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Success

achievement of one's aim or goal

Success is 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.

To do for the world more than the world does for you ~ Henry Ford
I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks. ~ Eugene V. Debs
No wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice ~ Napoleon Hill
The most damaging forms of intemperance are connected with eating, strong drink, and sexual activities. Overindulgence in any of these is fatal to success. ~ Napoleon Hill
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
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. ~ Kevin Rashid Johnson
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. ~ Theodore Roosevelt
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 qualititative difference. ~ Cornel West
Success has sanctioned to a credulous world the ruin, the disgrace, the woe of war. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
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
The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration. ~ Confucius
'Tis not in mortals to command success, But we'll do more, Sempronius,—We'll deserve it. ~ Joseph Addison
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
I mean to make myself a man, and if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else. ~ James A. Garfield
The good and honest people are ignored, while spineless flatterers are advanced. ~ Zhuangzi

Arranged alphabetically by author or source:
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations · Respectfully Quoted · See also · External links

"Success doesn't come for free. Only if you work hard then you will get a taste of it."

"Hard work pays off. Tasting success will come to you one day."

"Nothing comes for free in life. Don't expect success to be that easy to achieve."

"Nothing else feels better than getting that taste of success."

"Success is the only thing in the world that can make me satisfied."

"Success is hard work and hard work is success." -I.sM.

A

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  • 'Tis not in mortals to command success,
    But we'll do more, Sempronius,—
    We'll deserve it.
  • 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. **
  • Sucess isn't about the destination, it's about the journey. **
  • Don't be afraid to ask for help. We all need a hand sometimes, and that's okay.**
  • Success is not about how much you achieve, but about how much you inspire. **
  • Sucess is not about being perfect, it's about being persistent **

B

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  • 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.

C

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  • 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?
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • Success always demands a greater effort.
  • 仁者先難而後獲，可謂仁矣。
    • The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.
    • Confucius, Analects
  • To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.
  • "Success are hardwork, perseverance, learning and love what you are doing."
  • Cyrus Adriel
  • "Success is the best view comes after the hardest climb."
  • Cyrus Adriel
  • "Success is walking a long road of failure and rejection with hope and perseverance."
  • Cyrus Adriel
  • "Success is overcoming your fear without surrendering."
  • Cyrus Adriel
  • "Success is the fruit of failure and hardwork."

Cyrus Adriel

D

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  • Nearest the king, nearest the gallows.
    • Danish proverb, in A Book of Proverbs, edited by Raymond Lamont_Brown (1970), p. 135
  • I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.
  • 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
  • " Success and victory is unpredictable" 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

E

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  • 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.
  • What do I think of success? It sucks. Too much press; I'm stressed.
  • Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.

F

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  • 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

G

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  • 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

H

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  • 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


I

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  • No weapon formed against you will have any success, and you will condemn any tongue that rises up against you in the judgment.
  • If one cannot have success, the next most agreeable thing is failure.
    • Jean Ingelow John Jerome, His Thoughts and Ways (1886), Opening line of Chapter 3.

J

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  • 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.

L

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  • 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.

M

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  • 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)
  • 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.

N

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  • 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."

O

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P

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  • 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)

R

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  • Success is whatever humiliation everyone has agreed to compete for.
  • 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.

S

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  • ‘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.
  • All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.
  • To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

T

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  • 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.
  • Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.
  • ...he's got money ... and he's good looking, — and therefore he'll be a success.

W

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  • 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)

X

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  • 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

Z

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  • 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.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

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Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 759-62
  • Médiocre et rampant, et l'on arrive à tout.
  • 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.
  • Better have failed in the high aim, as I,
    Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed
    As, God be thanked! I do not.
  • We are the doubles of those whose way
    Was festal with fruits and flowers;
    Body and brain we were sound as they,
    But the prizes were not ours.
  • They never fail who die
    In a great cause.
  • Be it jewel or toy,
    Not the prize gives the joy,
    But the striving to win the prize.
  • Now, by St. Paul, the work goes bravely on.
  • 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?
  • One never rises so high as when one does not know where one is going.
  • Th' aspirer, once attain'd unto the top,
    Cuts off those means by which himself got up.
  • 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.
  • Success is counted sweetest
    By those who ne'er succeed.
  • Rien ne réussit comme le succès.
    • Nothing succeeds like success.
    • Alexandre Dumas, Ange Pitou, Volume I, p. 72
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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".
  • Born for success, he seemed
    With grace to win, with heart to hold,
    With shining gifts that took all eyes.
  • 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.
  • Die That ist alles, nichts der Ruhm.
  • Ja, meine Liebe, wer lebt, verliert * * * aber er gewinnt auch.
  • Ha sempre dimostrato l'esperienza, e lo dimostra la ragione, che mai succedono bene le cose che dipendono da molti.
    • Experience has always shown, and reason also, that affairs which depend on many seldom succeed.
    • Francesco Guicciardini, Storia d'Italia (1537-1540)
  • Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.
  • Sink not in spirit; who aimeth at the sky
    Shoots higher much than he that means a tree.
  • Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci.
    • He has carried every point, who has mingled the useful with the agreeable.
    • Horace, Ars Poetica (18 BC), 343
  • Quid te exempta juvat spinis e pluribus una.
    • What does it avail you, if of many thorns only one be removed?
    • Horace, Epistles, II. 2. 212
  • Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain;
    "Think nothing gain'd," he cries, "till naught remain."
  • When the shore is won at last,
    Who will count the billows past?
    • John Keble, Christian Year, Stanza John the Evangelist's Day, Stanza 5
  • Il n'y a au monde que deux manières de s'élever, ou par sa propre industrie, ou par l'imbécilitè des autres.
    • There are but two ways of rising in the world: either by one's own industry or profiting by the foolishness of others.
    • Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères, VI
  • Rien ne sert de courir: il faut partir à point.
    • To win a race, the swiftness of a dart
      Availeth not without a timely start.
    • Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, VI. 10
  • 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.
    • Marcus Manilius, Astronomica, 3
  • 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.
    • Ammianus Marcellinus, Annales, XXV. 3
  • In tauros Libyci ruunt leones;
    Non sunt papilionibus molesti.
    • The African lions rush to attack bulls; they do not attack butterflies.
    • Martial, Epigrams (c. 80-104 AD), Book XII. 62. 5
  • J'ai toujours vu que, pour réussir dans le monde, il fallait avoir l'air fou et être sage.
  • Le succès de la plupart des choses dépend de savoir combien il faut de temps pour réussir.
    • The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.
    • Charles de Montesquieu, Pensées Diverses
  • How far high failure overleaps the bound
    Of low successes.
  • Aut non tentaris, aut perfice.
    • Either do not attempt at all, or go through with it.
    • Ovid, Ars Amatoria, Book I. 389
  • Acer et ad palmæ per se cursurus honores,
    Si tamen horteris fortius ibit equus.
    • The spirited horse, which will of itself strive to beat in the race, will run still more swiftly if encouraged.
    • Ovid, Epistolæ Ex Ponto, II. 11. 21
  • 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.
  • Successus improborum plures allicit.
    • The success of the wicked entices many more.
    • Phaedrus, Fables, II. 3. 7
  • Sperat quidem animus: quo eveniat, diis in manu est.
    • The mind is hopeful; success is in God's hands.
    • Plautus, Bacchides, I. 2. 36
  • It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may not, by proper application resolve.
  • Say, shall my little bark attendant sail,
    Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale?
  • In medio spatio mediocria firma locantur.
    • It is best for man not to seek to climb too high, lest he fall.
    • Free rendering of the Latin by Lord Chief Justice Popham in sentencing Raleigh to death, quoting Nicholas Bacon.
  • Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
    • Psalms. LXXV. 6
  • Qui bien chante et bien danse fait un métier qui peu avance.
  • He that climbs the tall tree has won right to the fruit,
    He that leaps the wide gulf should prevail in his suit.
  • Honesta quædam scelera successus facit.
  • Success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.
    • Michelle Obama Speech at Democratic National Convention, (4 September 2012)
  • Ye gods, it doth amaze me,
    A man of such a feeble temper should
    So get the start of the majestic world,
    And bear the palm alone.
  • A great devotee of the Gospel of Getting On.
  • Have I caught my heav'nly jewel.
    • 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!
  • You might have painted that picture,
    I might have written that song;
    Not ours, but another's the triumph,
    'Tis done and well done — so 'long!
  • People love you when you're successful, but if you're not, who really cares about you?
  • Not to the swift, the race:
    Not to the strong, the fight:
    Not to the righteous, perfect grace:
    Not to the wise, the light.
  • (He) set his heart upon the goal,
    Not on the prize.
  • Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,
    And looks to that alone;
    Laughs at impossibilities,
    And cries it shall be done.
  • 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.

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989)

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  • 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
  • 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.
  • Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early.
    • Anthony Trollope, Orley Farm, chapter 49, p. 438–39 (1950); first published in 1862
  • We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.
    • Author unknown; attributed to Henry David Thoreau, but not found in his works.

See also

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