quotations about success
The squalid cash interpretation put on the word success -- is our national disease.
WILLIAM JAMES
letter to H. G. Wells, September 11, 1906
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"
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
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"
Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome. Not everyone can be Number 1.
ARTHUR ASHE
attributed, Get Motivated!: Daily Psych-Ups
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"
Beware the serpent, slyly hid, which stings
The soul with poison of Prosperity.
EDWARD ROBESON TAYLOR
"Adversity"
JACK CANFIELD
The Success Principles
Success demands paranoia.
JOSEPH FINDER
Paranoia
Your success and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.
ALBERT CAMUS
The Fall
Success had ruined many a man.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Poor Richard's Almanac
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
To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.
ISAAC ASIMOV
Foundation
Confident expectation of success makes us a receiving instrument for all the success thoughts that are vibrating through the ether of the atmosphere, and our mind becomes a powerful magnet to draw success thought.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Success", Human Life from Many Angles
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
Success too often sanctions the worst and the wildest schemes of human ambition.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
The thing I remember best about "successful people" I've met is their obvious delight in what they do. And their delight seems to have very little to do with the trappings of worldly success.
FRED ROGERS
You Are Special: Neighborly Wit and Wisdom from Mister Rogers
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
Success and failure are not dealt out like prizes and blanks in a lottery, by chance and indiscriminately; but there is a reason for every success and failure. Indolence, chicanery, waste will cause the one; while industry, honesty, and thrift will insure the other.
JAMES PLATT
Platt's Essays
The success of today may be the disaster of tomorrow and of other days to be. The failure of today may be an everlasting success.
JOHN DANIEL BARRY
"The Dead", Reactions and Other Essays