quotations about success
There are two kinds of success, or rather two kinds of ability displayed in the achievement of success. There is, first, the success either in big things or small things which comes to the man who has in him the natural power to do what no one else can do, and what no amount of training, no perseverance or will power, will enable any ordinary man to do. This success, of course, like every other kind of success, may be on a very big scale or on a small scale. The quality which the man possesses may be that which enables him to run a hundred yards in nine and three-fifths seconds, or to play ten separate games of chess at the same time blindfolded, or to add five columns of figures at once without effort, or to write the "Ode to a Grecian Urn," or to deliver the Gettysburg speech, or to show the ability of Frederick at Leuthen or Nelson at Trafalgar. No amount of training of body or mind would enable any good ordinary man to perform any one of these feats. Of course the proper performance of each implies much previous study or training, but in no one of them is success to be attained save by the altogether exceptional man who has in him the something additional which the ordinary man does not have. This is the most striking kind of success, and it can be attained only by the man who has in him the quality which separates him in kind no less than in degree from his fellows. But much the commoner type of success in every walk of life and in every species of effort is that which comes to the man who differs from his fellows not by the kind of quality which he possesses but by the degree of development which he has given that quality. This kind of success is open to a large number of persons, if only they seriously determine to achieve it. It is the kind of success which is open to the average man of sound body and fair mind, who has no remarkable mental or physical attributes, but who gets just as much as possible in the way of work out of the aptitudes that he does possess. It is the only kind of success that is open to most of us. Yet some of the greatest successes in history have been those of this second class--when I call it second class I am not running it down in the least, I am merely pointing out that it differs in kind from the first class. To the average man it is probably more useful to study this second type of success than to study the first. From the study of the first he can learn inspiration, he can get uplift and lofty enthusiasm. From the study of the second he can, if he chooses, find out how to win a similar success himself.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
Few men have the natural strength to honour a friend's success without envy.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
I do all this alone, everything I achieve, I achieve alone, because it's my head I'm locked into, and I share this space with nobody but myself.
ALEX GARLAND
The Coma
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
Winston Churchill's Great Quotation Book: From Alamein to Zest for Life
Many a man can make a success of everything but himself.
EDGAR GUEST
Home Rhymes
The man who arrives young believes that he exercises his will because his star is shining. The man who only asserts himself at thirty has a balanced idea of what willpower and fate have each contributed, the one who gets there at forty is liable to put the emphasis on will alone.
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
American Cavalcade, October 1937
Nothing changes your opinion of a friend so surely as success -- yours or his.
FRANKLIN P. JONES
Saturday Evening Post, November 29, 1953
The lucky or successful person has learned a simple secret. Call up, capture, evoke the feeling of success. When you feel successful and self-confident, you will act successful. Define your goal or end result. Picture it to yourself clearly and vividly. Then simply capture the feeling you would experience if the desirable goal were already an established fact. Then your internal machinery is geared for success: to guide you in making the correct muscular motions and adjustments; to supply you with creative ideas, and to do whatever else is necessary in order to make the goal an accomplished fact.
MAXWELL MALTZ
Psychocybernetics
Your intention sets the universe in motion. The universe flows in the direction of your intention, and so it is important to be clear on your exact intention in any situation. If you are absolutely clear as to your intent, your subconscious success mechanism will support you in getting there. Most people encounter problems in creating the kind of life they want because they have not clearly determined where they want to go, or visualized what it is going to look like when they get there. Those who lead purposeful, successful lives do so because they have set up in their mind a clear picture of what they want to create in their lives.
ROBERT ANTHONY
Beyond Positive Thinking
Ireland has a very different attitude to success than a lot of places, certainly than over here in the United States. In the United States, you look at the guy that lives in the mansion on the hill, and you think, you know, one day, if I work really hard, I could live in that mansion. In Ireland, people look up at the guy in the mansion on the hill and go, one day, I'm going to get that bastard. It's a different mind-set.
BONO
interview, Larry King Weekend, December 1, 2002
Success isn't outscoring someone, it's the peace of mind that comes from self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best. Success is a journey, not a destination--half the fun is getting there.
GITA BELLIN
A Sharing of Completion and Celebration
To succeed in life one needs two things -- influence and a lucky star.
LEONID ANDREYEV
The Life of Man
Great success is a great temptation.
THEODORE PARKER
"A Sermon of the Moral Dangers incident to Prosperity"
A man may be a merchant prince and in commercial prosperity a grand success, but if lust of accumulation has eaten out all the finer qualities of the soul, the sympathy and affection for others, the desire to make others happy, the determination to live for God and the welfare of humanity, he is a lamentable failure.
HENRY F. KLETZING & ELMER L. KLETZING
Traits of Character Illustrated in Bible Light
He who feared that he would not succeed sat still.
HORACE
Epistles
The secret to success, whether it's women or money, is knowing when to quit. I oughta know: I'm divorced and broke.
SONNY CROCKETT
Miami Vice
As naturally as the ruled always took the morality imposed upon them more seriously than did the rulers themselves, the deceived masses are today captivated by the myth of success even more than the successful are. Immovably, they insist on the very ideology which enslaves them. The misplaced love of the common people for the wrong which is done to them is a greater force than the cunning of the authorities.
THEODOR W. ADORNO
Dialectic of Enlightenment
I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.
WALT DISNEY
attributed, Unleash the Billionaire Within
Those who succeed can't forgive a fellow for being a failure, and those who fail can't forgive him for being a success.
GEORGE HORACE LORIMER
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
How few successful men are interesting! Hannibal, Alcibiades, with Raleigh, Mithridates, and Napoleon, who would compare them for a moment with their mere conquerors?
ROBERT BONTINE CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM
Success and Other Sketches