These three things, Will, Work, Success, fill human existence. Will opens the door to success both brilliant and happy; Work passes these doors, and at the end of the journey Success comes to crown one’s efforts.
Louis Pasteur, The Life of Pasteur
The library
Explore by constellation
Uplifting words from sages, poets and naturalists. Every card opens its receipt: the exact source, the locator and how it was verified.
33 quotes · page 1 of 2
I felt that my foot was upon the ladder and that I was bound to climb.
Andrew Carnegie, Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie
Select the thing you want to be, and then grow steadily into it.
William Walker Atkinson, Nuggets of the New Thought
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series
Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery: An Autobiography
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.
Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery: An Autobiography
…who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced.
Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga (Yoga Philosophy: Lectures Delivered in New York, Winter of 1895–6)
Greatness consists not in the holding of some future office, but really consists in doing great deeds with little means and the accomplishment of vast purposes from the private ranks of life.
Russell H. Conwell, Acres of Diamonds
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible.
Henry Ford, My Life and Work
You must first know what people need, and then invest yourself where you are most needed.
Russell H. Conwell, Acres of Diamonds
No quality of mind is more needful to success in all undertakings than courage, and by courage I mean not only courage to act but courage to think.
Prentice Mulford, Your Forces, and How to Use Them
The true way to conquer circumstances is to be a greater circumstance yourself.
Orison Swett Marden, Pushing to the Front
My belief is firm in a law of compensation. The true rewards are ever in proportion to the labor and sacrifices made.
Nikola Tesla, My Inventions
You cannot study anything persistently for years without becoming learned, and although I would not hold reputation up to you as a very high object of ambition, it is a wayside flower which you are sure to have catch at your skirts.
Maria Mitchell, Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals
I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
…one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
We learn wisdom from failure more than from success: we often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and he who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.
Samuel Smiles, Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct
…if you wish to be great at all, you must begin where you are and what you are…
Russell H. Conwell, Acres of Diamonds
The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual…
Samuel Smiles, Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct
The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities.
Samuel Smiles, Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct
Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great.
Orison Swett Marden, Pushing to the Front