Quotes about: success

To tell her that I joined the parachute club was too hard for me. I didn't want to trouble her; besides, I was not completely sure about the success of my new adventure.
– Valentina Tereshkova
It is only when you look now and see success that you say that it was good fortune. It was not. We lost 250 of our best young men. I felt every one.
– Margaret Thatcher
Success is having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a sense of purpose.
– Margaret Thatcher
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.
– Henry David Thoreau
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.
– Henry David Thoreau
The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.
– James Thurber
Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.
– Anthony Trollope
My goal is to appeal to as many people as I can. I'm not looking to leave country, but I do want to have more international success.
– Shania Twain
After Amelie was such a huge success that, strangely, I didn't want to do a movie which could be a huge success. I wanted to go and to do something smaller and more discreet.
– Audrey Tautou
I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.
– Nikola Tesla
Success is not in never failing, but rising everytime you fall!
– Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.
– Dale E. Turner
Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.
– Morihei Ueshiba
Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.
– Bobby Unser
The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success.
– Marquis de Vauvenargues
I was elated by my success in my work, but shattered over my mother's death, and miserable about the way my marriage seemed to be foundering. And one day when my wife was away, I walked out of the house, and out of her life, trying to escape from something I could put no name to.
– Conrad Veidt
The successful men of action are not sufficiently self-observant to know exactly on what their success depends.
– David Viscott
Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.
– Denis Waitley
Our limitations and success will be based, most often, on your own expectations for ourselves. What the mind dwells upon, the body acts upon.
– Denis Waitley
Personal satisfaction is the most important ingredient of success.
– Denis Waitley
Procrastination is the fear of success. People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the someday I'll philosophy.
– Denis Waitley
Success in life comes not from holding a good hand, but in playing a poor hand well.
– Denis Waitley
Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.
– Denis Waitley
Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time.
– Denis Waitley
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
Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.
– An Wang
My success was due to good luck, hard work, and support and advice from friends and mentors. But most importantly, it depended on me to keep trying after I had failed.
– Mark Warner
Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.
– George Washington
My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.
– George Washington
Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
– Thomas J. Watson
I've learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.
– Jack Welch
The only true measure of success is the ratio between what we might have done and what we might have been on the one hand, and the thing we have made and the things we have made of ourselves on the other.
– H. G. Wells
She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.
– Mae West
Every failure is a step to success.
– William Whewell
No one who achieves success does so without acknowledging the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.
– Alfred North Whitehead
For an actress to be a success, she must have the face of Venus, the brains of a Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, the memory of a Macaulay, the figure of Juno, and the hide of a rhinoceros.
– Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.
– Oscar Wilde
I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.
– Tennessee Williams
Luxury is the wolf at the door and its fangs are the vanities and conceits germinated by success. When an artist learns this, he knows where the danger is.
– Tennessee Williams
Success and failure are equally disastrous.
– Tennessee Williams
Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it... Success is shy - it won't come out while you're watching.
– Tennessee Williams
Success is simply a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
– Earl Wilson
What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people's lives.
– Oprah Winfrey
You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.
– Oprah Winfrey
I'm definitely happy with the way my career has gone, the success; but I even feel glad that I've experienced some failure in my life. That gives you perspective and humility about this business; it's good to realize that you're always just one movie away from not being in Vogue anymore.
– Reese Witherspoon
Success comes to a writer as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.
– P. G. Wodehouse
I am an enthusiast, but not a crank in the sense that I have some pet theories as to the proper construction of a flying machine. I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then, if possible, add my mite to help on the future worker who will attain final success.
– Wilbur Wright
Success is relevant to coping with obstacles... but no problem is ever solved by those, who, when they fail, look for someone to blame instead of something to do.
– Fred Waggoner
Whenever an individual or business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
– Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
You can be discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes, make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success - on the far side of failure.
– Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
It's how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success.
– Charlotte Whitton
Success is the sweetest revenge.
– Vanessa Williams
I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it.
– Jonathan Winters
Control success before it controls you.
– Dwight Yoakam
The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.
– Paramahansa Yogananda
I don't know many ambition-ridden people who really enjoy themselves. Even success doesn't seem to still the insatiable, gnawing hunger of their ambition. Ambition is a good gift, but it cannot be all.
– Loretta Young
I'ts heartbreaking to see many people who merely long for success. They're on a sort of treadmill, plodding along, getting exactly nowhere. They haven't mastered their dreams. They've let their dreams master them, and what makes it so sad is that they don't know why others get where they want to go!
– Loretta Young
If you use disappointments as sort of mid-semester exams, for learning, you will learn that every disappointment you overcome makes you stronger-and wiser. The greatest success stories have been lived by those who had to grow strong and wise in that very way.
– Loretta Young
Success can't be forced.
– Loretta Young
We must resist the temptations to be very wasteful of simple things, tossing them aside as of no consequence, in a world of almost frenetic concentration on material success.
– Loretta Young
Resentment is one burden that is incompatible with your success. Always be the first to forgive; and forgive yourself first always.
– Dan Zadra
I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can't truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.
– Zig Ziglar
Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.
– Zig Ziglar
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.
– Anonymous
Success always occurs in private, and failure in full view.
– Anonymous
The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion... It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider - and progressively better able to grasp any theme or situation - persevering in what he knows to be practical, and concentrating his thought upon it, who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree.
– Alexander Graham Bell
Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.
– Warren Bennis
I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.
– Bill Cosby
Confidence is the hinge on the door to success.
– Mary O'Hare Dumas
To me, the Heismans symbolize (how great of a team we were) because that success could not happen individually without being part of a great team. I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time with the right people. I had the opportunity to play with guys who made me look good.
– Archie Griffin
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
– Helen Keller
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
– John F. Kennedy
There is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new order of things..... Whenever his enemies have occasion to attack the innovator they do so with the passion of partisans, while the others defend him sluggishly so that the innovator and his party alike are vulnerable.
– Niccolo Machiavelli
How do I change?
If I feel depressed I will sing.
If I feel sad I will laugh.
If I feel ill I will double my labour.
If I feel fear I will plunge ahead.
If I feel inferior I will wear new garments.
If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice.
If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come.
If I feel incompetent I will think of past success.
If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals.
Today I will be the master of my emotions.
– Og Mandino
I will act now. I will act now. I will act now. Henceforth, I will repeat these words each hour, each day, everyday, until the words become as much a habit as my breathing, and the action which follows becomes as instinctive as the blinking of my eyelids. With these words I can condition my mind to perform every action necessary for my success. I will act now. I will repeat these words again and again and again. I will walk where failures fear to walk. I will work when failures seek rest. I will act now for now is all I have. Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy. I am not lazy. Tomorrow is the day when the failure will succeed. I am not a failure. I will act now. Success will not wait. If I delay, success will become wed to another and lost to me forever. This is the time. This is the place. I am the person.
– Og Mandino
The secret to success is to know something nobody else knows.
– Aristotle Onassis
I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports. But I do not believe in them if they degenerate into the sole end of any one's existence. I don't want you to sacrifice standing well in your studies to any over-athleticism; and I need not tell you that character counts for a great deal more than either intellect or body in winning success in life. Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master.
– Theodore Roosevelt
He has achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;
who has enjoyed the trust of pure women,
the respect of intelligent men
and the love of little children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty
or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the best in others
and given them the best he had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.
– Bessie Anderson Stanley
Each time you are honest and conduct yourself with honesty, a success force will drive you toward greater success. Each time you lie, even with a little white lie, there are strong forces pushing you toward failure.
– Joseph Sugarman
If you think you're beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don't;
If you'd like to win, but think, you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't.
If you think you will lose, you're lost;
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow's will,
It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are;
You've got to think high to rise.
You've got to hustle before
You can ever win a prize.
Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.
– Walter D. Wintle
People fail forward to success.
– Mary Kay Ash
Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
– Arthur Ashe
You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist.
– Isaac Asimov
Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.
– Alexander Graham Bell
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
A really great man is known by three signs... generosity in the design, humanity in the execution, moderation in success.
– Otto von Bismarck
The truth is that all of us attain the greatest success and happiness possible in this life whenever we use our native capacities to their greatest extent.
– Dr. Smiley Blanton
Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.
– Dr. David M. Burns
Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.
– Johnny Carson
I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.
– G. K. Chesterton
The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.
– Confucius
If we say a little it is easy to add, but having said too much it is hard to withdraw and never can it be done so quickly as to hinder the harm of our success.
– Saint Francis de Sales
Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed.
– Emily Dickinson
Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal.
– Mike Ditka
What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.
– Bob Dylan
The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.
– Albert Einstein
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
– Albert Einstein
Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.
– T. S. Eliot
The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men around to his opinion twenty years later.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Of course, our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that specialization precludes comprehensive thinking.
– Richard Buckminster Fuller