Quotes about achiever
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“Western philosophy and science have for the most part been committed to the Simplicity Theory of Truth: the simplest theory that accounts for the data is the true theory. (Theories are simplest which postulate the fewest entities, require the fewest hypotheses, generate predictions by the fewest calculations, etc.) ...If someone believes that the world is made for him to have dominion over and he is made to exploit it, he must believe that he and the world are so made that he can, at least in principle, achieve and maintain dominion over everything. But you can’t put things to use if you don’t know how they work. So he must believe that he can, at least in principle, understand everything. If the world exists for man, it must be usably intelligible, which means it must be simple enough for him to understand. A usable universe is an intelligible universe is a simple universe. ...And so it goes with the philosophy and the science of The Arrogant Eye.”

Marilyn Frye book The Politics of Reality

Source: The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (1983), p. 71

Truth, World, Intelligence, Understanding

“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet

“The final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity but the achievement of serenity within and above it.”

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American protestant theologian

Life, Wisdom

““Never despair. The darkest point of the night is the closest point to daylight. No success is achieved without effort, so fight for your goals and know that success is near.””

Alireza Kohany (1993) Musician, Actor, Entrepreneur

Source: https://knnit.com/lets-learn-the-story-of-alireza-kohanys-life-and-the-bridge-he-built-from-failure-to-success/

Effort, Success, Fight, Despair

“I believe that the mind is the last planet that’s left unexplored—Achieving the universal or cosmic consciousness is the highest goal to mankind.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Universe

“Mood swings are constantly haunting us, even in our dreams, from achieving perfection.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Dreams, Mood, Perfection

“We create comfortable positions for ourselves that cannot be achieved at the green tables [of conversations]. We will not let ourselves be lied to.”

Roman Shukhevych (1907–1950) Commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (1907-1950)

Source: Motyka, Grzegorz. Zapomnijcie o Giedroyciu: Polacy, Ukraińcy: IPN, 2008

“By developing own worldview and personality traits, a person deeper understands splendor and value of the life. This gives him even more motivation and willpower to achieve sensibly targeted goals.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Life, Motivation, Understanding, Personality

“Haters are only distractions from your greater purpose. When you achieve your goals and success is no longer out of your comfort zone, not only will the haters be forgotten, but they will assuredly be looked upon as the prodigious fools that they are….”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Fools, Success

“A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

As quoted in Walt Disney, Magician of the Movies (1966) by Bob Thomas p. 116

Effort, Personality

“We value things like stability, control and feeling good. We often see truth as an oppositional force to these things, when in reality, truth is our only way of actually achieving these things.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Truth, Way, Feeling, Reality

“To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness”

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) German social psychologist and psychoanalyst

Happiness

“I am not impressed with what people own. But I’m impressed with what they achieve. I’m proud to be a physician. Always strive to be the best in your field…. Don’t chase money. If you are the best in your field, money will find you.”

Thomas J. Stanley (1944–2015) American businessman

Source: The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americas Wealthy

Money, People

“Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Love, Truth, Beauty, Knowledge

“If my mind can conceive it; and my heart can believe it — then I can achieve it.”

Muhammad Ali book The Soul of a Butterfly

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

Heart, Wise, Deep, Success

“It's only those who are persistent and willing to study things deeply, who achieve the master work.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Study

“A writer needs four things to achieve greatness, Pasquale: desire, disappointment, and the sea.”
“That’s only three.”
Alvis finished his wine. “You have to do disappointment twice.”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

Disappointment, Wine, Sea

“Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necesary to a worthwhile achievement".”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

“If we are to achieve things never before accomplished we must employ methods never before attempted”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past or how lofty your aims and hopes may be.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Hope, Time, Past

“American journalism (like the journalism of any other country) is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

Country

“The only real limitation on your abilities is the level of your desires. If you
want it badly enough, there are no limits on what you can achieve.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

“If you have a past with which you feel dissatisfied, then forget it, now. Imagine a new story for your life and believe in it. Focus only on the moments when you achieved what you desired, and that strength will help you to get what you want.”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Life, Feeling, Imagination, Past

“Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Peace, Faith, Justice, Imagination

“Anything worth achieving is worth overachieving.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Source: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

“Joy is the goal of existence, and joy is not to be stumbled upon, but to be achieved, and the act of treason is to let its vision drown in the swamp of the moment's torture.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Joy

“You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

“Ideals of College” http://books.google.com/books?id=_VYEIml1cAkC&pg=PA15&dq=%22You+are+not+here+merely%22, Swarthmore (25 October 1913) <br class="br">1910s <br class="br">Context: You are not here merely to prepare to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.

World, Hope, Hope, Leadership

“It’s better to be good than evil, but one achieves goodness at a tremendous cost.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Evil

“If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they actually go insane to get it, imagine what miracle you and I can achieve by giving people honest appreciation this side of insanity.”

Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People

Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People

People, Feeling, Imagination

“You're fun to look at," decided Galinda.

Boq's face fell. "Fun?" he said.

I'd give a lot to achieve fun," Elphaba said. "The best I usually hope for is stirring, and when people say that they're usually referring to digestion-”

Gregory Maguire book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Source: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

People, Hope

“God is always more interested in why we do something than in what we do. Attitudes count more than achievements.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?

God

“Actually loneliness has a kind of fascination; it's a state of egotistical, inner grace that you can achieve only by standing guard on old, forgotten roads that no one travels anymore.”

Arturo Pérez-Reverte book The Fencing Master

Source: The Fencing Master

Travel, Loneliness

“Men have sacrificed and crippled themselves physically and emotionally to feed, house, and protect women and children. None of their pain or achievement is registered in feminist rhetoric, which portrays men as oppressive and callous exploiters.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Reviewing Warren Farrell's The Myth of Male Power, p. 392
Vamps and Tramps (1994), "No Law in the Arena: A Pagan Theory of Sexuality"

Women, Men, Pain, Children

“Some men are born sodomites, some achieve sodomy, and some have sodomy thrust upon them…”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: The Scented Garden Of Abdullah The Satirist Of Shiraz

Men

“No one starts a war--or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so--without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.”

Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) German-Prussian soldier and military theorist

War, Sense

“The end of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure and avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Life, God, Pain, Happiness

“Ask anything of men. Ask them to achieve wealth, fame, love, brutality, murder, self-sacrifice. But don’t ask them to achieve self-respect. They will hate your soul.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Love, Men, Hate, Soul

“No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from
scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who
have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve
our goals.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

People, Learning, Success

“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

As quoted in Diamond Power : Gems of Wisdom from America's Greatest Marketer (2003) by Barry Farber, p. 53

Children, Dreams, Soul, Graduation

“[I]n a place with absolutely no private or personal life, with the incessant worship of a mediocre career-sadist as the only culture, where all citizens are the permanent property of the state, the highest form of pointlessness has been achieved.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: Hitch-22: A Memoir

Life, Personality

“What nobody understood then is this: The only way that you achieve what you want and fulfill your dreams and become great is by demanding that sort of attention. You have to make it happen.”

Augusten Burroughs book Running with Scissors

Source: Running with Scissors

Dreams, Way

“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to
you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something
bigger and better than your current situation.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Gratitude, Attitude, Courageous

“The Germans in basements were pitiable, surely, but at least they had a chance. That basement was not a washroom. They were not sent there for a shower. For those people, life was still achievable.”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

Life, People, Chance

“There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.”

Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) British American-born writer

Life and Human Nature.
Afterthoughts (1931)

Life, Happy

“There is nothing that war has ever achieved that we could not better achieve without it.”

H. Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British physician, writer, and social reformer

War

“Achievement is talent plus preparation.”

Malcolm Gladwell book Outliers

Outliers: The Story of Success
Variant: Achievement is talent plus preparation

“Every man's foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never-recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, and be it even the greatest, has already achieved.”

Martin Buber (1878–1965) German Jewish Existentialist philosopher and theologian

“Love can sometimes achieve the impossible”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Love

“Caution is the path to mediocrity. Gliding, passionless mediocrity is all that most people think they can achieve.”

Frank Herbert book God Emperor of Dune

Source: God Emperor of Dune

People, Thinking

“Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one's sights and pushing toward the horizon.”

Daniel H. Pink book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Source: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Dependency

“The look he was going for was Friendly Suburban Dad, because that’s what he was, but he suspected he’d achieved only
Cialis Guy.”

Lisa Scottoline (1955) American writer

Source: Every Fifteen Minutes

Guy

“Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.”

Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged

Source: Atlas Shrugged

Loneliness

“The price of self-destiny is never cheap, and in certain situations it is unthinkable. But to achieve the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.”

Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume

Source: Jitterbug Perfume

“I must achieve internal consistency.”

Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) German philosopher, known as the father of phenomenology

“At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Uneasy Money

The Adventures of Sally (1922)
Source: Uneasy Money

Women, Age

“The community of the Giver had achieved at such great price. A community without danger or pain. But also, a community without music, color or art. And books.”

Lois Lowry book The Giver

Source: The Giver

Pain, Books, Art, Music

“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Peace, Understanding, Peaceful

“The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, "I was wrong."”

Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986) American journalist

Pieces of Eight (1982)
Source: Pieces Of Eight

Love, Hate, World

“A country that demands moral perfection in its foreign policy will achieve neither perfection nor security.”

Henry Kissinger (1923–2023) United States Secretary of State

Source: "Reflections on Containment", Foreign Affairs, Vol. 73, No. 3 (June 1994), p. 130

Perfection, Country

“My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see.”

Joseph Conrad Lord Jim

Variant: My task is to make you hear, to make you feel, and, above all, to make you see. That is all, and it is everything.
Source: Lord Jim

Feeling

“The world will fall, the gods will die, and I will never achieve a perfect score on this stupid machine.
-Dionysus”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

God, Stupidity, World, Perfection

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and so they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation.”

Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American writer

As quoted in An Apple for the Teacher: Fundamentals for Instructional Computing (1983) by George H. Culp and Herbert N. Nickles, p. 190; also in Youth Quake: A Manifesto (2002) by Cousin Sam, p. 31

“Maybe the best thing to do with favorite books is to leave them be: to achieve such exalted position means that they entered your life at exactly the right time, in precisely the right place, and those conditions can never be recreated.”

Nick Hornby (1957) English novelist

Life, Books, Time

“specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never before achieved.”

Max Weber book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Source: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Imagination, Heart

“Plant seeds of expectation in your mind; cultivate thoughts that anticipate achievement. Believe in yourself as being capable of overcoming all obstacles and weaknesses.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

“How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success?”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Effort, Time, Success, Patience

“Man needs what's worst in him in order to achieve what's best in him.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

“What I have achieved by industry and practice, anyone else with tolerable natural gift and ability can also achieve.”

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) German late baroque era composer

Nature

“My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince

Love, Fear

“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 book The Coma

Source: The Coma

“The POSITIVE THINKER sees the INVISIBLE, feels the INTANGIBLE, and achieves the IMPOSSIBLE.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Source: My Early Life, 1874-1904

Feeling, Motivational, Positive

“I want you to have big dreams, big goals. I want you to strive to achieve them. But I don't want to see you beating yourself up every time you make a mistake.”

Kelley Armstrong The Gathering

Source: The Gathering

Dreams, Time

“Her fluency was marvelous. She would say things at random, intricate, flamelike, or slide off into a parenthetical limbo peppered with fireworks-- admirable linguistic feats which a practiced writer might struggle for hours to achieve.”

Henry Miller book Sexus

Source: Sexus

“Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

“I try all things, I achieve what I can.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming wild things.”

Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) American illustrator and writer of children's books

Acceptance speech upon being awarded the Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are (1964), published in Newbery and Caldecott Medal Books, 1956-65, edited by Lee Kingman (1965)
Context: Certainly we want to protect our children from new and painful experiences that are beyond their emotional comprehension and that intensify anxiety; and to a point we can prevent premature exposure to such experiences. That is obvious. But what is just as obvious — and what is too often overlooked — is the fact that from their earliest years children live on familiar terms with disrupting emotions, fear and anxiety are an intrinsic part of their everyday lives, they continually cope with frustrations as best they can. And it is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things.

Children

“All that was required to measure the planet was a man with a stick and a brain. In other words, couple an intellect with some experimental apparatus and almost anything seems achievable.”

Simon Singh (1964) British author

Source: Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe

“Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
Context: The second danger is that of expediency: of those who say that hopes and beliefs must bend before immediate necessities. Of course, if we must act effectively we must deal with the world as it is. We must get things done. But if there was one thing that President Kennedy stood for that touched the most profound feeling of young people around the world, it was the belief that idealism, high aspirations, and deep convictions are not incompatible with the most practical and efficient of programs — that there is no basic inconsistency between ideals and realistic possibilities, no separation between the deepest desires of heart and of mind and the rational application of human effort to human problems. It is not realistic or hardheaded to solve problems and take action unguided by ultimate moral aims and values, although we all know some who claim that it is so. In my judgment, it is thoughtless folly. For it ignores the realities of human faith and of passion and of belief — forces ultimately more powerful than all of the calculations of our economists or of our generals. Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.

Confidence, Courage, Self-confidence

“Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better.”

Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007) American writer

Life, World, Imagination, Change

“Many of us have convinced ourselves that compromise is necessary to achieve our goals, that all of our goals are not attainable so we should eliminate the extraneous, prioritize our desires, and accept less than the moon.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

Source: The Art of Racing in the Rain