Orison Swett Marden
Who would have ever heard of Theodore Roosevelt outside of his immediate community if he had only half committed himself? The great secret of his career was that he has flung his whole life with all the determination and energy he could muster.Collection: Determination
As long as a man faces life hopefully, confidently, triumphantly he is not a failureCollection: Hope
A great many people never really discover themselves until ruin stares them in the face. They do not seem to know how to bring out their reserves until they are overtaken by an overwhelming disaster, or until the sight of their blighted prospects and of the wreck of their homes and happiness stirs them to the very center of their beings.... There is something in defeat which puts new determination into a man of mettle.Collection: Determination
Live and let live is not enough; live and help live is not too much.Collection: Too Much
Mirth is God's medicine; everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety-all the rust of life- ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth.Collection: Life
We advance on our journey only when we face our goal, when we are confident and believe we are going to win out.Collection: Inspirational
It is psychological law that whatever we desire to accomplish we must impress upon the subjective or subconscious mind.Collection: Law
Work, love and play are the great balance wheels of man's being.Collection: Men
The size of your accomplishments, the quality of your achievement, will depend very largely on how big a man you see in yourself, what sort of image you get of your possible self, yourself at your best.Collection: Men
The sculptor will chip off all unnecessary material to set free the angel. Nature will chip and pound us remorselessly to bring out our possibilities. She will strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, let us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways, if she can develop a little character. Everything must give way to that. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, fame is nothing, manhood is everything.Collection: Nature
People do not realise the immense value of utilising spare minutes.Collection: People
We do not know what we can bear until we are put to the test. Many a delicate mother, who thought that she could not survive the death of her children, has lived to bury her husband and the last one of a large family, and in addition to all this has seen her home and last dollar swept away; yet she has had the courage to bear it all and to go on as before. When the need comes, there is a power deep within us that answers the call.Collection: Mother
Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.Collection: Leadership
Opportunity is latent in the very foundation of human society. Opportunity is everywhere about us. But the preparation to seize upon the opportunity, and to make the most of it, is to be made by every one for himself ... he will be self-made or never made.Collection: Opportunity
If we put the emphasis upon the right things, if we live the life that is worth while and then fail, we will survive all disasters, we will out-live all misfortune. We should be so well balanced and symmetrical, that nothing which could ever happen could throw us off our center, so that no matter what misfortune should overtake us, there would still be a whole magnificent man or woman left after being stripped of everything else.Collection: Life
The glow of satisfaction which follows the consciousness of doing our level best never comes to a human being from any other experience.Collection: Happiness
You have not found your place until all your faculties are roused, and your whole nature consents and approves of the work you are doing.Collection: Nature
Money, influence, and position are nothing compared with brains, principles, energy and perseverances.Collection: Perseverance
We lift ourselves by our thought.Collection: Our Thoughts
A good system shortens the road to the goal.Collection: Goal
The secret of happiness is in a cheerful, contented mind. He is poor who is dissatisfied; he is rich who is contented with what he has, and can enjoy what others own.Collection: Happiness
A woman who is self-reliant, positive, optimistic, and undertakes her work with the assurance of success magnetizes her condition. She draws to herself the creative powers of the universe.Collection: Optimistic
It is the youth who sees a great opportunity hidden in just these simple services, who sees a very uncommon situation, a humble position, who gets on in the world.Collection: Humble
You will find the whole world will change to you when you change your attitude toward it.Collection: Attitude
No matter how humble your work may seem, do it in the spirit of an artist, of a master. In this way you lift it out of commonness and rob it of what would otherwise be drudgery.Collection: Work
The greatest trouble with most of us is that our demands upon ourselves are so feeble, the call upon the great within of us so weak and intermittent that it makes no impression upon the creative energies; it lacks the force that transmutes desires into realities.Collection: Commitment
When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, this is happiness, this is success.Collection: Success
Poverty often hides her charms under an ugly mask; yet thousands have been forced into greatness by their very struggle to keep the wolf from the door.Collection: Struggle
A strong, successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favorable conditions. His own inherent force and energy compel things to turn out as he desires.Collection: Strong
What a great discrepancy there is between people and the results they achieve! It is due to the difference in their power of calling together all the rays of their ability, and concentrating them upon one point.Collection: Success
He is the richest man who enriches his country most; in whom the people feel richest and proudest; who gives himself with his money; who opens the doors of opportunity widest to those about him; who is ears to the deaf; eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. Such a man makes every acre of land in his community worth more, and makes richer every man who lives near him.Collection: Country
Pessimism has never done anything but tear down and destroy what optimism has built up.Collection: Optimism
Every great man has become great, every successful man has succeeded, in proportion as he has confined his powers to one particular channel.Collection: Success
Every experience in life, everything with which we have come in contact in life, is a chisel which has been cutting away at our life statue, molding, modifying, shaping it. We are part of all we have met. Everything we have seen, heard, felt or thought has had its hand in molding us, shaping us.Collection: Life
Unless you have prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable to you just in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it.Collection: Education
Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory.Collection: Success
Defeats and failures are great developers of character. They have made the giants of our race by giving Titanic muscles, brawny sinews, and far-reaching intellects.Collection: Failure
The power of material things, to bestow happiness, to bring joy into the life is tremendously exaggerated. But The right mental attitude for example gratitude that things are not worse, the trained mind the right habits of thought - lifeskills, will bring to us the best there is in the universe.Collection: Gratitude
The first part of success is 'Get-to-it-iveness'; the second part of success is 'Stick-to-it-iveness'.Collection: Motivational Sales
The giants of the race have been men of concentration, who have struck sledge-hammer blows in one place until they have accomplished their purpose. The successful men of today are men of one overmastering idea, one unwavering aim, men of single and intense purpose.Collection: Successful
We lend power to the things we fear!Collection: Fear
Many mothers make the mistake of forever looking for the bad in the child, trying to . . . uproot and drive it out. This is like trying to eject the darkness from a room without opening the shutters and letting in the light. As John Newton said, 'I cannot sweep the darkness out, but I can shine it out.'Collection: Motivational
Real happiness is so simple that most people do not recognize it. It is derived from the simplest, the quietest, the most unpretentious things in the world.Collection: Real
No man is beaten until his hope is annihilated, his confidence gone, As long as a man faces life hopefully, confidently, triumphantly, he is not a failure; he is not beaten until he turns his back on life.Collection: Life
How can I develop myself into the grandest possible manhood?Collection: Manhood
Be larger than your task.Collection: Confidence
The best thing about giving of ourselves is that what we get is always better than what we give. The reaction is greater than the action.Collection: Inspiring
You must bring every particle of your energy, unanswerable resolution, your best efforts, your persistent industry to your task or the best will not come out of you. You must back up your ambition by your whole nature, by unbounded enthusiasm and a determination to win which knows no failure.Collection: Determination
It is certain that the greatest poets, orators, statesmen, and historians, men of the most brilliant and imposing talents, have labored as hard, if not harder, than day laborers; and that the most obvious reason why they have been superior to other men is that they have taken more pains than other men.Collection: Pain