quotations about success
The greatest successes grow out of great failures. In numerous instances the result is better that comes after a series of abortive experiences than it would have been if it had come at once; for all these successive failures induce a skill which is so much additional power working into the final achievement.... The hand that evokes such perfect music from the instrument has often failed in its touch, and bungled among the keys.... Every disappointed effort fences in and indicates the only possible path of success, and makes it easier to find.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
Success is a magnet that draws many followers.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Poverty, many can endure with dignity. Success, how few can carry off, even with decency and without baring their innermost infirmities before the public gaze!
ROBERT BONTINE CUNNINGHAME GRAHAM
Success and Other Sketches
Society functions in a way much more interesting than the multiple-choice pattern we have been rewarded for succeeding at in school. Success in life comes not from the ability to choose between the four presented answers, but from the rather more difficult and painfully acquired ability to formulate the questions.
DAVID MAMET
The Secret Knowledge
Success in business, as in life, is often largely just a matter of luck.
FELIX G. ROHATYN
Dealings: A Political and Financial Life
Success requires enough optimism to provide hope and enough pessimism to prevent complacency.
DAVID G. MYERS
Exploring Psychology
The certainty of succeeding makes the road easy.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
Just and noble minds rejoice in other men's success.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
There was nothing worse ... than a loser who'd made it. It was just part of the way things worked--part of the complexity of life ... that sometimes somebody who absolutely deserved nothing more than to be one of the downtrodden, the oppressed, the dregs of society, lucked out into a position of wealth, power and admiration. At least people who were natural winners knew how to carry themselves in their pomp, whether their ascendancy had come through the luck of being born rich and powerful or the luck of being born ambitious and capable. Losers who'd made it always let the side down.... Their only use ... was as examples to be held up to those who complained about their lack of status or money or control over their lives: look, if this idiot can achieve something, so can anybody, so can you. So stop whining about being exploited and work harder.
IAIN M. BANKS
Surface Detail
Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.
JAMES ALLEN
As a Man Thinketh
The man who succeeds must always in mind or imagination live, move, think, and act as if he had gained that success, or he never will gain it.
PRENTICE MULFORD
attributed, Success: A Book of Ideals, Helps, and Examples
It is a great presumption to ascribe our successes to our own management, and not to esteem ourselves upon any blessing, rather as it is the bounty of heaven, than the acquisition of our own prudence.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, February 5, 1712
If we can once believe that success is possible, success becomes possible.
FRANK CHAPMAN SHARP
Success: A Course in Moral Instruction
Desperation is the surest road to success.
HARRY SOLOMON
"The Physics of Being Dick", 3rd Rock From the Sun
According to the most common idea among men, he that makes the most money is the most successful. The standard so often adopted to measure or weigh everything by a money value is a false one. Money has its uses. The lack of it is hard to bear. But they are not the highest and best powers that are called forth in the acquisition of money. To amass a fortune is not necessarily the highest success. To miss a fortune is not of necessity a dismal failure. Poverty and scanty means are in no way or sense desirable, but we would make very emphatic and press upon the attention of youth everywhere that man's success or happiness is not measured by his bank account.
HENRY F. KLETZING & ELMER L. KLETZING
Traits of Character Illustrated in Bible Light
Even success needs its consolations.
GEORGE ELIOT
letter to J. W. Cross, June 3, 1876
People who think achieving success is a linear A-to-Z process, a straight shot to the top, simply aren't in touch with reality. There are very few bona fide overnight success stories. It just doesn't work that way. Success appears to happen overnight because we all see stories in newspapers and on TV about previously unknown people who have suddenly become famous. But consider a sequoia tree that has been growing for several hundred years. Just because a television crew one day decides to do a story about that tree doesn't mean it didn't exist before.
DONALD TRUMP
How to Get Rich
Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna, or it can smooth the edges, take away the insecurities, let the nice things come out.
BARBARA WALTERS
Newsweek, May 6, 1974
Success demands singleness of purpose.
VINCE LOMBARDI
attributed, Run to Win: Vince Lombardi on Coaching and Leadership
If you would revenge yourself on those who have slighted you, BE SUCCESSFUL; it is a bitter satire on their want of judgment; to show that you can do without them, a galling wound to the self-love of proud, inflated people; but you must reckon on their hatred, as they will never forgive you.
CHARLES WILLIAM DAY
The Maxims, Experiences, and Observations of Agogos