Success Quotes

Top 50 Success Quotes

N^o 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

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.

N^o 2

The unexamined life is not worth living.

- Socrates (470-399 BC), Greek philosopher, pictured right.

So Socrates also says:

Know thyself

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.

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,

But the Austrian-born British philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951, pictured right), warns:

Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving yourself

N^o 3

God helps them that help themselves.

- Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), pictured right , American philosopher and politician, pictured right.

Four other Americans agree:

No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but yourself.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), pictured right, writer and philosopher,

Things do not happen. They are made to happen.

- President John F. Kennedy (1917-63),, pictured right.

Don’t sit down and wait for opportunities to come. Get up and make them!

- Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919),, pictured right, businesswoman.

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)

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.

N^o 4

Without hard work talent is not enough.

- Henri Matisse (1869-1954), pictured right, French artist.

Three other successful people agree:

I never dreamed about success, I worked for it,

- Estée Lauder (1906-2004), pictured right, cosmetics tycoon, pictured right.

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

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.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), pictured right, the Austrian-born British philosopher, also comments:

Genius is talent exercised with courage.

N^o 5

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:

Man's main task is to give birth to himself.

- Erich Fromm (1900-80), psychologist and philosopher (pictured right).

You are not your circumstances. You are your possibilities.

- Oprah Winfrey (1954- ), pictured right, chat show host.

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

N^o 6

This above all: to thine own self be true,

(Polonius in Hamlet)

- William Shakespeare 1564–1616 English playwright, pictured right

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.

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.

N^o 7

Diligence is the mother of good luck,

-Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), pictured right, American politician and philosopher.

Three other successful people agree:

The more I practise, the luckier I get.

- Gary Player (1935- ), pictured right, South African golfer.

Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.

- Oprah Winfrey (1954-), pictured right, African American chat show host.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practise, practise, practise,

- Paul McCartney (1942- ), pictured right, English pop star.

N^o 8

What a man can be, he must be.

- Abraham Maslow (1908-70), pictured right, American psychologist, pictured right.

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

N^o 9

Failure is the foundation of success.

- Lao Tzu (c604-c531 BC), Chinese philosopher, pictured right.

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 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 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

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only more intelligently.

- Henry Ford (1863-1947), pictured right, American car maker.

I failed my way to success.

- Thomas Edison (1847-1931), pictured right, American inventor.

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

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.

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).

N^o 10

The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess success,

- William James (1842–1910) American philosopher and psychologist, pictured right.

N^o 11

The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success

- Irving Berlin (1888-1989), American songwriter, pictured right.

So Graham Greene (1904-91), pictured right, the English writer, says:

Success is always temporary, success is only a delayed failure,

N^o 12

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents,.

- Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), American president, pictured right.

Aristotle (384-322 BC), the Greek philosopher, pictured right, agrees:

Good action...cannot exist without a combination of intellect and character.

N^o 13

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.

N^o 14

Whatever you do, do with all your might.

- Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman philosopher and politician, pictured right.

N^o 15

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

- Seneca (4 BC-65 AD), pictured right, Greek philosopher.

Napoleon Bonaparte(1769-1821) , pictured right, the French leader, also comments:

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

N^o 16

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.

N^o 17

Men are not prisoners of fate but only prisoners of their own minds.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), pictured right, American president.

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.

N^o 18

Hungry in spirit and mind, the secret of success

-Konosuke Masushita (1894-1989), founder of Panasonic, pictured right.

N^o 19

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.

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.

N^o 20

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.

N^o 21

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.

N^o 22

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

- Gore Vidal (1925-2012), American writer, pictured right.

N^o 23

Do every act of your life as if it were your last.

- Marcus Aurelius (121-180), pictured right, Roman emperor and philosopher.

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.

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.

N^o 24

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.

N^o 25

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.

So Richard Branson (1950- ), pictured right, the English founder of Virgin, says:

Success must bring obligations.

N^o 26

Nothing will come of nothing.

(King Lear in King Lear)

- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right

So Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), the Anglo-Irish explorer (pictured right), says:

Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn, unless it achieves results.

N^o 27

Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.

- Michelangelo (1475-1564), pictured right, the Italian painter and sculptor.

N^o 28

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately so is losing,

- Vincent Lombardi (1913-70), pictured right, American football coach.

N^o 29 

Life is not a spectator sport.

- Jackie Robinson (1919-72), African American baseball player (pictured right).

N^o 30 

A strong man must be a realist as well as an idealist.

- Martin Luther King (1929-68), pictured right, American civil rights leader

N^o 31 

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.

N^o 32

He who fears being conquered is certain of defeat.

-Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French leader (pictured right).

N^o 33 

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.

N^o 34

It's only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.

- Warren Buffett (1930- ), pictured right, American share investor.

N^o 35

There is little success where there is little laughter.

- Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), pictured right, American businessman.

N^o 36

I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.

- Walt Disney (1901-1966), pictured right, American film maker.

N^o 37

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).

N^o 38

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.

- Gautama Buddha (563-483 BC), pictured right, founder of Buddhism.

N^o 39

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.

N^o 40

Deeds make people.

- Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716), pictured right, German philosopher and mathematician.

N^o 41

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.

N^o 42

I attribute my success to this - I never gave or took any excuse.

- Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), pictured right, English nurse

N^o 43 

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again!

- Robert the Bruce (1274-1329), pictured right, Scottish king

N^o 44 

Nice guys finish last.

- Leo Durocher (1905-91), pictured right, American baseball manager.

N^o 45 

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

N^o 46 

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

N^o 47 

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.

N^o 48 

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

N^o 49

To climb steep hills requires slow pace at first,

(Duke of Norfolk in Henry VIII)

- William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right

Seneca (c.4 BC-65 AD), Roman philosopher, pictured right, also comments:

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness,

N^o 50 

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)