“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.”
“More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.”
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
“The trouble is, you think you have time.”
Source: Buddha's Little Instruction Book
“If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”
“The opportunity of your life, it's you.”
Original: (it) L'occasione della tua vita, sei tu.
Source: prevale.net
“A great man is always willing to be little.”
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Compensation
Context: Our strength grows out of our weakness. The indignation which arms itself with secret forces does not awaken until we are pricked and stung and sorely assailed. A great man is always willing to be little. Whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages, he goes to sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits, on his manhood; he has gained facts; learns his ignorance; is cured of the insanity of conceit; has got moderation and real skill. The wise man throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point. The wound cicatrizes and falls off from him like a dead skin, and when they would triumph, lo! he has passed on invulnerable. Blame is safer than praise. I hate to be defended in a newspaper. As long as all that is said is said against me, I feel a certain assurance of success. But as soon as honeyed words of praise are spoken for me, I feel as one that lies unprotected before his enemies. In general, every evil to which we do not succumb is a benefactor.
“I think it’s intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.”
“Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending.”
“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.”
“If my mind can conceive it; and my heart can believe it — then I can achieve it.”
Similar to a quote by Jesse Jackson, which is in turn a modification of a quote by Napoleon Hill: "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve."
Misattributed
Source: The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey
“The path to success is to take massive, determined action.”
“To be or not to be. That's not really a question.”
Source: Bloodchild and Other Stories
“Think like a queen. A queen if not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”
“Your attitude determines your altitude.”
Zig Ziglar
200 Motivational and inspirational Quotes That Will Inspire Your Success
Variant: Your attitude determines your altitude. - Zig Ziglar
Positive Thinking Every Day : An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year (1993), "April 13"
Earlier variant: People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. And those who have learned to have a realistic, nonegotistical belief in themselves, who possess a deep and sound self-confidence, are assets to mankind, too, for they transmit their dynamic quality to those lacking it.
You Can If You Think You Can (1987), p. 84
“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Statement of January 1991, as quoted in Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett (2007) by Andrew Kilpatrick
“Not he who has much is rich, but he who gives much.”
“Do for yourself, for no one else will.”
Source: A Heart So Wild
“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.”
Source: Personal Success
“You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.”
Source: A Short Guide to a Happy Life
“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”
“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
Source: Letter to My Daughter
“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.”
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.”
“Your success and happiness lie in you.”
As quoted in The Life and Work of Martha Graham (1991) by Agnes de Mille, p. 264, <!-- de Mille precedes the Graham quotation with: "The greatest thing she ever said to me was in 1943 after the opening of Oklahoma!, when I suddenly had unexpected, flamboyant success for a work I thought was only fairly good, after years of neglect for work I thought was fine. I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. I talked to Martha. I remember the conversation well. It was in a Schrafft's restaurant over a soda. I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly, ... " -->
Context: There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
“The successful man will profit from his mistakes and
try again in a different way.”
“There is no "I" in team but there is in win.”
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”
“The road to success is always under construction”
“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.”
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.”
Dale Carnegie, quoted in Permission to Play : Taking Time to Renew Your Smile (2003) by Jill Murphy Long, p. 69
Variant: Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. Your really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.
“Your attitude determines your altitude”
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
“Change your thoughts and you can change the world.”
As quoted in Back on Track : How to Straighten Out Your Life When It Throws You a Curve (1997) by Deborah Norville, p. 201
Variant: Change your thoughts and you change your world.
“Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options.”
“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
“A quitter never wins-and-a winner never quits.”
Variant: A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.
Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Everybody's Political What's What? (ebook, must be borrowed) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24979564M/Everybody's_political_what's_what (1944), Chapter XXXVII: Creed and Conduct, p. 330
1940s and later
Variant: Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
Context: Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. Creeds, articles, and institutes of religious faith ossify our brains and make change impossible. As such they are nuisances, and in practice have to be mostly ignored.
As quoted in The Films of Barbra Streisand (2001) by Christopher Nickens and Karen Swenson
Variant: Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.
“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
As quoted in The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell (2003) by Oren Harari, p. 164.
2000s
“Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great”
Earliest citation found in Google Books is from 1993 https://books.google.com/books?id=bdTko5oHTd4C&pg=PA25&dq=%22give+up+the+good+to+go+for+the+great%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiH2e_QivXLAhUps4MKHdf0A9wQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22give%20up%20the%20good%20to%20go%20for%20the%20great%22&f=false, where it is attributed to country-music singer Kenny Rogers. Not found attributed to Rockefeller until 2006 https://books.google.com/books?id=F7OGT9WTiPQC&pg=PA24&dq=%22give+up+the+good%22+%22go+for+the+great%22+rockefeller&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw_rb9ivXLAhXrmoMKHbgHBqkQ6wEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=%22give%20up%20the%20good%22%20%22go%20for%20the%20great%22%20rockefeller&f=false.
Disputed
Variant: Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.
Variant: Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.”
Optimism (1903)
Variant: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement
Said to Samuel J Woolf, Berlin, Summer 1929. Cited with additional notes in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice and Freeman Dyson, Princeton UP (2010) p 230
1920s
Variant: If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.
“Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.”
Source: The Road
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Source: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
“You can do anything, but not everything.”
“Your life only gets better when you get better.”
“He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.”
“A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.”
Ch. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=pDlxjZ-z-woC&q=%22A+witty+woman+is+a+treasure+a+witty+beauty+is+a+power%22&pg=PA2#v=onepage.
Source: Diana of the Crossways http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4470/4470.txt (1885)
“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting”
Variant: It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.
Source: The Alchemist
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way”
“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”
“The secret to success is to do the common things uncommonly well.”
“It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.”
Variant: It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.
“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”
As quoted in Wake-up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk through your Life, Love, or Career! (1992) by Eric Allenbaugh, p. 65
“Very little is needed to make a happy life.”
ἐν ὀλιγίστοις κεῖται τὸ εὐδαιμόνως βιῶσαι
VII, 67
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
“You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you.”
“The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one's destiny to do, and then do it.”
Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. XI : Self-Culture — Facilities and Difficulties.
Source: The Lives Of George And Robert Stephenson
Context: We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Variant: Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Source: The Citizen of the World, Or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, Residing in London, to His Friends in the Country, by Dr. Goldsmith
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”
Attribution debunked in Langworth's Churchill by Himself. The earliest close match located by the Quote Investigator is from the 1953 book How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers.
Misattributed
Variant: Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Source: 1953, How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers, Quote p. 109, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. Referenced by Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/28/success
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
Variant: Your actions speak so loudly, I can not hear what you are saying.
Oh, the Places You'll Go! (1990)
Source: Oh, The Places You'll Go!
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
This quote is widely attributed to Margaret Thatcher on various websites, and also appears in a number of books, including The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Columbia University Press (1989), ed. Robert Andrews, p. 320 : ISBN 0231069901. 9780231069908 , but without any further source information such as date, location or any other context.
One valid Thatcher quote which may be the basis for the version above appears in the Second Carlton Lecture http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105799 (‘Why Democracy Will Last’), delivered at the Carlton Club, London (November 26, 1984) : Mr. Chairman, each generation has to stand up for democracy. It can’t take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew. You know that marvellous quotation from Goethe : ‘That which thy fathers bequeathed thee / Earn it anew if thou would possess it.’
Thatcher also expressed this thought in a Speech to Atlantic Bridge (May 14, 2003) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111266, delivered at the St. Regis Hotel, New York City : My friends, every generation has to fight anew the battle for liberty.
Disputed
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Two: Soul and Body, p 56
“Do the thing and you will have the power.”
“Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get.”
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer.”
