Quotations about Success
Failure seems to be regarded as the one unpardonable crime, success as the all-redeeming virtue, the acquisition of wealth as the single worthy aim of life. The hair-raising revelations of skullduggery and grand-scale thievery merely incite others to surpass by yet bolder outrages and more corrupt combinations.
~Charles Francis Adams II
No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.
~Charles Kendall Adams
Every one of us, unconsciously, works out a personal philosophy of life, by which we are guided, inspired, and corrected, as time goes on. It is this philosophy by which we measure out our days, and by which we advertise to all about us the man, or woman, that we are. . . . It takes but a brief time to scent the life philosophy of anyone. It is defined in the conversation, in the look of the eye, and in the general mien of the person. It has no hiding place. It's like the perfume of the flower — unseen, but known almost instantly. It is the possession of the successful, and the happy. And it can be greatly embellished by the absorption of ideas and experiences of the useful of this earth.
~George Matthew Adams
Unless you're willing to have a go, fail miserably, and have another go, success won't happen.
~Phillip Adams
Few men have the natural strength to honour a friend's success without envy.
~Aeschylus
When a man is willing and eager, the gods join in.
~Aeschylus
Health, happiness and success depend upon the fighting spirit of each person. The big thing is not what happens to us in life - but what we do about what happens to us.
~George Allen
My success has allowed me to strike out with a higher class of women.
~Woody Allen
Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.
~Woody Allen
He who is silent is forgotten; he who does not advance falls back; he who stops is overwhelmed; out distanced, crushed; he who ceases t grow becomes smaller; he who leaves off, gives up; the condition of standing still is the beginning of the end.
~Henri Frédéric Amiel
Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.
~Mario Andretti
Asked what his secret was for lasting so long and being so successful as the president of Yale University, Dr. James R. Angell explained: "Grow antennae, not horns."
~Dr. James Rowland Angell
It is a shameful thing for the soul to faint while the body still perseveres.
~Marcus Aurelius Antonimus
The worst bankrupt in the world is the man who has lost his enthusiasm. Let a man lose everything else in the world but his enthusiasm and he will come through again to success.
~H.W. Arnold
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
~Arthur Ashe
The penalty for success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you.
~Lady Nancy Astor
One of the commonest mistakes and one of the costliest is thinking that success is due to some genius, some magic — something or other which we do not possess. Success is generally due to holding on, and failure to letting go. You decide to learn a language, study music, take a course of reading, train yourself physically. Will it be success or failure? It depends upon how much pluck and perseverance that word “decide” contains. The decision that nothing can overrule, the grip that nothing can detach will bring success. Remember the Chinese proverb, “With time and patience, the mulberry leaf becomes satin.
~Maltbie Davenport Babcock
Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.
~Roger Ward Babson
I was made to work. If you are equally industrious, you will be equally successful.
~Johann Sebastian Bach
Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand.
~Bruce Barton
Whatever task you undertake, do it with all your heart and soul. Always be courteous, never be discouraged. Beware of him who promises something for nothing. Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures. Do not look for approval except the consciousness of doing your best.
~Bernard Mannes Baruch
If there is any one axiom that I have tried to live up to in trying to become successful in business, it is the fact that I have tried to surround myself with associates that know more about business than I do. This policy has always been very successful and is still working for me.
~Monte L. Bean
"The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion. . . It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider — and progressively better able to grasp any theme or situation — persevering in what he knows to be practical, and concentrating his thought upon it, who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree.
~Alexander Graham Bell
Happy the man who, like Ulysses, has made a fine voyage, or has won the Golden Fleece, and then returns, experienced and knowledgeable, to spend the rest of his life among his family!
~Joachim Du Bellay
Companies which get misled by their own success are sure to be blind sided.
~Warren G. Bennis
The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point in business. You've got to keep working that talent.
~Irving Berlin
Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction.
~Al Bernstein
If at first you don’t succeed, think how many people you’ve made happy.
~H. Duane Black
The victory o£ success is half won when one gains the habit of work.
~Sarah Knowles Bolton
Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.
~Erma Bombeck
Successful men are influenced by desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by desire for pleasing methods.
~Frank E. Brennan
Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.
~Dr. Joyce Brothers
Possession of the ball is the key to winning in football, basketball, and the game of life.
~Laing Burns, Jr.
Success often comes to those who have the aptitude to see way down the road.
~Laing Burns, Jr.
There's no limit to what a man can achieve, if he doesn't care who gets the credit.
~Laing Burns, Jr.
Men are failures, not because they are stupid, but because they are not sufficiently impassioned.
~Struther Burt
Experience shows that success is due less to ability than to zeal. The winner is he who gives himself to his work, body and soul.
~Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton
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.
~Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton
They never fail who die in a great cause.
~George Gordon, Lord Byron
Success in business implies optimism, mutual confidence, and fair play. A business man must hold a high opinion of the worth of what he has to sell and he must feel that he is a useful public servant.
~R.H. Cabell
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
~Herman Cain
The successful always has a number of projects planned, to which he looks forward. Anyone of them could change the course of his life overnight.
~Mark Caine
The important thing to recognize is that it takes a team, and the team ought to get credit for the wins and the losses. Successes have many fathers, failures have none.
~Philip Caldwell
The look of success, when it is worn a certain way, would infuriate a jackass.
~Albert Camus
Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.
~Albert Camus
It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.
~Eddie Cantor
Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
~Truman Capote
I believe that the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make yourself master of that line. ~Andrew Carnegie
Put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket.
~Andrew Carnegie
People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.
~Dale Carnegie
Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get.
~Dale Carnegie
The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.
~Dale Carnegie
When you have much success, two things happen. The first is that we begin to take success for granted. The second is that we forget how we got here—namely, by exceptionally hard work and in spite of intense competition.
~Jack Mack Carter
Our duty as men is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.
~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
~Winston Churchill
No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.
~Winston Churchill
There are men in the world who derive an exaltation from the proximity of disaster and ruin, as other from success.
~Winston Churchill
There is but one straight road to success, and that is merit. The man who is successful is the man who is useful. Capacity never lacks opportunity. It can not remain undiscovered, because it is sought by too many anxious to use it.
~Bourke Cockran
The great successful men of the world have used their imagination…they think ahead and create their mental picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this a bit and that a bit, but steadily building - steadily building.
~Robert Collier
You can do anything you wish to do, have anything you wish to have, be anything you wish to be. ~Robert Collier
Success doesn't come to you…you go to it.
~Marva Collins
Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure. ~Confucius
Perhaps the reward of the spirit who tries. Is not the goal but the exercise.
~Edmund Vance Cooke
I don't know the key to success but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.
~Bill Cosby
An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success.
~Stephen Covey
If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style.
~Quentin Crisp
Success is not permanent. The same is also true of failure.
~Dell Crossword
To me success would be to be able to do your very best in everything you do.
~Paul Cummings
In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.
~Anthony D'Angelo
History records the successes of men with objectives and a sense of direction. Oblivion is the position of small men overwhelmed by obstacles.
~William Danforth
Defeat never comes to any man until he admits it.
~Josephus Daniels
I always suspect an artist who is successful before he is dead.
~Edgar Degas
Every advantage in the past is judged in the light of the final issue.
~Demosthenes
Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed.
~Emily Dickinson
Somehow I can’t believe there are many heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret can be summarized in four C’s. They are: curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of these is confidence.
~Walt Disney
As a rule, he or she who has the most information will have the greatest success in life.
~Benjamin Disraeli
The Duke of Wellington brought to the post of first minister immortal fame,—a quality of success which would almost seem to include all others.
~Benjamin Disraeli
The most successful people in life are generally those who have the best information.
~Benjamin Disraeli
The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.
~Benjamin Disraeli
The secret of success is constancy to purpose.
~Benjamin Disraeli
What we anticipate seldom occurs, what we least expected generally happens.
~Benjamin Disraeli
Life has no smooth road for any of us; and in the bracing atmosphere of a high aim the very roughness stimulates the climber to steadier steps, till the legend, "over steep ways to the stars," fulfills itself.
~W.C. Doane
Sometimes a noble failure serves the world as faithfully as a distinguished success.
~Dowden
Women will never be as successful as men because they have no wives to advise them.
~Dick Van Dyke
A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.
~Bob Dylan
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
~Thomas Edison
The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.
~Thomas Edison
If A equal success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.
~Albert Einstein
The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.
~Albert Einstein
Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value. He is considered successful in our day who gets more out of life than he puts in. But a man of value will give more than he receives.
~Albert Einstein
We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.
~Eisenhower
If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, tho' he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-trust is the first secret of success.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is no way to success in our art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
A stumble may prevent a fall.
~English Proverb
Along with success comes a reputation for wisdom.
~Euripides
Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it.
~Sam Ewing
What is the recipe for successful achievement? To my mind there are just four essential ingredients: Choose a career you love . . . Give it the best there is in you . . . Seize your opportunities And be a member of the team. In no country but America, I believe, is it possible to fulfill all four of these requirements.
~Benjamin Fairless
Deliver me from all evildoers that talk nothing but sickness and failure. Grant me the companionship of men who think success and men who work for it. Loan me associates who cheerfully face the problems of a day and try hard to overcome them. Relieve me of all cynics and critics. Give me good health and the strength to be of real service to the world, and I'll get all that's good for me, and will what's left to those who want it.
~William Feather
The great dividing line between success and failure can be expressed in five words: "I did not have time.
~Franklin Field
Keep these concepts in mind: You've failed many times, although you don't remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim. . . . Don't worry about failure. My suggestion to each of you: Worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try.
~Sherman Finesilver
Success as I see it, is a result, not a goal.
~Gustave Flaubert
History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heart-breaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.
~B.C. Forbes
Failure is success if we learn from it.
~Malcolm Forbes
The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
~Henry Ford
The secret of success is constancy to purpose.
~Benjamin Franklin
Good is not good where better is expected.
~Thomas Fuller
A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
~Walter Gagehot
I buy when other people are selling.
~J. Paul Getty
No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or "get rich" in business by being a conformist.
~J.Paul Getty
Success is always temporary. When all is said and done, the only thing you'll have left is your character.
~Vince Gill
The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made.
~Jean Giraudoux
On the pinnacle of success man does not stand firm long.
~Goethe
The passing day is prey to error. Time commands success and achievement.
~Goethe
Pleasures, riches, honor and joy are sure to have care, disgrace, adversity and affliction in their train. There is no pleasure without pain, no joy without sorrow. O the folly of expecting lasting felicity in a vale of tears, or a paradise in a ruined world.
~Gotthold
Successful men are influenced by the desire for pleasing results. Failures are influenced by the desire for pleasing methods and are inclined to be satisfied with such results as can be obtained by doing things they like to do. The common denominator of success - the secret of every man who has ever been successful - lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do. ~Albert Gray
The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do. They don't like doing them either necessarily. But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose.
~E.M. Gray
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.
~Haldane
Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.
~Alexander Hamilton
You don't become enormously successful without encountering and overcoming a number of extremely challenging problems.
~Mark Victor Hansen
Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
~Conrad Hilton
I believe the greater the handicap, the greater the triumph.
~John H. Johnson
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.
~Vincent T. Lombardi
Truth, self control, asceticism, generosity, non-injury, constancy in virtue — these are the means of success, not caste or family.
~Mahabharata
Many a one has succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat, he would never have known any great victory.
~Orison Sweet Marden
When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, this is happiness, this is success.
~Orison Swett Marden
He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.
~John Milton
There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning and yearning.
~Christopher Morley
Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
~Earl Nightingale
I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.
~John D. Rockefeller
At the end of each day you should play back the tapes of your performance. The result should either applaud youor prod you.
~Jim Rohn
I found it easier to get rich than I did to make excuses.
~Jim Rohn
If you care at all,you'll get some results.If you care enough, you'll get incredible results.
~Jim Rohn
Life asks us to make measurable progress in a reasonable time.That's why they make those fourth grade chair so small.
~Jim Rohn
Life is a unique combination of "want to"and"how to"and we need to give equal attention to both.
~Jim Rohn
My goal is to translate response into results.Some teachers teach for others to learn.That's not me.Some teachers teach for others to accomplish.That is me.
~Jim Rohn
Part of success is preparation on purpose.
~Jim Rohn
Pity the man who inherits a million and isn't a millionaire.Here's what would be pitiful,if your income grew and you didn't.
~Jim Rohn
Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are.
~Jim Rohn
Success is not to be pursued;it is to be attracted by the person we become.
~Jim Rohn
Success is the study of the Obvious.Everyone should take Obvious 1 and Obvious 2 in school.
~Jim Rohn
The greatest form of maturity is at harvest time.That is when we must learn how to reap without complaint if the amounts are small and how to to reap without apology if the amounts are big.
~Jim Rohn
The most important question to ask on the job is not "what am I getting?" The most important question to ask is "What am I becoming?"
~Jim Rohn
There are some things you don't have to know how it works.The main thing is that it works.While some people are studying the roots,others are picking the fruit. It just depends which end of this you want to get in on.
~Jim Rohn
Time is our most valuable asset, yet we tend to waste it, kill it, and spend it rather than invest it.
~Jim Rohn
Unless you change how you are,you will always have what you've got.
~Jim Rohn
We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are.
~Jim Rohn
The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right.
~Edward Simmons
Meet success like a gentleman and disaster like a man.
~Frederick Edwin Smith, Lord Birkenhead
The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.
~Ben Stein
God gives every bird a worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.
~Swedish Proverb
Success is a journey, not a destination.
~Ben Sweetland
My list of ingredients for success is divided into four basic groups: Inward, Outward, Upward and Onward.
~David Thomas
Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy!
~Brian Tracy
Personal development is your springboard to personal excellence. Ongoing, continuous, non-stop personal development literally assures you that there is no limit to what you can accomplish.
~Brian Tracy
A most important key to successful leadership is your ability to direct and challenge the very best that is in those whom you lead.
~author unknown
A successful man continues to look for work after he has found a job.
~author unknown
Act as though it is impossible to fail.
~author unknown
Act as though it is impossible to fail.
~author unknown
An Unfailing Success Plan: At each day’s end write down the six most important things to do tomorrow; number them in order of importance, and then do them.
~author unknown
As you climb the ladder of success, check occasionally to make sure it is leaning against the right wall.
~author unknown
Be self-reliant and your success is assured.
~author unknown
Choice, not circumstances, determines your success.
~author unknown
Confidence is the companion of success.
~author unknown
Everybody's a self-made man; but only the successful ones are ever willing to admit it.
~author unknown
Find a meaningful need and fill it better than anyone else.
~author unknown
He who does not tire, tires adversity.
~author unknown
If at first you do succeed try not to look too surprised.
~author unknown
If you would live your life with ease; do what you ought, not what you please.
~author unknown
In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail.
~author unknown
It is wise to keep in mind that no success or failure is necessarily final.
~author unknown
Life's real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.
~author unknown
Many a man owes his success to his first wife, and his second wife to his success.
~author unknown
No one can change another person’s beliefs. But you can be accepting of his beliefs and then slowly build an influence for the other person to change himself.
~author unknown
Persistence gives confidence and continued right mental attitude followed by consistent action will bring success. When you have that knowing inside of you, fear has vanished and the obstruction to a life of all good removed.
~author unknown
So far the only successful substitute for brains is silence.
~author unknown
Success always occurs in private and failure in full public view.
~author unknown
Success comes before work only in the dictionary.
~author unknown
Success does not come to those who wait . . . and it does not wait for anyone to come to it.
~author unknown
Success in our calling is the result of a person’s love of and belief in the work he has undertaken. Earnest and conscientious labor often accomplishes more in the end than brilliant genius.
~author unknown
Success is not access to excess.
~author unknown
Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
~author unknown
Success is still the constant application of the Golden Rule.
~author unknown
Success: willing to do what the average person is not willing to do.
~author unknown
The key to happiness is having dreams. The key to success is making your dreams come true.
~author unknown
The two hardest things to handle in life are failure & success.
~author unknown
To enter heaven, a man must take it with him.
~author unknown
Two rules of success in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know.
~author unknown
What am I willing to sacrifice for what I want to become?
~author unknown
Yesterday's failures are today's seeds That must be diligently planted to be able to abundantly harvest Tomorrow's success.
~author unknown
Yielding is sometimes the best way of succeeding.
~author unknown
You cannot sit on the road to success for if you do, you will get run over.
~author unknown
Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.
~Thomas J. Watson
Ambition, fueled by compassion, wisdom and integrity, is a powerful force for good that will turn the wheels of industry and open the doors of oppurtunity for you and countless others.
~Zig Ziglar
Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do the things you need to do when you need to them,and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do them!
~Zig Ziglar
If we don't start,it's certain we can't arrive.
~Zig Ziglar
It is easy to get to the top after you get through the crowd at the bottom .
~Zig Ziglar
Motivating gets you going and habit gets you there . Make motivating a habit and you will get there more quickly and have more fun on the trip.
~Zig Ziglar
Motivation is the fuel, necessary to keep the human engine running.
~Zig Ziglar
Obviously, there is little you can learn from doing nothing.
~Zig Ziglar
Success is not a destination, it's a journey.
~Zig Ziglar
The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won't work - if you won't.
~Zig Ziglar
The real oppurtunity for success lies within the person and not in the job .
~Zig Ziglar
To respond is positive, to react is negative.
~Zig Ziglar
What you get by reaching your destination is not nearly as important as what you will become by reaching your destination.
~Zig Ziglar
You are the only one who can use your ability. It is an awesome responsibility.
~Zig Ziglar
Your business is never really good or bad "out there" your business is either good or bad right between your own two ears.
~Zig Ziglar