achievement of one's aim or goal From Wikiquote, the free quote compendium
Successis the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person might consider a success what another person considers a failure, particularly in cases of direct competition or a zero-sum game. Similarly, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants.
Obedience is the mother of success, and success the parent of salvation.
Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.), Greek tragedian. The Seven Against Thebes, l. 224
Champions aren't made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.
Muhammad Ali, as quoted in Talent Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will Take You Beyond Your Talent (2007) by John C. Maxwell, p. 141
Success isn't about being perfect, it's about being brave enough to try, even when you're scared. **
Success is full of promise till men get it; and then it is last year's nest from which the bird has flown.
Henry Ward Beecher, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 567
I don't think that success has got anything to do with money — money for me isn't a way of keeping the score, so that's what it isn't.
Martin Bell, English war reporter and journalist. From his interview with Martyn Lewis, as recorded in his book, Reflections on Success (1997)
The conduct of a losing party never appears right: at least it can never possess the only infallible criterion of wisdom to vulgar judgments—success.
Edmund Burke, A Letter from Mr. Burke to a Member of the National Assembly in Answer to Some Objections to His Book on French Affairs (January 19, 1791). London: J. Dodsley, 1791, p. 7
I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition... But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure.
George W. Bush, Interview with the Associated Press (18 January 2001)
Sometimes when I am alone in my beautiful apartments, brooding over these things and nursing my loneliness, I say to myself: "There are cases when success is a tragedy." There are moments when I regret my whole career, when my very success seems to be a mistake. I think that I was born for a life of intellectual interest. I was certainly brought up for one. The day when that accident turned my mind from college to business seems to be the most unfortunate day in my life. I think that I should be much happier as a scientist or writer, perhaps. I should then be in my natural element, and if I were doomed to loneliness I should have comforts to which I am now a stranger. That's the way I feel every time I pass the abandoned old building of the City College. The business world contains plenty of successful men who have no brains. Why, then, should I ascribe my triumph to special ability?
I didn't think that working hard and wanting something that's out of your control would be that bothersome to people. It was just really disappointing for me.
If we choose to see the obstacles in our path as barriers, we stop trying. If we choose to see the obstacles as hurdles, we can leap over them. Successful people don't have fewer problems. They have determined that nothing will stop them from going forward.
Ben Carson, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, p. 232
What is important – what I consider success – is that we make a contribution to our world.
There are always obstacles and competitors. There is never an open road, except the wide road that leads to failure. Every great success has always been achieved by fight. Every winner has scars. The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves.
Herbert N. Casson in: National Printer Journalist Vol 51 (1933), Nr. 7-12. p. 28
Nothing comes easy. Nothing is given to you. Whatever you do, you've got to work for it and earn it. Whatever reward you get you've go to know that you've had your input into that success. There's no substitute for hard work. And if you want to be well known or well liked, you have to put yourself out for people.
Jack Charlton, British football manager. From his interview with Martyn Lewis, in his book, Reflections on Success (1997).
If you believe you're a success, crikey, I should think it will come up and get you by the...tail.
Dame Judy Dench, British actress. From her interview with Martyn Lewis, in his book, Reflections on Success (1997)
We cannot say what brings us success. We can only pin down what blocks or obliterates success. Eliminate the downside, the thinking errors, and the upside will take care of itself. This is all we need to know.
Rolf Dobelli, The art of thinking clearly (2013)
" Success isn't about fame, is about trying and being persistent with others" Naomi Dela Peña
" Mistakes can occur, but by looking forward to it, these failures will change over time" Naomi Dela Peña
" Working smart plus hard equals to success" Naomi Dela Peña
" In success, mistakes and accidents are not the failure, but to the point of not trying is the real failure" Naomi Dela Peña
I fear the popular notion of success stands in direct opposition in all points to the real and wholesome success. One adores public opinion, the other, private opinion; one, fame, the other, desert; one, feats, the other, humility; one, lucre, the other, love; one, monopoly, and the other, hospitality of mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), American writer. 'Success', Society and Solitude (1870)
What do I think of success? It sucks. Too much press; I'm stressed.
The compensation of a very early success is a conviction that life is a romantic matter. In the best sense one stays young.
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), American author. 'Early Success', an essay first published in American Cavalcade (Oct. 1937), The Crack-Up, edited by Edmund Wilson (1945).
Nothing recedes like success.
Bryan Forbes, British author, actor, filmmaker. As quoted in the Observer (UK) newspaper (19 December 1971)
To do for the world more than the world does for you, that is Success.
I mean to make myself a man, and if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else.
James A. Garfield, A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being A Cyclopedia Of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, Both Ancient and Modern (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 327
Everyone knows how compromised the idea of bureaucracy as a meritocratic system is. The first criterion of loyalty to any organization is therefore complicity. Career advancement is not based on merit but on a willingness to play along with the fiction that career advancement is based on merit, or with the fiction that rules and regulations apply to everyone equally, when in fact they are often deployed as an instrument of arbitrary personal power. ... As whole societies have come to represent themselves as giant credentialized meritocracies, rather than as systems of predatory extraction, we bustle about, trying to curry favor by pretending we actually believe it to be true.
Somebody said it couldn't be done, But he with a chuckle replied That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin On his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn't be done, and he did it.
Edgar A. Guest, "It Couldn't Be Done," stanza 1, Collected Verse of Edgar A. Guest (1934), p. 285
My definition of success is doing what you love. I feel many people do things because they feel they have to, and are hesitant to risk following their passion.
Tony Hawk, American businessman, entrepreneur, skateboard pro. Interviewed by Gary Cohn for Entrepreneur Magazine (October 2009)
'Tis a lesson you should heed, Try, try again. If at first you don't succeed, Try, try again.
William Edward Hickson (1803–1870) Try and Try Again
No wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice...p. 55
No person may enjoy outstanding success without good health. Many of the causes of ill health are subject to mastery and control. These, in the main are: a. Overeating of foods not conducive to health. b. Wrong habits of thought... c. Wrong use of, and over indulgence in sex. d. Lack of proper physical exercise e. An inadequate supply of fresh air, due to improper breathing.... The most damaging forms of intemperance are connected with eating, strong drink, and sexual activities. Overindulgence in any of these is fatal to success...
Success comes through the application of power, and power is attained through the cooperative efforts of other people. A negative personality will not induce cooperation. p. 87... Sons and daughters of wealthy men, and others who inherit money which they did not earn... is often fatal to success... There is no substitute for honesty... there is NO hope for the person who is dishonest p.88...
You have absolute control over but one thing, and that is your thoughts. p. 173... Doubting Thomases scoffed scornfully when Henry Ford tried out his first crudely built automobile on the streets of Detroit... Mind control is the result of self-discipline and habit. You either control your mind or it controls you. p. 173
Building alibis with which to explain away failure is a national pastime. The habit is as old as the human race, and is fatal to success! Why do people cling to their pet alibis? The answer is obvious. They defend their alibis because THEY CREATE them! A man's alibi is the child of his own imagination. It is human nature to defend one's own brain-child...Building alibis is a deeply rooted habit. Habits are difficult to break, especially when they provide justification for something we do. Plato had this truth in mind when he said, The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile. ...In parting, I would remind you that "Life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite you is time. If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision! p. 173
If one cannot have success, the next most agreeable thing is failure.
Jean IngelowJohn Jerome, His Thoughts and Ways (1886), Opening line of Chapter 3.
For me success was always going to be a Lamborghini. But now I've got it, it just sits on my drive.
Curtis Jackson [50 Cent], American Rapper. From his interview with Louis Gannon for Live magazine, The Mail on Sunday (UK) newspaper, (25 October 2009)
“Just act like you have maximum security clearance,” Sebastian said. “That, in a nutshell, is the secret of success and the best advice I can give you.”
The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal, the more mendacious is the life displayed. So I am against all big organizations as such, national ones first and foremost; against all big successes and big results; and in favor of the eternal forces of truth which always work in the individual and immediately unsuccessful way, under-dogs always, till history comes, after they are long dead, and puts them on top.
William James, letter to Mrs. Henry Whitman (June 7, 1899), in Henry James, , ed., The Letters of William James (1926), vol. 2, p. 90
Capitalist-private property relations are the source of class inequalities, which is the primary factor in my being a member of a class that bears all the burdens of society without enjoying its advantages. Under the influence of illegitimate-capitalist values, I was pursuing the alleviation of social-economic hardship through individual advancement. This is a wholly inadequate remedy to social problems because it doesn’t challenge the fundamental injustice of class-exploitation and class-oppression, which are responsible for creating the socio-economic ills in the first place. Unaware of my class interest, I was perpetuating my own oppression by engaging in competitive capitalist practices that ensure the smooth functioning of the system as the exploiting minority profits in more ways than one off the division and disunity engendered by competition, so prevalent amongst the exploited. Look around: competition, euphemistically called “individuality,” permeates and is systematically promoted to the masses of people while the corporate conglomerations and Fortune 500 are busy “merging and monopolizing.”
Kevin Rashid Johnson, Defying the Tomb: Selected Prison Writings and Art of Kevin Rashid Johnson (2010)
The secret to success is the willingness to serve without aspiring for rewards.
Some of you will be successful, and such will need but little philosophy to take them home in cheerful spirits; others will be disappointed, and will be in a less happy mood. To such, let it be said, “Lay it not too much to heart.” Let them adopt the maxim, “Better luck next time”; and then, by renewed exertion, make that better luck for themselves.
Abraham Lincoln, in 1859 at the Wisconsin State Agricultural Fair
Achieving success is an unquantifiable notion – indeed, success carries with it an aura of money and power, and things like that, which – certainly for me – would be detrimental.
Sir Cameron Mackintosh, British theatre producer and businessman. From his interview with Martyn Lewis in Lewis' book, Reflections on Success (1997)
Problems or successes, they all are the results of our own actions. Karma. The philosophy of action is that no one else is the giver of peace or happiness. One's own karma, one's own actions are responsible to come to bring either happiness or success or whatever.
I've had marvellous and incredible luck, and devoted parents, sisters, friends, and teachers. What more can one ask? These things contribute enormously. Probably the major part of one's success is due to these factors.
Yehudi Menuhin, as stated in his interview with Martyn Lewis in Lewis' book, Reflections on Success (1997)
Heaven, when it sent me into the world, did not give me a soul suited to the air of courts. I do not find in myself the virtues necessary to succeed, and make my fortune there. My chief talent is to be frank and sincere.
Is the proposed operation likely to succeed? What might be the consequences of failure? Is it in the realm of practicability in terms of matériel and supplies?
Chester W. Nimitz, Life (July 10, 1944), p. 84; Nimitz described these as "three favorite rules of thumb which … he has printed on a card he keeps on his desk."
If you don't have that sense of national unity, then it's very hard for a country to succeed.
People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success.
Norman Vincent Peale, Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year (1993), "April 13"
Earlier variant: People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. And those who have learned to have a realistic, nonegotistical belief in themselves, who possess a deep and sound self-confidence, are assets to mankind, too, for they transmit their dynamic quality to those lacking it.
You Can If You Think You Can (1987), p. 84
Perioderna av framgång är mer riskfyllda än andra har jag alltid tyckt. Går allting helt enligt ritningarna riskerar man att farten blir allt för hög. Projekten enorma, och självförtroendet väl stort. Är tiderna goda finns alltid alternativ. Då finns risk att man väljer fel. I dåliga tider är det däremot inte särskilt svårt att inse vad som behöver göras.
Times of success are more perilous than others, has always been my opinion. If everything entirely goes according to the schemes the speed risk becoming too fast. The projects become enormous, and the self confidence too big. If the times are good there are always options. Then you risk choosing wrong. However, in bad times it is not particulary hard to realize what needs to be done.
Göran Persson, prime minister of Sweden 1996-2006, Min väg, mina val (2007)
Success is whatever humiliation everyone has agreed to compete for.
James Richardson, Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001), #135
Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right.
Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.
Jim Rohn, as quoted in The Quotable Manager: Inspiration for Business and Life (2006) by Joel J. Weiss, p. 238
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood: who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt, address at the Sorbonne, Paris, France, (23 April 1910)
It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself.
‘Since tyrants by the sale of human life Heap luxuries to their sensualism, and fame To their wide-wasting and insatiate pride, Success has sanctioned to a credulous world The ruin, the disgrace, the woe of war.
Failure makes success so much sweeter, and allows you to thumb your nose at the crowds.
Wilbur Smith. The Secrets of My Success, an interview for Live magazine, The Mail on Sunday (UK) newspaper (December 2010)
It is held that one fulfils his whole duty when he is industrious in his business or vocation, observing also the decencies of domestic, civil, and religious life. But activity of this kind stirs only the surface of our being, leaving what is most divine to starve; and when it is made the one important thing, men lose sense for what is high and holy, and become commonplace, mechanical, and hard. Science is valuable for them as a means to comfort and wealth; morality, as an aid to success; religion, as an agent of social order. In their eyes those who devote themselves to ideal aims and ends are as foolish as the alchemists, since the only real world is that of business and politics, or of business simply, since politics is business.
Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction; but that is to go to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful.
I remind young people everywhere I go, one of the worst things the older generation did was to tell them for twenty-five years "Be successful, be successful, be successful" as opposed to "Be great, be great, be great". There's a qualitative difference.
Cornel West, Speech in San Francisco: Democracy Matters (1 October 2004)
The gentleman knows that whatever is imperfect and unrefined does not deserve praise. ... He makes his eyes not want to see what is not right, makes his ears not want to hear what is not right, makes his mouth not want to speak what is not right, and makes his heart not want to deliberate over what is not right. ... For this reason, power and profit cannot sway him, the masses cannot shift him, and nothing in the world can shake him.
Xun Zi, "An Exhortation to Learning," in Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2001), p. 260
One whose intentions and thoughts are cultivated will disregard wealth and nobility. One whose greatest concern is for the Way and righteousness will take lightly kings and dukes. It is simply that when one examines oneself on the inside, external goods carry little weight. A saying goes, "The gentleman makes things his servants. The petty man is servant to things."
Xun Zi, "Cultivating Oneself," in Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy (2001), p. 263
From the Three Dynasties down to the present day it has been like this. The good and honest people are ignored, while spineless flatterers are advanced.
That low man seeks a little thing to do, Sees it and does it: This high man with a great thing to pursue, Dies ere he knows it. That low man goes on adding one to one, His hundred's soon hit: This high man, aiming at a million, Misses an unit.
Colley Cibber, Richard III (Altered) (1700), Act III, scene 1
Hast thou not learn'd what thou art often told, A truth still sacred, and believed of old, That no success attends on spears and swords Unblest, and that the battle is the Lord's?
Three men, together riding, Can win new worlds at their will; Resolute, ne'er dividing, Lead, and be victors still. Three can laugh and doom a king, Three can make the planets sing.
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
Ecclesiastes, IX. 11
If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Of the American Scholar, in Nature Addresses and Lectures
If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles, or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad, hard-beaten road to his house, tho it be in the woods. And if a man knows the law, people will find it out, tho he live in a pine shanty, and resort to him. And if a man can pipe or sing, so as to wrap the prisoned soul in an elysium; or can paint landscape, and convey into oils and ochers all the enchantments of spring or autumn; or can liberate or intoxicate all people who hear him with delicious songs and verses, 'tis certain that the secret can not be kept: the first witness tells it to a second, and men go by fives and tens and fifties to his door.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Works, Volume VIII. In his Journal. (1855), p. 528. (Ed. 1912)
If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, tho he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
Mrs. Sarah S. B. Yule credits the quotation to Emerson in her Borrowings (1889), asserting that she copied this in her handbook from a lecture delivered by Emerson. The "mouse-trap" quotation was the occasion of a long controversy, owing to Elbert Hubbard's claim to its authorship. This was asserted by him in a conversation with S. Wilbur Corman, of N. W. Ayer & Son, Philadelphia, and in a letter to Dr. Frank H. Vizetelly, Managing Editor of the Standard Dictionary. In The Literary Digest for May 15, 1915, "The Lexicographer" reaffirmed his earlier finding, "Mr. Hubbard is the author".
One thing is forever good; That one thing is Success.
If you wish in this world to advance, Your merits you're bound to enhance; You must stir it and stump it, And blow your own trumpet, Or trust me, you haven't a chance.
Successfully to accomplish any task it is necessary not only that you should give it the best there is in you, but that you should obtain for it the best there is in those under your guidance.
George W. Goethals. In the Nat. Assoc. of Corporation Schools Bulletin. Feb., 1918.
Facile est ventis dare vela secundis, Fecundumque solum varias agitare per artes, Auroque atque ebori decus addere, cum rudis ipsa Materies niteat.
It is easy to spread the sails to propitious winds, and to cultivate in different ways a rich soil, and to give lustre to gold and ivory, when the very raw material itself shines.
Tametsi prosperitas simul utilitasque consultorum non obique concordent, quoniam captorum eventus superæ sibi vindicant potestates.
Yet the success of plans and the advantage to be derived from them do not at all times agree, seeing the gods claim to themselves the right to decide as to the final result.
A man can't be hid. He may be a pedler in the mountains, but the world will find him out to make him a king of finance. He may be carrying cabbages from Long Island, when the world will demand that he shall run the railways of a continent. He may be a groceryman on the canal, when the country shall come to him and put him in his career of usefulness. So that there comes a time finally when all the green barrels of petroleum in the land suggest but two names and one great company.
Dr. John Paxton, sermon, He Could not be Hid (Aug. 25, 1889). Extract from The Sun (26 August 1889)
He that will not stoop for a pin will never be worth a pound.
Pepys, Diary (3 January 1668); quoted as a proverb by Sir W. Coventry to Charles II.
Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophel and Stella, Song II. Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, scene 3, line 45
Who shootes at the midday Sunne, though he be sure, he shall never hit the marke; yet as sure he is, he shall shoot higher than who ayms but at a bush.
Sir Philip Sidney, Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, p. 118. (Ed. 1638)
And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Voyage to Brobdingnag, Part II, Chapter VII
There may come a day Which crowns Desire with gift, and Art with truth, And Love with bliss, and Life with wiser youth!
Bayard Taylor, The Picture of St. John, Book IV, Stanza 86
There will people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame, but if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you're going you'll look around and you'll know that it was you and the people who love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.
The road to success is filled with women pushing their husbands along.
Attributed to Lord Thomas R. Dewar. The Home Book of Quotations, ed. Burton Stevenson, 10th ed., p. 1263 (1967). Reported as unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989)
I have climbed to the top of the greasy pole!
Benjamin Disraeli, remark to a friend after being named prime minister. Sir William Fraser, Disraeli and His Day, 2d ed., p. 52 (1891)
The secret of success is constancy of purpose.
Benjamin Disraeli, speech at banquet of National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations, Crystal Palace, London (24 June 1872); Selected Speeches of the Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, ed. T. E. Kebbel, vol. 2, p. 535 (1882)
If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.
Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson by Sarah B. Yule, Borrowings, p. 138 (1889). While this sentence has never been found in Emerson's works, he is believed to have used it in a lecture either at San Francisco or Oakland, California, in 1871. Borrowings was an anthology compiled by women of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, and Sarah Yule contributed this sentence, which she had copied from an address years before. There has been some controversy because others, including Elbert Hubbard, have claimed authorship. See The Home Book of Quotations, ed. Burton Stevenson, 10th ed., p. 630, 2275 (1967)
But I like not these great successes of yours; for I know how jealous are the gods.
Herodotus, Herodotus, trans. A. D. Godley, vol. 2, book 3, paragraph 40, p. 53, 55 (1928); excerpt from a letter from Amasis to Polycrates
Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom.
Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1580), as translated by Jacob Zeitlin, vol. 3, p. 317 (1936); the translation of "Et au plus eslevé throne du monde, si ne sommes assis que sus nôstre cul" varies in other editions.
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.