quotations about opportunity
When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
The Electrical Workers' Journal, 1957
To be a great man it is necessary to turn to account all opportunities.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
attributed, Day's Collacon
Men do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone.
T. JONES
attributed, The Book of Positive Quotations
To come before the opportunity, is to come before the bird is hatched; and to come after the opportunity is to come when the bird is flown. There is no calling back time, when it is once past.
JOHN FLAVEL
The Herald of Gospel Liberty, September 22, 1921
Opportunities are importunities; they are like flowers that fade at night; seize them, therefore, while they last.
G. S. BOWES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Did Mr. Woolworth, who created a chain of more than one thousand five and ten cent stores, wait on opportunity? Did Thomas A. Edison and thousands of men and women who have achieved big things wait on opportunity? Decidedly not! They either created their own opportunity or prepared themselves to receive it when it presented itself.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Opportunity", Human Life from Many Angles
To think and to will without doing, when there is opportunity, is like a flame enclosed in a vessel and goes out; also like seed cast upon the sand, which fails to grow, and so perishes with its power of germination.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell
Opportunity to a statesman is as the just degree of heat to chemists; it perfects all the work.
SIR JOHN SUCKLING
attributed, Day's Collacon
Our most significant opportunities will be found in times of greatest difficulty.
THOMAS S. MONSON
Pathways to Perfection
Opportunity is one of those things that depend greatly on the eye of the beholder.
ANDREW SANCHEZ
Technical Support Essentials
It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready to take advantage of them.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
Bad chances were better than no chances.
STEPHEN KING
Under the Dome
Danger will wink on opportunity.
JOHN MILTON
Comus
Oft does the mind wish for lost opportunities.
PETRONIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Your opportunity is just as good, perhaps even better, than any other man's. Get to work where you are. And get to work right now.
WILLIAM A. RADFORD
Cement World, April 15, 1908
Our abilities and ambitions count for little, unless the door of opportunity is open to us.
NICIAS BALLARD COOKSEY
Helps to Happiness
Opportunity knocks once at every man's door and then keeps on knocking.
GEORGE ADE
"The Undecided Bachelor", Knocking the Neighbors
While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
Maxims
Master of human destinies am I!
Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait,
Cities and fields I walk: I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late
I knock unbidden once at every gate!
If sleeping, wake: if feasting, rise before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate
And they who follow me reach every state
Mortals desire and conquer every foe
Save death: but those who doubt or hesitate,
Condemned to failure, penury and woe,
Seek me in vain and uselessly implore--
I answer not, and I return no more!
JOHN J. INGALLS
"Opportunity"
Individual opportunity is a powerful component of American ideology, powerful enough to elicit support for the system from all quarters, even from many exploited and unorganized workers who are at their bosses' mercy. If workers destined to be used up and discarded by employers cling nevertheless to "the American Way," it is not because they are ignorant of their destiny, but because they sense it. They feel that their only ray of hope for a satisfying life emanates from the "opportunity" the American system provides.
JEFF SCHMIDT
Disciplined Minds