Orison Swett Marden Quotes

The successful men of today are men of one overmastering idea, one unwavering aim, men of single and intense purpose.

The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling.

You have not found your place until all your faculties are roused, and your whole nature consents and approves of the work you are doing.

What power can poverty have over a home where loving hearts are beating with a consciousness of untold riches of the head and heart?

No employer today is independent of those about him. He cannot succeed alone, no matter how great his ability or capital. Business today is more than ever a question of cooperation.

Opportunity is often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be tuning in

You cannot measure a man by his failures. You must know what use he makes of them. What did they mean to him. What did he get out of them.

How can I develop myself into the grandest possible manhood?

Be larger than your task.

The mill cannot grind with the water that has passed.

The moment man cuts himself off from living connection with the human race and its needs, he begins to die from poor circulation.

They may well fear fate who have any infirmity of habit or aim: but they who rest on what is have a destiny beyond destiny, and can make mouths of fortune.

No man fails who does his best.

The glow of satisfaction which follows the consciousness of doing our level best never comes to a human being from any other experience.

Dreams that are realized become an inspiration for new endeavor. It is in the power to make the dream good that we find the hope of this world.

Great men are but common men more fully developed and ripened.

Every germ of goodness will at last struggle into bloom and fruitage...true success follows every right step.

The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of the weak.

The world makes way for the man with an idea.

What we do for a living does not matter as much as how we do it.

Money, influence, and position are nothing compared with brains, principles, energy and perseverances.

Live and let live is not enough; live and help live is not too much.

There is no investment you can make which will pay you so well as the effort to scatter sunshine and good cheer through your establishment.

Every child should be taught to expect success

Doing common things uncommonly well.

We can give our smiles, our encouragement, our sympathy to someone who needs them every day of the year.

The influential man is the successful man, whether he be rich or poor.

You will never succeed while smarting under the drudgery of your occupation, if you are constantly haunted with the idea that you could succeed better in something else.

Ambition is the incentive that makes purpose GREAT and ACHIEVEMENT greater!

Concentrate . . . for the greatest achievements are reserved for the man of single aim, in whom no rival powers divide the empire of the soul.

Opportunity always looks bigger going than coming.

There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority.

Power gravitates to the man who knows how.

Something greater than wealth, grander even than fame — that manhood, character, stand for success, and that nothing else really does.

Let your air be that of a winner, a man who is resolved to make his way in the world, to make himself stand for something.

The man who has no money is poor, but one who has nothing but money is poorer. He only is rich who can enjoy without owning; he is poor who though he has millions is covetous.

The greatest advantage of books does not always come from what we remember of them, but from their suggestiveness, their character-building power.

Play is as necessary to the perfect development of a child as sunshine is to the perfect development of a plant.

Defeats and failures are great developers of character. They have made the giants of our race by giving Titanic muscles, brawny sinews, and far-reaching intellects.

Mirth is God's medicine; everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety-all the rust of life- ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth.

We advance on our journey only when we face our goal, when we are confident and believe we are going to win out.

As long as a man faces life hopefully, confidently, triumphantly he is not a failure

Every one who has labored honestly in the past has aided to place knowledge and comfort within the reach of a constantly increasing number.

What we sincerely believe regarding ourselves is true for us.

Thrift means that you should always have the best you can possibly afford, when the thing has any reference to your physical and mental health, to your growth in efficiency and power.

There is no law by which one can, as long as he thinks he can't.

Self-confidence carries conviction; it makes other people believe in us.

We lift ourselves by our thought.

It is those who have this imperative demand for the best in their natures, and who will accept nothing short of it, that holds the banners of progress, that set the standards, the ideals, for others.

No one should voluntarily remain in an environment which prevents his development.