Success Quotes
Top 50 Success
Quotes
No 1 (Best quote!)
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
(Mark 8:36 in the Bible)
- Jesus (c4 BC-c30 AD), founder
of Christianity
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-confucius.jpg)
The Chinese philosopher, Confucius (551-479 BC), pictured right, agrees:
The superior man is aware of righteousness, the inferior man is aware of advantage
Jesus
also comments (from Matthew 19:30 in
the Bible)
Many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.
No 2![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-socrates.jpg)
The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates (470-399 BC), Greek
philosopher, pictured right.
So Socrates also says:
Know thyself
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-shakespeare.jpg)
This is important because Parolles in Shakespeare's (pictured right) All's Well That
Ends Well comments.
The thing I am shall make me live.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-schumacher.jpg)
Ernst Friedrich (Fritz) Schumacher, pictured right, in A Guide
for the Perplexed (1977) emphasizes the importance of self-knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses:
A man who fails to pursue self-knowledge is and remains a danger to society, for he will tend to misunderstand
everything that other people say or do and remain blissfully unaware of many of the things he does himself,
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-wittgenstein.jpg)
But the Austrian-born British philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951, pictured
right), warns:
Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving yourself
No 3![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-franklin.jpg)
God helps them that help themselves.
- Benjamin
Franklin (1706-90), pictured right , American philosopher and politician, pictured right.
Four other Americans agree:
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-emerson.jpg)
No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourself.
- Ralph Waldo
Emerson (1803-1882), pictured right, writer and philosopher,
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-kennedy-jf.jpg)
Things do not happen. They are made to happen.
- President John F. Kennedy (1917-63),, pictured right.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-walker.jpg)
Don’t sit down and wait for opportunities to come. Get up and make them!
- Madam C.J.
Walker (1867-1919),, pictured
right, businesswoman.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-jefferson.jpg)
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define
you.
- Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826), American president (pictured right)
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-disraeli.jpg)
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), pictured
right, the British prime minister, also comments:
Man is not the creature of circumstances. Circumstances are the creatures of men.
No 4![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-matisse.jpg)
Without hard work talent is not enough.
- Henri Matisse (1869-1954), pictured right, French
artist.
Three other successful people agree:
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-lauder.jpg)
I never dreamed about success, I worked for it,
- Estée Lauder (1906-2004), pictured right,
cosmetics tycoon, pictured right.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-michelangelo.jpg)
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.
- Michelangelo (1475-1564), pictured
right, Italian painter and sculptor
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-edison.jpg)
Many of life’s failures are people who do not realize how close they were to success when they gave up,
- Thomas Edison (1847-1931),
pictured right, the American inventor.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-wittgenstein.jpg)
Ludwig
Wittgenstein (1889-1951), pictured right, the Austrian-born
British philosopher, also comments:
Genius is talent exercised with courage.
No 5![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-shakespeare.jpg)
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
(Cassius in Julius
Caesar).
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right.
So three Americans say:
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-fromm.jpg)
Man's main task is to give birth to himself.
- Erich Fromm (1900-80),
psychologist and philosopher (pictured right).
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-winfrey.jpg)
You are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities.
- Oprah Winfrey (1954- ), pictured
right, chat show host.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-bradbury.jpg)
You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down,
- Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), pictured right, writer
No 6![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-shakespeare.jpg)
This above all: to thine own self be true,
(Polonius in Hamlet)
- William
Shakespeare 1564–1616 English playwright, pictured right
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-james.jpg)
William James (1842–1910),
American philosopher, pictured right, agrees:
There is but one cause of human failure...man’s lack of faith in his true self.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-buddha.jpg)
Gautama Buddha (563-483 BC),
pictured right, the founder of Buddhism also comments:
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
No 7![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-franklin.jpg)
Diligence is the mother of good luck,
-Benjamin
Franklin (1706-90), pictured right, American politician and philosopher.
Three other successful people agree:
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-player.jpg)
The more I practise, the luckier I get.
- Gary Player (1935- ), pictured right, South African golfer.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-winfrey.jpg)
Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.
- Oprah Winfrey (1954-), pictured
right, African American chat show host.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-mccartney.jpg)
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practise, practise, practise,
- Paul
McCartney (1942- ), pictured right, English pop star.
No 8![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-maslow.jpg)
What a man can be, he must be.
- Abraham
Maslow (1908-70), pictured right, American psychologist, pictured right.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-fromm.jpg)
Erich Fromm (1900-80), pictured
right, the American philosopher and psychologist agrees
Man’s main task is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is
No 9![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-lao.jpg)
Failure is the foundation of success.
- Lao Tzu (c604-c531 BC), Chinese
philosopher, pictured right.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-dyson.jpg)
James Dyson (1947-), pictured
right, the English inventor, agrees:
Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success
Other comments on failure are:
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-churchill.jpg)
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm ,
- Winston Churchill (1874-1965), pictured
right, British prime minister
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-honda.jpg)
Success represents the one percent of your work, which results from the 99 percent that is called failure.
- Soichiro Honda (1906-91), pictured right, co
–founder of Honda
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-ford.jpg)
Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only more intelligently.
- Henry Ford (1863-1947), pictured right, American
car maker.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-edison.jpg)
I failed my way to success.
- Thomas Edison (1847-1931),
pictured right, American inventor.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-shakespeare.jpg)
Our doubts are traitors, and makes us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
(Lucio in Measure for
Measure)
- William
Shakespeare (1564–1616), English playright, pictured right
They say, best men are moulded out of faults.
Mariana (Measure for
Measure)
- William
Shakespeare (1564–1616), English playright, pictured right above
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-gogh.jpg)
Our greatest achievement consists not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall,
- Vincent van Gogh (1853-90), Dutch
impressionist painter, pictured right.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-bronowski.jpg)
The world is full of people who never quite get into the first team and who just miss the prizes of the flower
show.
- Jacob Bronowski (1908-74), Polish-born British scientist (pictured right).
No 10![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-james.jpg)
The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess success,
- William James (1842–1910)
American philosopher and psychologist, pictured right.
No 11![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-berlin.jpg)
The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success
- Irving Berlin (1888-1989), American songwriter, pictured right.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-greene.jpg)
So Graham
Greene (1904-91), pictured right, the English writer,
says:
Success is always
temporary, success is only a delayed failure,
No 12![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-jefferson.jpg)
There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents,.
- Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), American
president, pictured right.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-aristotle.jpg)
Aristotle (384-322 BC), the
Greek philosopher, pictured right, agrees:
Good action...cannot exist without a combination of intellect and character.
No 13![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-disraeli.jpg)
Success is the child of audacity
- Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81), British
prime minister, pictured right.
The motto of the British Special Air Service (SAS) regiment agrees:
Who dares wins.
No 14![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-cicero.jpg)
Whatever you do, do with all your might.
- Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman
philosopher and politician, pictured right.
No 15![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-seneca.jpg)
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
- Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), pictured
right, Greek philosopher.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-napoleon.jpg)
Napoleon Bonaparte(1769-1821) , pictured right, the French leader, also
comments:
Ability is nothing without opportunity.
No 16![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-longfellow.jpg)
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
(from the 1838 poem A Psalm of Life)
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-82) , pictured right above, American poet.
No 17![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-roosevelt-fd.jpg)
Men
are not prisoners of fate but only prisoners of their own minds.
-
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), pictured
right, American president.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-ruskin.jpg)
So
John Ruskin (1819-1900), pictured right, the English writer and artist, says:
Obedience to a code of
conduct based upon the teaching of the wise mind is the only foundation of success.
No 18![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-matsushita.jpg)
Hungry in spirit and mind, the secret of success
-Konosuke
Masushita (1894-1989), founder of Panasonic, pictured right.
No 19![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-curie.jpg)
I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done. Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only
to be understood.
- Marie Curie (1867-1934) Polish-born
French physicist, pictured right.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-twain.jpg)
Mark Twain (1835-1910), pictured right, the American writer, also comments:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did
do.
No 20![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-dickinson.jpg)
Fame is a bee.
It has a song -
It has a sting -
Ah, too, it has a wing.
(the 1788 poem Fame Is a Bee)
- Emily Dickinson (1830-86), pictured right above, American poet.
No 21![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotediam.jpg)
Be as a page that aches for a word which speaks on a theme that is timeless.
(from the 1973 song Be)
- Neil Diamond (1941- ), pictured right, American singer and songwriter.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotedvidal.jpg)
No 22
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
- Gore Vidal (1925-2012), American writer, pictured right.
No 23![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-marcus-aurelius.jpg)
Do every act of your life as if it were your last.
- Marcus Aurelius (121-180),
pictured right, Roman emperor and philosopher.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-roddick.jpg)
Anita Roddick (1942-2007),
pictured right, founder of the cosmetics retailer, the Body Shop, agrees:
The desire that every day might be my last, and the desire to make the most of every moment drives me on.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-fromm.jpg)
Erich Fromm (1900-80), pictured
right, German-born American psychologist and philosopher, also comments:
The great use of a life is to spend it for something
that outlasts it.
No 24![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-gandhi.jpg)
Live as if you were to
die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever,
Mahatma (Mohandas) Gandhi (1868-1948),
Indian leader, pictured right.
No 25![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-frankl.jpg)
Success,
like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's
dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than
oneself,
-
Viktor Frankl (1905-97), pictured right, Austrian psychiatrist and
Holocaust survivor.
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-branson.jpg)
So
Richard Branson (1950- ), pictured right, the
English founder of Virgin, says:
Success must bring obligations.
No 26![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-shakespeare.jpg)
Nothing will come of nothing.
(King Lear in King Lear)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotesshack.jpg)
So Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), the
Anglo-Irish explorer (pictured right), says:
Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn, unless it achieves results.
No 27![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-michelangelo.jpg)
Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.
- Michelangelo (1475-1564), pictured
right, the Italian painter and sculptor.
No 28
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-lombardi.jpg)
Winning is a habit.
Unfortunately so is losing,
- Vincent
Lombardi (1913-70), pictured right, American football
coach.
No 29
Life is not a
spe ctator sport.
-
Jackie Robinson (1919-72),
African American baseball player (pictured right).
No 30
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-king-ml.jpg)
A strong man must be a realist as well as an idealist.
- Martin Luther
King (1929-68), pictured
right, American civil rights leader
No 31
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-lincoln.jpg)
My great concern is not whether you have failed but whether you are content with your failure.
- Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), pictured right, American president.
No 32
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-napoleon.jpg)
He who fears being conquered is certain of defeat.
-Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French
leader (pictured right).
No 33
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-roosevelt-ted.jpg)
The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.
- Theodore
Roosevelt (1858-1919), pictured right, American
president.
No 34
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-buffett.jpg)
It's only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.
- Warren Buffett (1930-
), pictured right, American share investor.
No 35
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-carnegie-andrew.jpg)
There is little success where there is little laughter.
- Andrew
Carnegie (1835-1919), pictured right, American
businessman.
No 36
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-disney.jpg)
I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.
- Walt Disney (1901-1966), pictured right, American film maker.
No 37
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-jobs.jpg)
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.
- Steve Jobs (1955- 2011), American co-founder of
Apple (pictured
right).
No 38
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-buddha.jpg)
It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.
- Gautama Buddha (563-483
BC), pictured right, founder of Buddhism.
No 39
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-francis.jpg)
Start by dong what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
- St. Francis of
Assisi (1182-1226), pictured
right, Italian monk and philosopher.
No 40
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-leibniz.jpg)
Deeds make people.
- Gottfried
Leibniz (1646-1716), pictured right, German philosopher and
mathematician.
No 41
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-keller.jpg)
I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were
great and noble.
- Helen
Keller (1880-1968), pictured right, American
campaigner for the disabled.
No 42
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-nightingale.jpg)
I attribute my success to this - I never gave or took any excuse.
- Florence
Nightingale (1820-1910), pictured right, English
nurse
No 43
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotesrob.jpg)
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again!
- Robert the
Bruce (1274-1329), pictured right, Scottish king
No 44
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotesduro.jpg)
Nice guys finish last.
- Leo Durocher (1905-91), pictured right, American baseball manager.
No 45
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-rand.jpg)
Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able
to reach... The world you desired can be won.
(John Galt in the 1957 novel Atlas
Shrugged)
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982), Russian-born American writer, pictured right
No 46
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-dickens.jpg)
If you had the abilities of all the great men, past and present, you could do nothing well without sincerely
meaning it and setting about it,
(Mr. Jarndyce in Bleak House)
- Charles Dickens (1812-70),
pictured right, English writer
No 47
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-heller.jpg)
He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody.
(talking about Colonel Cargill in the 1961 novel Catch-22).
- Joseph Heller (1923-99), American writer, pictured right.
No 48
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-fitzgerald.jpg)
There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired.
(Nick Carraway in the 1925 novel The Great
Gatsby)
- Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), American writer, pictured right
No 49
To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first,
(Duke of Norfolk in Henry
VIII)
- William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotes-seneca.jpg)
Seneca (c.4 BC-65 AD), Roman
philosopher, pictured right, also comments:
It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness,
No 50
![Success Quotes Success Quotes](images/quotesterry.jpg)
I coulda had class! I coulda been a contender! I coulda been someone – instead of a bum, which is what I
am!,
- Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando, pictured right, in the 1954 film, On the Waterfront)
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