quotes, quotations and passages about opportunity

A wise person will make more
opportunities than he or she finds.

Francis Bacon

Lost yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever. Horace Mann

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence; Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by-- And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost

Vigilance in watching opportunity; tact and daring in seizing upon opportunity; force and persistence in crowding opportunity to its utmost of possible achievement--these are the martial virtues which must command success. Austin Phelps

We need you, we need your youth, your strength, and your idealism, to help us make right what is wrong. I know you have been critically looking at the mores and customs of the past and questioning their value. Every generation does that. But don't discard the time-tested values upon which civilization has been built just because they are old. More important, don't let the doom criers and the cynics persuade you that the best is past--that from here it's all downhill. Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known. Ronald Reagan

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work,
so most people don't recognize them.

Ann Landers

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The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.
The great opportunity is where you are.

John Burroughs

The best picture has not yet been painted; the greatest
poem is still unsung; the mightiest novel remains to be
written; the divinest music has not been conceived, even
by Bach. In science, probably ninety-nine percent of the
knowable has not yet been discovered.

Lincoln Steffens

I was thinking, accidentally, of my own unsatisfactory life, doing as others
do; and with that vision of the [gold] diggings still before me, I asked myself,
why I might not be washing some gold daily, though it were only the finest
particles,--why I might not sink a shaft down to the gold within me, and work
that mine. . . . I might pursue some path, however solitary and narrow and
crooked, in which I could walk with love and reverence. Whenever a person
separates from the multitude, and goes his or her own way in this mood, there
indeed is a fork in the road, though ordinary travelers may see only a gap
in the paling. His or her solitary path across-lots
will turn out the higher way of the two.

Henry David Thoreau

The ten most powerful two-letter words: If it is to be, it is up to me.

unattributed

The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
the optimist, the opportunity in every difficulty.

L.P. Jacks

One who never walks except where he or she sees other
people's tracks will make no discoveries.

Anon

The hardest thing to believe when you're young
is that people will fight to stay in a rut,
but not to get out of one.

Ellen Glasgow

Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today, because
if you enjoy it today, you can do it again tomorrow.

James A. Michener

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two
characters--one represents danger and
the other represents opportunity.

John F. Kennedy

Most of the things worth doing in the world
had been declared impossible before they were done.

Louis D. Brandeis

Always keep your eyes open for the little task, because it is the little task
that is important to God. The future of the Kingdom of God does not depend
on the enthusiasm of this or that powerful person; those great ones
are necessary too, but it is equally necessary to have a great number
of little people who will do a little thing in the service of God. The great
flowing rivers represent only a small part of all the water that is necessary
to nourish and sustain the earth. Beside the flowing river there is
the water in the earth--the subterranean water--and there are
the little streams which continually enter the river and feed it and
prevent it from sinking into the earth. Without these other waters--
the silent hidden subterranean waters and the trickling streams--
the great river could no longer flow. Thus it is with
the little tasks to be fulfilled by us all.

Albert Schweitzer

opportunity 2

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Great opportunities come to all, but many do not know
they have met them. The only preparation to take advantage
of them is simple fidelity to watch what each day brings.

Albert E. Dunning

People do with opportunities as children do at the seashore;
they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the
grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone.

T. Jones

Opportunity is as scarce as oxygen;
people fairly breathe it and do not know it.

Doc Sane

I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to
take advantage of it. Everyone has bad breaks, but everyone also has
opportunities. People who can smile at their breaks and grab their chances get on.

Samuel Goldwyn

The opportunity that God sends
does not wake up those who are asleep.

Senegalese proverb

The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to
one's opportunities, and make the most of one's resources.

Vauvenargues

The secret of success in life is for one to be ready
for one's opportunity when it comes.

Benjamin Disraeli

Jumping at several small opportunities may get us there
more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along.

Hugh Allen

Great opportunities to help others seldom come,
but small ones surround us every day.

Sally Koch

My biggest problems in life have come when I haven't recognized opportunities.
Because I haven't seen them until too late so often, I haven't been able to take
advantage of them. I suppose many people would say that I've had bad luck,
but I don't see it that way at all. I see it as having missed opportunities, and I don't
get down on myself for having missed them. After all, there was no one around when
I was growing up to teach me to recognize and take advantage of opportunities.

tom walsh

Too often, the opportunity knocks, but by the time you push back
the chain, push back the bolt, unhook the two locks and
shut off the burglar alarm, it's too late.

Rita Coolidge

Articles and book excerpts on opportunity:

It Is up to You Jim Rohn

To each one's life there comes a time supreme;
One day, one night, one morning, or one noon,
One freighted hour, one moment opportune,
One rift through which sublime fulfillments gleam,
One space when fate goes tiding with the stream,
One Once, in balance 'twixt Too Late, Too Soon,
And ready for the passing instant's boon
To tip in favor the uncertain beam.
Ah, happy one who, knowing how to wait,
Knows also how to watch and work and stand
On Life's broad deck alert, and at the prow
To seize the passing moment, big with fate,
From Opportunity's extended hand,
When the great clock of destiny strikes Now!

Mary A. Townsend

opportunity 2

Opportunities flit by while we sit regretting the chances
we have lost, and the happiness that comes to us
we heed not, because of the happiness that is gone.

Jerome K. Jerome

We are always surrounded by doors of opportunity. That’s the way life is.
Often, opportunities do not come in packages wrapped in the colors
we expected. When an unexpected surprise happens, we refuse to see it
and so we miss the opportunity. Sometimes we are so focused on a goal
far out in the future that we do not see what is right in front of us, or we
get so busy hurrying and rushing around that we lose all perspective.

Anne Wilson Schaef

Those with an optimistic outlook get hit with the same problems
as anyone else, but they see opportunity where others see inconvenience.

Deborah K. Heisz
Live Happy

Opportunities so often knock on our door—in the form of a coincidence,
a chance encounter, an unexpected gift, a surprise—and we don’t pay
attention to them. We dismiss them and go on with our life as if nothing
important happened. And indeed, if this is what we choose to believe,
then nothing of significance has happened or will happen. We owe it to
ourselves to seize those opportunities and make the most of what comes
our way. Whether or not we believe in divine providence, whether or not
we believe that apparently random experiences contain meaningful lessons
that are directly relevant to our life, there is much to be gained from paying
attention to chance occurrences, to what psychologist
Carl Jung called synchronicity.

Tal Ben-Shahar
Choose the Life You Want

We can open ourselves to opportunities today. They abound in our lives. No
circumstance we find ourselves in is detrimental to our progress. No relationship
with someone at work or at home is superfluous to our development. Teachers
are everywhere. And as we become ready for a new lesson, one will appear.

Karen Casey
Each Day a New Beginning