W. Clement Stone

William Clement Stone (4 May 1902 – 3 September 2002) was an American businessman, author, and philanthropist; an advocate of what he called "PMA": Positive Mental Attitude. Beginning with meager material resources he became a multi-millionaire, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and lived to be 100.

All I want to do is change the world!

See also: Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960) (co-authored with Napoleon Hill)

Quotes

Give hope (the magic ingredient for success) — you will have hope and be made hopeful.

• 'I feel healthy! I feel happy I feel terrific
  • Daily mantra for positive self-suggestion which he recommended in Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960) and his teachings.

• Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.
  • As quoted in Teen Ink : What Matters (2003) by Stephanie H. Meyer, John Meyer, and Peggy Veljkovic, p. 309

• Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.
  • As quoted in How to Be the Employee Your Company Can't Live Without : 18 Ways to Become Indispensable (2006) by Glenn Shepard

• All I want to do is change the world!
  • As quoted in Open Question Selling: Unlock Your Customer's Needs to Close the Sale (2007) by Val Gee and Jeff Gee, p. 66

Be Generous!

Full text online

• Be generous! Give to those whom you love; give to those who love you; give to the fortunate; give to the unfortunate; yes — give especially to those to whom you don’t want to give.

• Your most precious, valued possessions and your greatest powers are invisible and intangible. No one can take them. You, and you alone, can give them. You will receive abundance for your giving. The more you give — the more you will have!

• Give a smile to everyone you meet (smile with your eyes) — and you’ll smile and receive smiles...

• Give a kind word (with a kindly thought behind the word) — you will be kind and receive kind words.

• Give time for a worthy cause (with eagerness) — you will be worthy and richly rewarded.

• Give hope (the magic ingredient for success) — you will have hope and be made hopeful.

• Give encouragement (the incentive to action) — you will have courage and be encouraged.

• Give a pleasant response (the neutralizer of irritants) — you will be pleasant and receive pleasant responses.

• Give good thoughts (nature’s character builder) — you will be good and the world will have good thoughts for you.

• Be generous! Give!

Misattributed

• Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.
  • Actually said by Napoleon Hill, Stone later added the line "...with P.M.A." (Positive Mental Attitude) to the end of this quote.

• Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.
  • As quoted in The Power of Choice (2007) by Joyce Guccione, p. 199
  • also attributed to Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) and Les Brown (1912–2001)

External links

• Be Generous (an essay by Stone)
• State of Illinois official declaration of mourning
• A business founded by W. Clement Stone in 1919