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
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Success and failure
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“File off the serial numbers, change the body lines a bit, give it a new paint job, switch it over the state line, and it’s yours!—that’s the secret of literary success. Editors always claim to be looking for new stories but they don’t buy them; they buy “mixture as before.” Because the cash customers want to be entertained, not amazed, not instructed, not frightened.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The new Government has my best Wishes and most fervent Prayers, for its Success and Prosperity: but whether I shall have any Thing more to do with it, besides praying for it, depends on the future suffrages of Freemen.”
John Adams (1735–1826) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Thomas Jefferson (2 January 1789), The Papers of Thomas Jefferson.
“And may that Being who is supreme over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this nation and its Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of His providence.”
John Adams (1735–1826) said by 1826 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum. My toast would be, may our country always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.”
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) first seen 1816 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his father, John Adams (1 August 1816), referring to the popular phrase "My Country, Right or Wrong!" based upon Stephen Decatur's famous statement "Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she…
“If you do anything useful it will haunt you forever after, and if you have a major success you get decades of hard manual labor — meaning you have to work on the manual.”
Bjarne Stroustrup (born 1950) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: C++ Q&A Community Event with Bjarne Stroustrup" (27 August 2014) · 3m 20s
“As has been said…'A devotee does not worry about anything, except the experience of Knowledge.'...'When the perfect Master is there to take care of you, you have nothing to worry about. All the powers of prosperity and success are ready to serve you and you are free from all bondages.'..”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from “Grace and Gratitude”, Shri Sant Yogashram, New Delhi - Vaishakhi Celebrations - 13th April, 1992 - (Public Program. Translated to English from Hindi)
“Some Blockett-type employees actually believe that they have received a genuine promotion; others recognize the truth. But the main function of a pseudo-promotion is to deceive people outside the hierarchy. When this is achieved, the maneuver is counted a success.”
Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Such corruption feeds on its own success when it meets no correction.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.”
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“American society [...] not only sanctions gross and unfair relations among men, but it encourages them. Now, can that be denied? No. Rivalry, competition, envy, jealousy, all that is malignant in human character is nourished by the system. Possession, money, property — on such corrupt standards as these do you people measure happiness and success.”
Philip Roth (1933–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A nickname may be the best record of a success. That's what I call putting the face of a joke upon the body of a truth.”
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was easier to keep myself from becoming a success as an actor. Critics were careful not to outrage my modesty by their praise, and the public scrupulously refused to debauch me with applause. I have thought about it a good deal, and my conclusion is that I was ahead of my time. Or behind it.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the methods of manipulation is to inoculate individuals with the bourgeois appetite for personal success.”
Paulo Freire (1921–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You remember what a fabulous success court-ordered "desegregation" plans have been. Few failures have been more spectacular. Illiterate students knifing one another between acts of sodomy in the stairwell is just one of the many eggs that had to be broken to make the left's omelette of transferring power from states to the federal government.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.”
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Nelson Mandela on determination, From a letter to Makhaya Ntini on his 100th Cricket Test (17 December 2009). Source: From Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations © 2010 by Nelson R. Mandela and The…
“Nothing is more chilling than such a spectacle of unremitting self-sacrifice. This is a woman born to be abandoned by her ungrateful husband at the very pinnacle of success she helped to make for him, for a shameless hussy of nineteen.”
Germaine Greer (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him. Admittedly, one man by himself cannot do the job. However, one man can make a difference... We must live for the future of the human race, and not for our own comfort or success.”
Hyman G. Rickover (1900–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Evolution is an obstacle course not a freeway; the correct analogue for long-term success is a distant punt receiver evading legions of would-be tacklers in an oddly zigzagged path toward a goal, not a horse thundering down the flat.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Phony psychics like Uri Geller have had particular success in bamboozling scientists with ordinary stage magic, because only scientists are arrogant enough to think that they always observe with rigorous and objective scrutiny, and therefore could never be so fooled—while ordinary mortals know perfectly well that good performers can always find a way to trick people.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fortune, which had never forsaken him in his lifetime, favored the King of Sweden even in his death, with the rare privilege of falling in the fullness of his glory and an untarnished fame. By a timely death, his protecting genius rescued him from the inevitable fate of man - that of forgetting moderation in the intoxication of success, and justice in the plenitude of power.”
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) said by 1805 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His Armies, weakened by defeat and defeat, dispirited by misfortune, had unlearned - under beaten generals - that warlike impetuosity which as it is the consequence, so it is the guarentee of success.”
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) said by 1805 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In England, success in the profession of the law leads to some very great objects of ambition; and yet how few men, born to easy fortunes, have ever in this country been eminent in that profession?”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is time to put policy ahead of politics and success ahead of the status quo. It is time for a new strategy to produce what we need: a stable Iraq government that takes over for its own people so our troops can finish their job.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in US Senate (21 June 2006)
“I believe that every employee, from the CEO suite to the factory floor, contributes to a business’ success, so everybody should share in the rewards – especially those putting in long hours for little pay.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To freely bloom — that is my definition of success. The question then is, How does arguing with our children advance our goal that our children freely bloom.”
Gerry Spence (1929–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No artist's masterpiece can match a mother's creation of a successful child, one who has been freed to explore and to grow. ... Success is measured not only by who we are, but by what gifts we give. As the old chief said, "The gift is not complete until it is given again." Ah, the mother whose gift to the world is a person!”
Gerry Spence (1929–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.”
Jane Wagner (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Lily Tomlin
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”
Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) said by 1922 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Sophia's Fire (2005) by Sango Mbella, p. 133.
“Success is brought by continued labor and continued watchfulness. We must struggle on, not for one moment hesitate, nor take one backward step.”
William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Illinois College Valedictory (1881)
“She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.”
Mae West (1893–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: #832 in The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (2006) by Robert Byrne
“INTERVIEWER: But the nationalized industries, do you think they were a success in the late '70s?”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Strength and success— they are above morality, above criticism. It seems then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There used to be a thing or a commodity we put great store by. It was called the People. Find out where the People have gone. I don’t mean the square-eyed toothpaste-and-hair-dye people or the new-car-or-bust people, or the success-and-coronary people. Maybe they never existed, but if there ever were the People, that’s the commodity the Declaration was talking about, and Mr. Lincoln.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.”
Gene Fowler (1890–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Skyline: A Reporter's Reminiscence of the 1920s (1961); as cited by Jonathon Green (1988) Says who?: a guide to the quotations of the century. p. 308
“Went to the new Church both morning and afternoon, and read service in the afternoon. I got through it all with great success, till I came to read out the first verse of the hymn before the sermon, where the two words ‘strife strengthened,’ coming together, were too much for me, and I had to leave the verse unfinished.”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) first seen 1862 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 31 August 1862
“Nothing fails like success.”
Joseph Heller (1923–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Marlowe anticipated Whitman's barbaric yawp by setting up a national PA system of blank verse – a rising iambic system of sound to suit the new success story. (p. 223)”
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Young man, the secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered that I was not God.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his 90th birthday to a journalist (8 March 1931), as quoted in Information 2000: Library and Information Services for the 21st Century, Vol. 1991, Part 2 (1992) by the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Inform…
“Just remember, you can't climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger (born 1947) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Commencement Speech at University of Southern California (May 2009).
“The one great element in continuing the success of an offensive is maintaining the momentum. This was lost last fall when shortages caused by the limitation of port facilities made it impossible to get sufficient supplies to the armies when they approached the German border.”
George C. Marshall (1880–1959) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the Overseas Press Club (1 March 1945)
“By his very success in inventing labor-saving devices, modern man has manufactured an abyss of boredom that only the privileged classes in earlier civilizations have ever fathomed.”
Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What we should admire is the acute fulfillment of the unspoken assumptions, the smooth harmony of the whole activity, which only become evident in the final success.”
Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) said by 1831 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's the quality of the ordinary, the straight, the square, that accounts for the great stability and success of our nation. It's a quality to be proud of. But it's a quality that many people seem to have neglected.”
Gerald Ford (1913–2006) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted by Time magazine (28 January 1974)
“I was not intrigued with the accouterments of success and fame, the furs, jewels, expensive automobiles and mansions... I can assure you that these things were not on my mind when I sat spellbound in that Pozzuoli movie house. It was what these performers on the screen were doing, not what they received for doing it.”
Sophia Loren (born 1934) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Sophia, Living and Loving: Her Own Story (1979) by A. E. Hotchner, p. 63.
“Work at these things, practice them, these are the things you ought to desire; they are what will put you on the path of divine virtue — yes, by the one who entrusted our soul with the tetraktys, source of ever-flowing nature. Pray to the gods for success and get to work.”
Pythagoras (583–491 BC) said by 491 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Divine Harmony: The Life and Teachings of Pythagoras by John Strohmeier and Peter Westbrook. (1999)
“The success of any great moral enterprise does not depend upon numbers.”
William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879) said by 1879 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Q: Does commercial success matter to you?”
Thom Yorke (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the first mission of Rainbow Six was actually coming together we really started to realize that we might have a hit on our hands, but hadn't really expected the runaway success.”
Tom Clancy (1947–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On the economic side I cannot perceive that Russian Communism has made any contribution to our economic problems of intellectual interest or scientific value. I do not think that it contains, or is likely to contain, any piece of useful economic technique which we could not apply, if we chose, with equal or greater success in a society which retained all the marks... of British bourgeois ideals.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods. In short we dislike it, and we are beginning to despise it. But when we wonder what to put in its place, we are extremely perplexed.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: National Self-Sufficiency", Finlay Lecture at University College Dublin (19 April 1933), quoted in The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, Volume 21: Activities, 1931–1939: World Crises and Policies in Britain an…