Orison Swett Marden
One of the best strengtheners of character and developers of stamina ... is to assume the part you wish to play; to assert stoutly the possession of whatever you lack.Collection: Character
Put the uncommon effort into the common task... make it large by doing it in a great way.Collection: Effort
No man fails who does his best.Collection: Wrestling
We fail to see that we can control our destiny; make ourselves do whatever is possible; make ourselves become whatever we long to be.Collection: Fate
Every child should be taught to expect successCollection: Children
It is just the little difference between the good and the best that makes the difference between the artist and the artisan. It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that makes the master's fame.Collection: Artist
Who can estimate the real wealth that inheres in a fine character. . . . How base and mean money and huge estates look in comparison. All other things fade before it. Its touch is like magic to win friendship, influence, power. Can you afford to chill, to discourage, to crush out of your life this sweet, sensitive plant, which would flower in your nature and give added glory to your life, for the sake of a few dollars, a little questionable fame?Collection: Life
Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young.Collection: Heart
It is those who have this imperative demand for the best in their natures, and who will accept nothing short of it, that holds the banners of progress, that set the standards, the ideals, for others.Collection: Motivational
Men are naturally lazy, and require some great stimulus to goad their flagging ambitions and enable them to overcome the inertia which comes from ease and the consciousness of inherited wealth. Whatever lessens in a young man the feeling that he must make his way in the world cripples his chance of success. Poverty has ever been the priceless spur that has goaded man up to his own loaf.Collection: Ambition
If we get the good that belongs to us here and now, we must extract the sweetness of each passing minute while it is ours. That is the real art of living in the today.Collection: Art
No young man starting in life could have better capital than plenty of friends. They will strengthen his credit, support him in every great effort, and make him what, unaided, he could never be. Friends of the right sort will help him more - to be happy and successful - than much money.Collection: Real
We can give our smiles, our encouragement, our sympathy to someone who needs them every day of the year.Collection: Encouragement
It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that make the master's fame.Collection: Men
The inspiration of a single book has made preachers, poets, philosophers, authors, and statesmen. On the other hand, the demoralization of a single book has sometimes made infidels, profligates, and criminals.Collection: Book
Let us open up our natures, throw wide the doors of our hearts and let in the sunshine of good will and kindness.Collection: Kindness
To have done no man a wrong...to walk and live, unseduced, within arm's length of what is not your own, with nothing between your desire and its gratification but the invisible law of rectitude-this is to be a man.Collection: Men
The influential man is the successful man, whether he be rich or poor.Collection: Successful
Character is a mark cut upon something, and this indelible mark determines the only true value of all people and all their work.Collection: Character
The divine injunction to be perfect, even as He is perfect, was not given man to mock him. The possibility of our waking in His likeness is literally true.Collection: Men
Thrift means that you should always have the best you can possibly afford, when the thing has any reference to your physical and mental health, to your growth in efficiency and power.Collection: Mean
Every germ of goodness will at last struggle into bloom and fruitage...true success follows every right step.Collection: Success
Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.Collection: Strong
Work, love and play are the great balance wheels of man’s being.Collection: Balance
No young man starting in life could have better capital than plenty of friends. They will strengthen his credit, support him in every great effort, and make him what, unaided, he could never be. Friends of the right sort will help him more – to be happy and successful – than much money.Collection: Real