success

 I've never sought success in order
to get fame and money; it's the talent
and the passion that count in success.

Ingrid Bergman

If I were to give advice to a young person starting out
in life, I should say to that person:  If you aim for
a large, broad-gauged success, do not begin your
business career, whether you sell your labor or are
and independent producer, with the idea of getting from
the world by hook or crook all you can.  In the choice
of your profession or your business employment, let
your first thought be:  Where can I fit in so that I may
be most effective in the work of the world?  Where can
I lend a hand in a way most effectively to advance
the general interests?  Enter life in such a spirit,
choose your vocation in that way, and you
have taken the first step on the highest road
to a large success.

John D Rockefeller

  

Most people see success as being rich and famous or powerful and influential.  Others see it as being at the top of their profession and standing out from the rest.
   The wise see success in a more personal way; they see it as achieving the goals they have set for themselves, and then feeling pride and satisfaction in their accomplishments.  True success is felt in the heart, not measured by money and power.
   So be true to yourself and achieve those goals you set.  For success is reaching those goals and feeling proud of what you have accomplished.

Tim Tweedie
 

 

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success.
When you do a thing, do it with all your might. . . .
Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful,
and you will accomplish your objective.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
  

To me, the capacity to earn money has never been a measurement of success.  It is my belief that people must develop a philosophy early in life which permits them to have as much pleasure, enjoyment and satisfaction now as is possible without injuring themselves or others.  Money can help to do this, but it is not and must not become the sole aim of a person's existence.  We all know what happened to King Midas.

Rudy Vallee

 
Success is not measured by how well you fulfill the expectations of others, but by how honestly you live up to your own expectations.

Linda Principe

Success is being who you are, and feeling proud of yourself for every task and challenge that you face and conquer along the way.

Deanna Beisser
 
 

Your success and happiness lie in you.  External conditions are the accidents
of life, its outer trappings.  The great, enduring realities are love of service.
Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.
Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form
an invincible host against difficulty.

Helen Keller
 
If you give a part
  of yourself to life,
the part you receive back
  will be so much greater.
Never regret the past,
  but learn by it.
Never lose sight of your dreams;
a person who can dream
  will always have hope.
Believe in yourself;
  if you do, everyone else will.
You have the ability
  to accomplish anything,
but never do it at
  someone else's expense.
If you can go through life
  loving others,
you will have achieved
the greatest success of all.

Judy LeSage
   
 

You will succeed best when you put the restless,
anxious side of affairs out of mind, and allow
the restful side to live in your thoughts.

Margaret Stowe
  
People succeed because they believe, not only that they can and will succeed,
but also that success is worth the price they pay for it.

Tom Hopkins
 

 

Attention to detail is the secret of success in every sphere of life,
and little kindnesses, little acts of consideration, little appreciations,
little confidences,. . . . they are all that are needed
to keep the friendship sweet.

Hugh Black
   

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There are no secrets of success.  Success
is doing the things you know you should do.
Success is not doing the things you know
you shouldn’t do.  Success is not limited
to any one area of your life.  It encompasses
all the facets of your relationships:
as parent, as wife or husband, as citizen,
neighbor, worker and all of the others.
Success is not confined to any one part
of your personality but is related to
the development of all the parts:
body, mind, heart and spirit.  It is making
the most of your total self.

Wilferd A. Peterson

  

Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even
to your smallest acts.  This is the secret of success.

Swami Sivananda

 
If you have a good name, if you are right more often than you are wrong,
if your children respect you, if your grandchildren are glad to see you,
if your friends can count on you and you can count on them in time of
trouble, if you can face your God and say “I have done my best,” then you are a success.

Ann Landers
  

You have to define success in your own way.  What maintains
your dignity and integrity and what is your life’s plan;
where do you want to put your efforts?  I could be richer
and more famous, but I would have to give up things
that are of infinitely more value.

Laura Schlessinger

  

   
Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who
do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated
the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you
do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking
for the good instead of the bad there is in others,
you will be neither successful nor happy.

Napoleon Hill
   
  

At age 4, success is...not peeing in your pants.
  At age 12, success is...having friends.
    At age 16, success is...having a driver's license.
      At age 20, success is...having sex.
        At age 35, success is...having money.
          At age 40, success is...finding meaning & purpose to life.
          At age 45, success is...finding meaning & purpose to life.
        At age 50, success is...having money.
      At age 60, success is...having sex.
    At age 70, success is...having a driver's license.
  At age 75, success is...having friends.
At age 80, success is...not peeing in your pants.

unattributed

   

   
Overstraining is the enemy of accomplishment.
Calm strength that arises from a deep and
inexhaustible source is what brings success.

Rabindranath Tagore

   

You cannot fail at being yourself.  A cat doesn't try to be
a tiger, and you shouldn't try to be something you aren't.
You are a process, not a product.  Your job is to discover
what you are and create that creature.  You still won't be
perfect, but success isn't about perfection--it is
about authenticity.  You are a success if you are
being your real, authentic self.

Bernie Siegel

   

We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the
size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service
and the relationship to mankind.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

   
   

You want to know the biggest illusion about success?  That it's like a pinnacle to
be climbed, a thing to be possessed, or a static result to be achieved.  If you want
to succeed, if you want to achieve all your outcomes, you have to think of success
as a process, a way of life, a habit of mind, a strategy for life.

Anthony Robbins

   

There are two kinds of success.  One is the very rare kind that comes
to the person who has the power to do what no one else has the power to do.
That is genius.   But the average person who wins what we call success
is not a genius.  That person is a man or woman who has merely the ordinary
qualities that they share with their fellows, but who has developed those
ordinary qualities to a more than ordinary degree.

Theodore Roosevelt
    
The best thing that can come with success is the knowledge that it is nothing to long for.

Liv Ullmann
   

Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.

Lily Tomlin

   

   

Success can eliminate as many options as failure.

Tom Robbins

    
Success can make you go one of two ways--it can make you a prima donna,
or it can smooth the edges, take away the insecurities, let the nice things come out.

Barbara Walters
   

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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

They have achieved success
who have lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;

who have enjoyed the trust of
pure men and women,

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

who have filled their niche and accomplished their tasks;

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

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

who have always looked for the best in others and
given them the best they had;

whose lives were an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.

--Bessie Anderson Stanley, 1904

("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 Person is a Success
Who has lived well,
    laughed often and loved much;
Who has gained the respect of intelligent people
    and the love of children;
Who has filled his or her niche
    and accomplished his or her task;
Who leaves the world better than he or she 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 or she had.

Robert Louis Stevenson