quotations about success
The successful draw us up to their level; the unsuccessful down to theirs.
CHARLES EDWARD JERNINGHAM
The Maxims of Marmaduke
When you're in something that's successful, the subconscious fantasies you have about what your life could be start bursting through the surface -- I'll tell that son of a bitch when I get successful enough, or I'll buy this particular thing, or now they'll love me. It creates an enormous amount of expectant hopes and dreams, and it's terrible. Terrible.
ALAN ARKIN
"Alan Arkin: Random Advice from an Older Gentleman", Esquire, February 2013
Success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square.
MICHELLE OBAMA
speech at Democratic National Convention, September 4, 2012
Again, it must be confessed that success does not always yield the happiness expected; that the prizes of life, like the apples of Sodom, often turn to ashes in the grasp.
WILLIAM MATTHEWS
"Success and Failure", Hints on Success in Life
The dizzying heights
The sound of your hearts
Like thunder
Measure your step
Or all your plans
May fall asunder
Now gently faster
Building in momentum
Until success
or disaster
Befalls the master
Of the tightrope walk
THE DAMNED
"Tightrope Walk"
The successful man is the one that understands the true meaning of life, that takes its outlook on to another stage of existence, that shows sympathy toward his fellow man in all his dealings, that can find true enjoyment in doing his daily work of whatever character that be, that has an eye for the beauties of nature all around him, that, while not destitute of honorable ambition, has learned contentment with his lot in life, and that is ready to do what he can to make the lot of others brighter and better. This man is not controlled by the rule of gold, but by the golden rule.
HENRY F. KLETZING & ELMER L. KLETZING
Traits of Character Illustrated in Bible Light
If you sit by the wayside waiting for Success, your knees will be too stiff to follow her when she passes.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
True success is ... the experience of the miraculous. It is the unfolding of the divinity within us.
DEEPAK CHOPRA
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
No illusion is more crucial than the illusion that great success and huge money buy you immunity from the common ills of mankind, such as cars that won't start.
LARRY MCMURTRY
Some Can Whistle
In all things success depends on previous preparation, and without such previous preparation there is sure to be failure.
CONFUCIUS
The Doctrine of the Mean
You're like some kind of superhero that can ward off success at every turn.
LEWIS KINISKI
The Drew Carey Show
For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
The dreams and hopes of men
Are powered by addiction
And who am I to say that
This is an affliction
When everybody gets
Suckered in and lives their
Lives like fiction
Writing their own story
Of success
GRAHAM PARKER
"Success"
I'm gonna get dressed for success
Shaping me up for the big time, baby.
Get dressed for success
Shaping it up for your love yea yea yea.
ROXETTE
"Dressed for Success"
There are two principles for creative success -- one general and one definitive. The general principle is that everyone has the ability to be creative and make a big difference in this world. The definitive principle is that almost everyone has volunteered to be exempt from the general principle.
ERNIE J. ZELINSKI
The Lazy Person's Guide to Success: How to Get What You Want Without Killing Yourself for It
The successful man is one who had the chance and took it.
ROBER BABSON
attributed, Distilled Wisdom
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Shakespeare the Man: An Essay
Complete success alienates a man from his fellows, but suffering makes kinsmen of us all.
ELBERT HUBBARD
The American Bible
Unless you have courage, a courage that keeps you going, always going, no matter what happens, there is no certainty of success. It is really an endurance race.
HENRY FORD
Theosophist Magazine, February 1930
The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!
THOMAS MERTON
The Seven Storey Mountain