Orison Swett Marden

Orison Swett Marden is considered to be the founder of the modern success
movement in America.  Marden's first book, Pushing to the Front, was published in 1894.
In 1897 he founded Success Magazine, which reached the enormous circulation,
for that time, of nearly a half-million.  His book titles express eloquently the outlook
of cheerful optimism and confidence. At his death it was said of him that he averaged
two books a year, and had some two million words in as yet unpublished manuscripts when he died.

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The universe is one great kindergarten for us.  Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson.  The mountain teaches stability and grandeur; the ocean immensity and change.  Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes--every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of humans.

      
The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.


Our thoughts and imagination are the only real limits to our possibilities.


There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become.
  
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.
   

Your expectations open or close the doors of your supply.  If you expect grand things, and work honestly for them, they will come to you; your supply will correspond with your expectation.


We fail to see that we can control our own destiny; make ourselves do whatever is possible; make ourselves become whatever we long to be.

 

You cannot measure people by their failures.  You must know what
use they make of them.  What did they mean to them?
What did they get out of them?
  

We must give more in order to get more.
It is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest.
  

  

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.
 
To many a person, and sometimes to a youth, there comes
the opportunity to choose between honorable competence
and tainted wealth.  The young person who starts out to be
poor and honorable, holds in his or her hand one of
the strongest elements of success.
  

There is no investment you can make which will pay you so well
as the effort to scatter sunshine and good cheer through your establishment.

   

What power can poverty have over a home where loving hearts
are beating with a consciousness of untold riches of the head and heart?

  
The waste of life occasioned by trying to do
too many things at once is appalling.
  

There is no stimulus like that which comes from the consciousness of knowing that others believe in us.

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.
 

There is only one thing for us to do, and that is to do our level best
right where we are every day of our lives; To use our best judgment,
and then to trust the rest to that Power which holds
the forces of the universe in his hands.
 

The quality of your work, in the long run, is the deciding factor
on how much your services are valued by the world.
 

There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority...

There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake.
 

The greatest thing a person can do in this world is
to make the most possible out of the stuff
that has been given him or her.
This is success, and there is no other.
 

 
The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself.
It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance,
or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.
 

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.
  

Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one's being.

We make the world we live in and shape our own environment.
  
Obstacles are like wild animals.  They are cowards but they
will bluff you if they can.  If they see you are afraid of them...
they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them
squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
  

Many people have finally succeeded only because they
have failed after repeated efforts.  If they had never
met defeat they would never have known any great victory.

   

Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young.
A good laugh makes us better friends with ourselves and everybody around us.

  

It is what we do easily and what we like to do that we do well.

   

  

If you do not feel yourself growing in your work
and your life broadening and deepening, if your task
is not a perpetual tonic to you, you have not found your place.

  

Your outlook upon life, your estimate of yourself, your estimate
of your value are largely colored by your environment. Your
whole career will be modified, shaped, molded by your surroundings,
by the character of the people with whom you come in contact every day.

  
Make it a life-rule to give your best to whatever passes
through your hands.  Stamp it with your humanity.  Let superiority be your trademark.
 

Every youth owes it to himself and to the world to make
the most possible out of the stuff that is in him or her.

 

Deep within us dwell those slumbering powers; powers
that would astonish us, that we never dreamed of possessing;
forces that would revolutionize our lives if aroused and put into action.

  

Be larger than your task.

 
Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what
you have is a necessary ingredient of a career.
 

Strong, successful people are not the victims of their environment.
They create favorable conditions.  Their own inherent force
and energy compel things to turn out as they desire.

 
A will finds a way.
 

All people who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.

  

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Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.