignominiously do enough to achieve grand success but they labor haphazardly at whatever they are assigned, building up with one hand to tear down with the other. They do not grasp circumstances and change them into opportunities. They have no faculty for turning honest defeats into telling victories. With ability enough and ample time, the major ingredients of success, they are forever throwing back and forth an empty shuttle and the real web of their life is never woven.
—Og Mandino
There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.
—T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935) British Military Leader
Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.
—Tom Peters (b.1942) American Management Consultant, Author, Public Speaker
Success is the satisfaction of feeling that one is realizing one’s ideal.
—Anna Pavlova (1881–1931) Russian Dancer
Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles that one has overcome while trying to succeed.
—Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) American Educator, Author, Political leader
You don’t become enormously successful without encountering and overcoming a number of extremely challenging problems.
—Mark Victor Hansen (b.1948) American Public Speaker, Motivational Speaker, Writer
There is no royal road; you’ve got to work a good deal harder than most people want to work.
—Charles E. Wilson (1886–1972) American Businessperson
Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.
—An Wang (1920–90) Chinese-born American Engineer, Inventor, Entrepreneur
For every one of us that succeeds, it’s because there’s somebody there to show you the way out.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality, Businessperson, Actor
All outward success, when it has value, is but the inevitable result of an inward success of full living, full play and enjoyment of one’s faculties.
—Robert Henri (1865–1929) American Painter, Teacher
He that is overcautious will accomplish but very little.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
We have fought this fight as long, and as well, as we know how. We have been defeated. There is now but one course to pursue. We must accept the situation.
—Robert E. Lee (1807–70) American Military Leader, Engineer
The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.
—Arthur Brisbane (1864–1936) American Journalist, Editor
Life’s irony is that as soon as worldly goods and worldly success are of no concern to you, the way is open for them to flow to you.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.
—John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937) American Businessperson, Philanthropist
The door to a balanced success opens widest on the hinges of hope and encouragement.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
All things lead to my success.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it—so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. As the tide goes clear out, so it comes clear in. In business sometimes prospects may seem darkest when really they are on the turn. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Life is ever giving of Itself. We must receive, utilize and extend the gift. Success and prosperity are spiritual attributes belonging to all people.
—Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) American New Thought Writer, Teacher
Thank you, God, for bringing me success in my life.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
Very few people are capable of sustained effort, and that’s the reason why we have comparatively few outstanding successes.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
Success is a matter of understanding and religiously practicing specific, simple habits that always lead to success.
—Robert Ringer (b.1939) American Entrepreneur, Motivational Speaker, Author
Take Time
Take time to work … it is the price of success.
Take time to think … it is the source of power.
Take time to play, … it is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to read, … it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to be friendly, … it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream, … it is hitching your wagon to a star.
Take time to love & be loved, … it is the privilege of the Gods.
Take time to look around … it is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to laugh … it is the music of the soul.
—English Prayer
The road to success is not to be run upon by seven-leagued boots. Step by step, little by little, bit by bit—that is the way to wealth, that is the way to wisdom, that is the way to glory. Pounds are the sons, not of pounds, but of pence.
—Charles Buxton
Distinction is the consequence, never the object, of a great mind.
—Washington Allston (1779–1843) American Poet, Painter
It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
Man was designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
—Vidal Sassoon
Those who have succeeded at anything and don’t mention luck are kidding themselves.
—Larry King (b.1933) American TV Personality, Radio Personality, Journalist
In the real world, those of us who are most productive, successful, and satisfied focus not on fixing feelings or manipulating thoughts, but on what needs to be done—and then doing it—no matter what thoughts or feelings arise.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher, Political leader, Scientist, Lawyer
If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality, Businessperson, Actor
Failure can be bought on easy terms; success must be paid for in advance.
—Cullen Hightower (b.1923) American Humorist
Success is like a ladder, and no one has ever climbed a ladder with their hands in their pockets.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that optimistic explanatory style is the key to persistence.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There’s no use in being a damn fool about it.
—W. C. Fields (1880–1946) American Actor, Comedian, Writer
Madame Curie didn’t stumble upon radium by accident. She searched and experimented and sweated and suffered years before she found it. Success rarely is an accident.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. He that labors in any great or laudable undertaking has his fatigues first supported by hope and afterward rewarded by joy.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist, Biographer, Poet, Writer, Literary Critic
No one reaches a high position without daring.
—Publilius Syrus Syrian-born Latin Writer
Success serves men as a pedestal; it makes them look larger, if reflection does not measure them.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Essayist
Money, or even power, can never yield happiness unless it be accompanied by the goodwill of others.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
There are no limits to your possibilities! Your successes will multiply and increase in proportion to your mastery of the law.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on winning.
—Irving Berlin
You build a successful career, regardless of your field of endeavor, by the dozens of little things you do on and off the job.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
Morale is the greatest single factor in successful wars.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
Eighty percent of success is showing up.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Actor, Film Director, Screenwriter, Comedian
Success with money, family, relationships, health, and careers is the ability to reach your personal objectives in the shortest time, with the least effort and with the fewest mistakes. The goals you set for yourself and the strategies you choose become your blueprint or plan. Strategies are like recipes: choose the right ingredients, mix them in the correct proportions, and you will always produce the same predictable results: in this case financial success. The success strategies for managing money and building wealth are called Money Strategies. By learning to use money strategies as a part of your day-to-day life, financial frustration and failure will become a thing of the past.
—Charles J. Givens (1941–98) American Self-Help Writer
With each success your faith in the law will grow stronger, until you reach the point of total conviction. Then you will be invincible.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
The price of success is much lower than the price of failure.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
The excursion is the same when you go looking for your sorrow as when you go looking for your joy.
—Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American Short Story Writer, Novelist
No matter what you do, do it to your utmost. I always attribute my success to always requiring myself to do my level best, if only in driving a tack in straight.
—Russell Conwell (1843–1925) American Baptist Minister, Orator, Philanthropist, Lawyer, Academic
I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
—Unknown
Success is in the details.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
Once our minds are ‘tattooed’ with negative thinking, our chances for long-term success diminish.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
Every noble acquisition is attended with its risks; he who fears to encounter the one must not expect to obtain the other.
—Metastasio (1698–1782) Italian Poet, Librettist
Real success is not on the stage, but off the stage as a human being, and how you get along with your fellow man.
—Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925–90) American Singer, Musician, Dancer, Actor
Success is transient, evanescent. The real passion lies in the poignant acquisition of knowledge about all the shading and subtleties of the creative secrets.
—Constantin Stanislavski (1863–1938) Russian Actor, Theater Personality
Clarity precedes success.
—Robin Sharma (b.1965) American Management Consultant
Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.
—Lily Tomlin
When a man has done all he can do, still there is a mighty, mysterious agency over which he needs influence to secure success. The only way he can reach it is by prayer.
—Russell Conwell (1843–1925) American Baptist Minister, Orator, Philanthropist, Lawyer, Academic
A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
Don’t let what you can’t do stand in the way of what you can.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
No great thing comes to any man unless he has courage.
—James Gibbons (1834–1921) American Catholic Religious Leader, Clergyman
Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
I couldn’t wait for success… so I went ahead without it.
—Jonathan Winters (b.1925) American Comedian, Film Personality, TV Personality
The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort.
—Charles J. Givens (1941–98) American Self-Help Writer
I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
Ability is a poor man’s wealth.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
Success is all about consistency around the fundamentals.
—Robin Sharma (b.1965) American Management Consultant
Success, in a generally accepted sense of the term, means the opportunity to experience and to realize to the maximum the forces that are within us.
—David Sarnoff (1891–1971) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
We do not know, in most cases, how far social failure and success are due to heredity, and how far to environment. But environment is the easier of the two to improve.
—J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) British Biologist, Geneticist
It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
Many concerns now make part or the whole of their dividends from by-products that formerly went to waste. How do we, as individuals, utilize our principal by-product? Our principal by-product is, of course, our leisure time. Many years of observation forces the conclusion that a man’s success or failure in life is determined as much by how he acts during his leisure as by how he acts during his work hours. Tell me how a young man spends his evenings and I will tell you how he is likely to spend the latter part of his life.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
You can have everything in life you want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.
—Zig Ziglar (b.1926) American Author, Motivational Speaker, Author
What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people’s lives.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality, Businessperson, Actor
You do not succeed because you do not know what you want, or you don’t want it intensely enough.
—Frank Hall Crane
Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows.
—Ben Stein (b.1944) American Lawyer, Writer, Economist, Humorist
God may allow His servant to succeed when He has disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success and is cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it.
—A. W. Tozer (1897–1963) American Christian Pastor, Preacher, Author, Editor
The men who have done big things are those who were not afraid to attempt big things, who were not afraid to risk failure in order to gain success.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
The successful people are the ones who can think up stuff for the rest of the world to keep busy at.
—Don Marquis (1878–1937) American Humorist, Journalist, Novelist, Playwright, Writer
Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success.
—T. Harv Eker American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Achievement is not always success while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might and force of habit. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him–and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires.
—J. Paul Getty (1892–1976) American Business Person, Art Collector, Philanthropist
Different people have different duties assigned to them by Nature; Nature has given one the power or the desire to do this, the other that. Each bird must sing with his own throat.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright, Poet, Theater Personality
The gent who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn’t been asleep.
—Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) American Playwright, Entrepreneur
Happiness seems to require a modicum of external prosperity.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly. Taste the relish to be found in competition — in having put forth the best within you
—Henry J. Kaiser (1882–1967) American Businessperson, Philanthropists
Do not let yourselves be discouraged or embittered by the smallness of the success you are likely to achieve in trying to make life better. You certainly would not be able, in a single generation, to create an earthly paradise. Who could expect that? But, if you make life ever so little better, you will have done splendidly, and your lives will have been worthwhile.
—Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) British Historian
It takes vision and courage to create; it takes faith and courage to prove.
—Owen D. Young (1874–1962) American Businessperson, Lawyer, Diplomat
If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure.
—Dan Quayle (b.1947) American Head of State, Politician, Elected Rep
Some men succeed by what they know; some by what they do; and a few by what they are.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
All I would tell people is to hold on to what was individual about themselves, not to allow their ambition for success to cause them to try to imitate the success of others. You’ve got to find in on your own terms.
—Harrison Ford (b.1942) American Actor, Film Producer
I’ve learned that you can’t have everything and do everything at the same time.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality, Businessperson, Actor
Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.
—Grenville Kleiser (1868–1935) Canadian Author
Put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist, Satirist, Short Story Writer, Author, Lecturer
I have had enough success for two lifetimes. My success is talent put together with hard work and luck.
—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (b.1947) American Sportsperson
The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Civil Rights Activist, Politician
Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good.
—Joe Paterno (b.1926) American Sportsperson
Have the courage of your desire.
—George Gissing (1857–1903) English Novelist
It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924) British Philosopher
Never mistake activity for achievement.
—John Wooden (1910–2010) American Sportsperson
A successful man is he who receives a great deal from his fellow men, usually incomparably more than corresponds to his service to them. The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives, and not in what he is able to receive.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Theoretical Physicist, Philosopher, Author, Activist