Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Success and failure
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“Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own.”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had not achieved a success; but I provoked an uproar; and the sensation was so agreeable that I resolved to try again.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant, Vol. I, Preface (1898)
“The secret of success is to offend the greatest number of people.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Days with Bernard Shaw (1949) by Stephen Winsten
“The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.”
Confucius (551–479 BC) said by 479 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Success is the child of audacity.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1833 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rise of Iskander ch. 4 (1833)
“King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a very difficult country to move, Mr. Hyndman, a very difficult country indeed, and one in which there is more disappointment to be looked for than success.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to Henry Hyndman a few weeks before his death (c. March 1881), quoted in H. M. Hyndman, The Record of An Adventurous Life (1911), pp. 244–245
“The measure of a master is his success in bringing all men round to his opinion twenty years later.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Born for success he seemed, With grace to win, with heart to hold, With shining gifts that took all eyes.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Self-trust is the first secret of success.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Incidentally, four other pieces of equipment that most senior officers came to regard as among the most vital to our success in Africa and Europe were the bulldozer, the jeep, the two-and-a-half-ton truck, and the C-47 airplane. Curiously enough, none of these items is designed for combat.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Crusade in Europe (1948), Eisenhower, William Heinemann Ltd (Melbourne, London, Toronto), p. 181.
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”
Bill Gates (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The success of the Nigeria programme hinges on the active participation of everyone to make sure that all children are reached by National Immunization Days (NIDs), Immunization Plus Days (IPDs) and the routine immunization programme, if the country capitalizes on the commitments I've heard in the past two days, Nigeria can lead the way to a polio-free Africa.”
Bill Gates (born 1955) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bill Gates visits Nigeria" polioeradication.org (04 February 2009)
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then Success is sure.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mark Twain's Notebook, 1887
“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 ... In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) said by 1862 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Crowded as the country is, is overcrowding even its main problem? Hong Kong and Singapore both have greater population densities (14.315 and 12.347 per square mile, respectively) than Bangladesh, and they're called success stories. The same goes for Monaco. In fact, the whole Riviera is packed in August, and neither Malthus nor Ehrlich have complained about the topless beaches of St. Tropez.”
P. J. O'Rourke (1947–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye and you will be drawn toward it. Picture yourself vividly as defeated and that alone will make victory impossible. Picture yourself vividly as winning, and that alone will contribute immeasurably to success. Do not picture yourself as anything and you will drift like a derelict.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878–1969) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement made in 1937 or earlier, as quoted in Personality and Life : A Practical Guide to Personality Improvement (1941) by Jay N. Holliday
“It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.”
Samuel Adams (1722–1803) first seen 1748 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Loyalty and Sedition," essay published in The Advertiser (1748), later printed in The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams, Volume 1 (1865), by William Vincent Wells
“So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there.”
René Descartes (1596–1650) said by 1650 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play fair, but that there must be no shirking, and that the success can only come to the player who hits the line hard.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, NY (October 1897)
“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Throughout our history the success of the homemaker has been but another name for the up-building of the nation.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am in this cause with my whole heart and soul. I believe that the Progressive movement is making life a little easier for all our people; a movement to try to take the burdens off the men and especially the women and children of this country. I am absorbed in the success of that movement.”
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two years after launching The Huffington Post I was exhausted, burnt out. The feeling many of us have. I collapsed from exhaustion and on the way down I hit my head on the desk, broke my cheekbone and got four stitches on my right eye. And it started me on this journey of questioning what success is”
Arianna Huffington (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need a third metric of success, which include our health and our being, first of all, because if we sacrifice that, what do we have? And our capacity to tap into our own wisdom, our own sense of wonder at the beauty of life that we so often miss, and our capacity to give, and to be kind”
Arianna Huffington (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have already mentioned what may, perhaps, appear paradoxical to some of our readers, — that the division of labour can be applied with equal success to mental as to mechanical operations, and that it ensures in both the same economy of time.”
Charles Babbage (1791–1871) said by 1871 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: The Artist, Vol. 93 (1978) p. 5.
“I fully understand it takes time for free societies, truly free societies to evolve. I don't expect instant success.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on Middle East Television Network, February 18, 2004
“The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know the American people understand the stakes in Iraq. They want to win. They will support the war as long as they see a path to victory. Americans can have confidence that we will prevail because thousands of smart, dedicated military and civilian personnel are risking their lives and are working around the clock to ensure our success.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Press Conference (October 25, 2006)
“No one can deny the success of freedom, but some men rage and fight against it. And one of the main sources of reaction and opposition is radical Islam—the perversion by a few of a noble faith into an ideology of terror and death.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hope I'm judged a success. I'm well-be dead, Matt, when they finally figure it out, and I'm comfortable knowing that I gave it my all, that I love America.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Matt Lauer (2010), aired 8 November 2010.
“The success of any nation is impossible without the political participation, the economic empowerment, the education, and health, of women.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Certain success evicts one from the paradise of winning against the odds.”
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 420
“The fact is, the people who have created open source and made it a success have been the developers doing work - and the companies that we could get involved by showing that we are not all insane crazy people like the FSF. The people who have *destroyed* projects have been lawyers that claimed to be out to "save" those projects.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Massive success and massive inertia are two sides of a coin.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Natural selection is all about the differential success of rival DNA in getting itself transmitted vertically in the species archives.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the day when the human conscience shall lose its bearings, on the day when success shall carry the day before that forum, all will be at an end. The last moral gleam will reascend to heaven. Darkness will be in the mind of man. You will have nothing to do but to devour one another, wild beasts that you are! Conclusion, Part First, III”
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) said by 1885 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini's success in Italy, with his government-directed economy, that led the early New Dealers to say "But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Time (17 May 1976); Reagan adviser Jude Wanniski has indicated that, in 1933, New Dealers as well as much of the world admired Mussolini's success in avoiding the Great Depression
“And let me just say as one who spent a certain part of his life in the entertainment business, what Michael Jackson has achieved is a tribute to 20 years of hard work, energy, tireless dedication, and a wealth of talent that keeps on growing. Your success is an American dream come true.”
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is also our great opportunity in 1961. If we grasp it, then subversion to prevent its success is exposed as an unjustifiable attempt to keep these nations from either being free or equal. But if we do not pursue it, and if they do not pursue it, the bankruptcy of unstable governments, one by one, and of unfilled hopes will surely lead to a series of totalitarian receiverships.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For one true measure of a nation is its success in fulfilling the promise of a better life for each of its members. Let this be the measure of our nation.”
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Special message to the Congress on National Health Needs (65)" (27 February 1962)
“No doubt the reason is that character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Helen Keller's Journal: 1936-1937 (1938), p. 60
“Success makes some crimes honorable.”
Publilius Syrus (101–101 BC) said by 101 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Samuel Longfellow (ed.) Final Memorials (Boston: Ticknor and Co., 1887) Ch. 19: Table-Talk
“Wise command, wise obedience: the capability of these two is the net measure of culture, and human virtue, in every man; all good lies in the possession of these two capabilities; all evil, wretchedness and ill-success in the want of these.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source