quotations about success
The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!
THOMAS MERTON
The Seven Storey Mountain
Unless you have courage, a courage that keeps you going, always going, no matter what happens, there is no certainty of success. It is really an endurance race.
HENRY FORD
Theosophist Magazine, February 1930
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Shakespeare the Man: An Essay
Success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square.
MICHELLE OBAMA
speech at Democratic National Convention, September 4, 2012
Complete success alienates a man from his fellows, but suffering makes kinsmen of us all.
ELBERT HUBBARD
The American Bible
Any time you see someone more successful than you are ... they are doing something you aren't.
MALCOLM X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
In all things success depends on previous preparation, and without such previous preparation there is sure to be failure.
CONFUCIUS
The Doctrine of the Mean
Success is buried on the other side of frustration.
ANTHONY ROBBINS
Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement
Failure means that you would not, or could not, pay for success. Success is a matter of sale. It can (most often) be bought by a large outlay--of hard forethought--of pains--of steadiness--of the golden wisdom coined from experience. But the figure is too high for most of us. We are too poor, or too slothful, to bring the price.
CHARLES BUXTON
Notes of Thought
Success is never assured, but having some challenges is almost always assured. Preparation to deal with those situations can reduce the hurdles and increase the prospects for success.
MARK KAPLAN
"Dealing with the certainty of change", New Hampshire Union Leader, July 9, 2017
Success seems to be that which forms the distinction between confidence and conceit.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Success is a magnet that draws many followers.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it.
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY
Where the Blue Begins
Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.
ALBERT CAMUS
The Fall
You might discover greater success is just a matter of better channeling and projecting positivity about work.
CHRISTY RAKOCZY
"5 smart brain hacks to help you feel -- and project -- more positivity at work", Mic, July 10, 2017
The greatest happiness of life was to stand at the difficult border between success and failure.
EIJI YOSHIKAWA
Taiko
Keep away from people who are always despondent; who always have a mental picture of some bad luck that is on the way. You can derive no benefit from association with such people; they spread the contagion of poverty thought, and in their company you will surely assimilate some of their ruinous-thought element. To say that "I can" and "I will" places you in alignment with thought currents that inevitably lead to "SUCCESS."
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Success", Human Life from Many Angles
All successful men have agreed in one thing--they were causationists. They believed that things went not by luck, but by law; that there was not a weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the first and last of things. A belief in causality, or strict connection between every trifle and the principle of being, and, in consequence, belief in compensation, or, that nothing is got for nothing--characterizes all valuable minds, and must control every effort that is made by an industrious one. The most valiant men are the best believers in the tension of the laws.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
The Conduct of Life
Success is a hidden jewel, and is found but by a few.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Integrity is so perishable in the summer months of success.
VANESSA REDGRAVE
attributed, Good-bye Baby and Amen