quotes, quotations and passages about achievement

It is never too late
to be what you
might have been.

George Eliot

If you achieve success, you will get applause, and if you get applause, you will hear it. My advice to you concerning applause is this: Enjoy it but never quite believe it. Robert Montgomery

Stressing the practice of living purposefully as essential to fully realized self-esteem is not equivalent to measuring an individual’s worth by his or her external achievements. We admire achievements— in ourselves and others— and it is natural and appropriate for us to do so. But that is not the same thing as saying that our achievements are the measure or grounds of our self-esteem. The root of our self-esteem is not our achievements but those internally generated practices that, among other things, make it possible for us to achieve. Nathaniel Branden

It's important to give yourself a gold star. Recognizing your achievements-- big and small-- is an important part of honoring who you are. Gold stars have the powerful effect of undermining and dethroning all the critical stuff you've heard about yourself. Leslie Levine

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. Helen Keller

Neither great nor good things were ever attained without loss
and hardships. Those that would reap and not labour, must faint
with the wind, and perish in disappointments; but an hair of my head
shall not fall, without the providence of my Father that is over all.

William Penn

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The greatest works are done by the ones. The hundreds do not
often do much-- the companies never; it is the units-- the single
individuals, that are the power and the might. Individual effort is,
after all, the grand thing.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

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

Haunted from my early youth by the transitoriness and pathos of life,
I was aware that it is not enough to say "I am doing no harm," I ought
to be testing myself daily, and asking myself what I am really achieving.

Margot Asquith

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.

Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in
the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Four steps to achievement:
Plan purposefully.
Prepare prayerfully.
Proceed positively.
Pursue persistently.

William A. Ward

Show me a thoroughly satisfied person,
and I will show you a failure.

Thomas A. Edison

My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She
said that "achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and
worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised
by others, and that's nice, too, but not as important or satisfying."
Always aim for achievement and forget about success.

Helen Hayes

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention,
sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents
the wise choice of many alternatives, the cumulative experience of
many masters of craftsmanship.
Quality also marks the search for an ideal after necessity has
been satisfied and mere usefulness achieved.

Willa A. Foster

achievement 2

Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open,
concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want.
No one can hit their target with their eyes closed.

Paulo Coelho
The Devil and Miss Prym

People who have attained things worth having in this world
have worked while others idled, have persevered when others
gave up in despair, have practiced early in life the valuable habits
of self-denial, industry, and singleness of purpose. As a result,
they enjoy later in life the success so often
erroneously attributed to good luck.

Grenville Kleiser

Life should be enjoyable; too often we think it's about achievement.
The truth is that making life enjoyable is an achievement in itself.

unattributed

Every great achievement is
the story of a flaming heart.

Harry Truman

We don't know who we are
until we see what we can do.

Martha Grimes

No matter what accomplishments you achieve, somebody helps you.

Althea Gibson

"Where there is a will there is a way" is an old true saying. The person
who resolves upon doing a thing, by that very resolution often scales the
barriers to it, and secures its achievement. To think we are able, is almost
to be so--to determine upon attainment is frequently attainment itself.

Samuel Smiles

It is not the straining for great things that is most effective; it is the
doing the little things, the common things, a little better and better.

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and
women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.

Conrad Hilton

All human beings have failings, all human beings have needs and
temptations and stresses. Men and women who live together
through long years get to know one another's failings; but they
also come to know what is worthy of respect and admiration in
those they live with and in themselves. If in the end one can say,
"This person used to the limit the powers that God granted him or
her; this person was worthy of love and respect and of the
sacrifices of many people, made in order that he or she might
achieve what this person deemed to be his or her task," then
that life has been lived well and there are no regrets.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Articles and book excerpts on Achievement:

It Is up to You      Jim Rohn
Nitty-Gritty Reasons      Jim Rohn
Raising the Standards      tom walsh

achievement 2

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What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.

Norman Vincent Peale

The greatest barrier to achievement and success is not lack of talent
or ability but rather the feeling that achievement and success, above
a certain level, are outside our self-concept--our image of who we
are and what is appropriate to us.

Nathaniel Branden
Self-Esteem Every Day

Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is
not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.

William Jennings Bryan

The human mind is happiest when it is most active in performing
the functions which it was intended to perform. One of the human
being's greatest passions is that of achievement, the passion for
doing things, the ambition to accomplish. This is one of the greatest
satisfactions of life, and satisfaction is the chief ingredient in happiness.
The consciousness of growth, which increases one's power,
is one of the durable satisfactions of life.

Orison Swett Marden
The Joys of Living

What distinguishes people of genuine achievement from the rest of us
is not so much their intellectual powers and aptitudes as their curiosity,
their energy, their fullest use of their potentialities. Nobody really knows
how smart or talented he or she is until that person finds the incentives
to use him- or herself to the fullest. God has given us more than
we know what to do with.

Sydney J. Harris

Every achievement is a servitude. It compels us to a higher achievement.

Albert Camus

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

Orison Swett Marden