quotations about success
Success makes men rigid and they tend to exalt stability over all the other virtues; tired of the effort of willing they become fanatics about conservatism.
WALTER LIPPMANN
A Preface to Politics
Every person falls down at some point. Successful people choose to get back up.
DAVE RAMSEY
daily tip, official Dave Ramsey website
There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way, and not to give others absurd maddening claims upon it.
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY
Where the Blue Begins
There are none so low but they have their triumphs. Small successes suffice for small souls.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
delicate moment
saw you again
leap year summer
presence drew in
flies of success
squandered about
ritual fashion
leaving no doubt
you were a hit
plain to see
busy boulevard
hidden street
I prayed lightly
weaved my path
raise no question
how I survived
the aftermath
but I see no reason to covet
cause I'm just thinking
it all seems so amusing
failure and success
SACCHARINE TRUST
"Success and Failure"
You're bound to succeed if you have ignorance and confidence.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well; and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Hyperion
If you are a genius and unsuccessful, everybody treats you as if you were a genius, but when you come to be successful, when you commence to earn money, when you are really successful, then your family and everybody no longer treats you like a genius, they treat you like a man who has become successful.
PABLO PICASSO
attributed, Picasso
Yes, success is everything. Failure is more common. Most achieve a sort of middling thing, but fortunately one's situation is always blurred, you never know absolutely quite where you are.
DONALD BARTHELME
"The Crisis"
The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.
INFECTED MUSHROOM
"The Missed Symphony"
You create everything that happens to you.... If you want to be really successful, and I know you do, then you will have to give up blaming and complaining and take total responsibility for your life--that means all your results, both your successes and your failures. That is the prerequisite for creating a life of success. It is only by acknowledging that you have created everything up until now that you can take charge of creating the future you want.
JACK CANFIELD
The Success Principles
The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point in this business. You've got to keep on working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there.
IRVING BERLIN
Theatre Arts, February 1958
To attain "success" without attaining positive self-esteem is to be condemned to feeling like an imposter anxiously awaiting exposure.
NATHANIEL BRANDEN
The Power of Self-Esteem
Success: a marvelous stimulant, bubbling with inspiration and incitement. But for all except the few who are strong and steadfast, there lurks beneath the effervescence a subtle poison.
SAMUEL HOPKINS ADAMS
Success: A Novel
While success is necessary to happiness, it must be remembered that the term is a relative one; in other words, that there are many degrees of success, among which the highest are neither attainable by all, nor essential to felicity.
WILLIAM MATHEWS
Hints on Success in Life
Failure seems to be regarded as the one unpardonable crime, success as the all-redeeming virtue.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS
"A Chapter of Erie", North American Review, July 1869
Trees are bowed down with weight of fruit,
Clouds big with rain hang low,
So good men humbly bear success,
Nor overweening grow.
BHARTRHARI
"The Path of Altruism"
The squalid cash interpretation put on the word success -- is our national disease.
WILLIAM JAMES
letter to H. G. Wells, September 11, 1906
Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.
ANTHONY ROBBINS
attributed, 101 Best Ways to Get Ahead