quotations and passages on success

The successful person is the
individual who forms the habit
of doing what the failing person doesn't like to do.
Donald Riggs

success 2

A successful life for a man or for a woman seems to me to lie
in the knowledge that one has developed to the limit the capacities
with which one was endowed; that one has contributed something
constructive to family and friends and to a home community;
that one has brought happiness wherever it was possible;
that one has earned one's way in the world, has kept some friends,
and need not be ashamed to face oneself honestly.

Eleanor Roosevelt

What is the recipe
for successful
achievement? To
my mind there are
just four essential
ingredients: Choose
a career you love. . . .
Give it the best there
is in you. . . . Seize your opportunities. . . .
and be a member
of the team.

Benjamin F. Fairless

Success is what you do with the ability that you have, how you use your talent.
It doesn't necessarily mean any one thing.

George Allen

Many of the most successful people I have known have never grown up.
They have retained bubbling-over childishness. They have relished wit,
they have indulged in humor. They have not allowed "dignity" to depress them
into moroseness. Youthfulness of spirit is the twin brother of optimism,
and optimism is the stuff of which American business success is fashioned.
Resist growing up!

B.C. Forbes

Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Sir Winston Churchill

Success usually comes to those
who are too busy to be looking for it.

Henry David Thoreau

Striving for success without hard work is like
trying to harvest where you haven't planted.

David Bly

Among the humble and great alike, those who achieve success do so
not because fate and circumstance are especially kind to them.
Often the reverse is true. They succeed because they do not whine
over their fate but take whatever has been given to them and go on
to make the most of their best.

Sidney Greenberg

If hard work is the key to success,
most people would rather pick the lock.

Claude McDonald

No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing
what is required of him or her; it is the amount and excellence
of what is over and above the required, that determines
the greatness of ultimate distinction.

Charles Kendall Adams

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand,
and the determination that whether we win or lose,
we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.

Vince Lombardi

Nothing good comes in life or athletics unless a lot of
hard work has preceded the effort. Only temporary
success is achieved by taking short cuts.

Roger Staubach

Any definition of a successful life must include serving others.

George Bush

Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.

Joyce Brothers

I can't imagine a person becoming a success
who doesn't give this game of life everything he or she has got.

Walter Cronkite

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If I wanted to become a tramp, I would seek information and advice
from the most successful tramp I could find. If I wanted to become a failure,
I would seek advice from people who have never succeeded. If I wanted
to succeed in all things, I would look around me
for those who are succeeding, and do as they have done.

Joseph Marshall Wade

I owe my success to having listened respectfully
to the very best advice,
and then going away and doing the exact opposite.

G.K. Chesterton

Success isn't measured by the position you reach in life;
it's measured by the obstacles you overcome.

Booker T. Washington

What I wanted was to be allowed to do the thing in the world that I did best--
which I believed then and believe now is the greatest privilege there is.
When I did that success found me.

Debbi Fields

I must admit that I personally measure success
in terms of the contributions an individual makes
to her or his fellow human beings.

Margaret Mead

Success has nothing to do with what you gain
in life or accomplish for yourself.
It's what you do for others.

Danny Thomas

Some succeed because they are destined to; most succeed because they are determined to.

Anatole France

When I thought I couldn't go on, I forced myself to keep going. My success is based on persistence, not luck.

Estee Lauder

We can think of the times--perhaps only yesterday--when we listened to a friend
in need, or finished a task that was nagging at us. Maybe we made an
appointment to begin a project we've been putting off. Success is taking
positive action, nothing more. Many of us, in our youth, were taught that
success only came in certain shapes and sizes. And we felt like failures.
We need new definitions; it's time to discard the old.

unattributed

Three versions of a similar passage: there's a passage on success that's usually attributed to Emerson, but that very probably is a misattribution. Unfortunately, over the years the various versions have changed, and it's pretty hard to tell where these ideas came from originally. We won't attempt to answer the question of source definitively--we'll just give you the three versions as they're written.

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest criticism and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty and find the best in others; to leave this world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived--this is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success

He has achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;

who has enjoyed the trust of
pure women,

the respect of intelligent men and
the love of little children;

who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;

who has left the world better than he found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem or a rescued soul;

who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty
or failed to express it;

who has always looked for the best in others and
given them the best he had;

whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.

--1904 Bessie Anderson Stanley

("Success" was written as the winning entry in a contest run by Brown Book Magazine in 1904. Bessie won a cash prize of $250 which paid off the mortgage on the house, among other things. It was included in Bartlett's Book of Quotations for decades, and if you can find an old edition from the 30's or 40's, it should be in there. They dropped it, I think in the 60's, but I don't know why.

The family isn't sure how the poem got mangled and attributed to Emerson, but it was further confused by Ann Landers and her sister Abby. Ann Landers used to (mis)quote it all the time and cite Emerson as the source. My great-uncle Art, a retired federal judge who died last March, and she had a decade-long correspondence as he argued for a public correction. She finally conceded and in her book, The Ann Landers Encyclopedia, prints the whole story.

~~Bethanne Larson, a granddaughter of Bessie Stanley)
Thanks to robinsweb.com for this info.

That Man is a Success
Who has lived well,
    laughed often and loved much;
Who has gained the respect of intelligent men
    and the love of children;
Who has filled his niche
    and accomplished his task;
Who leaves the world better than he found it,
    whether by improved poppy, a perfect poem,
    or a rescued soul;
Who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty
    or failed to express it.
Who looked for the best in others
    and gave the best he had.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson