Famous Orison Swett Marden Quotations

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"Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory."
by Orison Swett Marden
"It is like the seed put in the soil - the more one sows, the greater the harvest."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The best thing about giving of ourselves is that what we get is always better than what we give. The reaction is greater than the action."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The influential man is the successful man, whether he be rich or poor."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other."
by Orison Swett Marden
"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."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The quality of your work, in the long run, is the deciding factor on how much your services are valued by the world."
by Orison Swett Marden
"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."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a King."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There is something greater than wealth, grander even than fame -- manhood, character, stand for success... nothing else really does."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There is only one thing for us to do, and that is to do our level best right where we are every day of our lives; To use our best judgment, and then to trust the rest to that Power which holds the forces of the universe in his hands."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There is no stimulus like that which comes from the consciousness of knowing that others believe in us."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Unless you have prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable to you just in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it."
by Orison Swett Marden
"We make the world we live in and shape our own environment."
by Orison Swett Marden
"When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, and all of his faculties say amen to what he is doing, and give their unqualified approval to his efforts, - this is happiness, this is success."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one's being."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work."
by Orison Swett Marden
"If you do not feel yourself growing in your work and your life broadening and deepening, if your task is not a perpetual tonic to you, you have not found your place."
by Orison Swett Marden
"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."
by Orison Swett Marden
"It is like the seed put in the soil -- the more one sows, the greater the harvest."
by Orison Swett Marden
"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."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it is yours."
by Orison Swett Marden
"It is what we do easily and what we like to do that we do well."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them."
by Orison Swett Marden
"A strong, successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favorable conditions. His own inherent force and energy compel things to turn out as he desires."
by Orison Swett Marden
"A good system shortens the road to the goal."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career."
by Orison Swett Marden
"A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from inhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements."
by Orison Swett Marden
"A will finds a way."
by Orison Swett Marden
"All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers."
by Orison Swett Marden
"All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Be larger than your task."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work"
by Orison Swett Marden
"Every experience in life, everything with which we have come in contact in life, is a chisel which has been cutting away at our life statue, molding, modifying, shaping it. We are part of all we have met. Everything we have seen, heard, felt, or thought has had its hand in molding us, shaping us"
by Orison Swett Marden
"Every youth owes it to himself and to the world to make the most possible out of the stuff that is in him."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man."
by Orison Swett Marden
"It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that make the master's fame."
by Orison Swett Marden
"It is psychological law that whatever we desire to accomplish we must impress upon the subjective or subconscious mind."
by Orison Swett Marden
"It is the youth who sees a great opportunity hidden in just these simple services, who sees a very uncommon situation, a humble position, who gets on in the world."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young. A good laugh makes us better friends with ourselves and everybody around us."
by Orison Swett Marden
"No man fails who does his best."
by Orison Swett Marden
"No man can be ideally successful until he has found his place. Like a locomotive he is strong on the track, but weak anywhere else."
by Orison Swett Marden
"No one has a corner on success. It is his who pays the price."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Nothing else so destroys the power to stand alone as the habit of leaning upon others. If you lean, you will never be strong or original. Stand alone or bury your ambition to be somebody in the world."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them... they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Our destiny changes with our thought; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thought corresponds with our desire."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Our destiny changes with our thought we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thought corresponds with our desire."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Our trials, our sorrows, and our grieves develop us."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Our thoughts and imagination are the only real limits to our possibilities."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Power gravitates to the man who knows how."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Put the uncommon effort into the common task... make it large by doing it in a great way."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The golden rule for every business man is this: 'Put yourself in your customer's place.'"
by Orison Swett Marden
"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others it is in yourself alone."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The hand cannot reach higher than does the heart."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The size of your accomplishments, the quality of your achievement, will depend very largely on how big a man you see in yourself, what sort of image you get of your possible self, yourself at your best."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The Universe is one great kindergarten for man. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There are powers inside of you, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow."
by Orison Swett Marden
"To many a man, and sometimes to a youth, there comes the opportunity to choose between honorable competence and tainted wealth. The young man who starts out to be poor and honorable, holds in his hand one of the strongest elements of success."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Unless you are prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable to you in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it."
by Orison Swett Marden
"We fail to see that we can control our destiny; make ourselves do whatever is possible; make ourselves become whatever we long to be."
by Orison Swett Marden
"We lift ourselves by our thought, we climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always, everywhere - your ideal of what you long to attain - the ideal of health, efficiency, success."
by Orison Swett Marden
"We must give more in order to get more. It is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest."
by Orison Swett Marden
"What power can poverty have over a home where loving hearts are beating with a consciousness of untold riches of the head and heart?"
by Orison Swett Marden
"When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, and all of his faculties say 'amen' to what he is doing, and give their unqualified approval to his efforts, - this is happiness, this is success."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Whatever our creed, we feel that no good deed can by any possibility go unrewarded, no evil deed unpunished."
by Orison Swett Marden
"When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time."
by Orison Swett Marden
"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."
by Orison Swett Marden
"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."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Your expectations opens or closes the doors of your supply, If you expect grand things, and work honestly for them, they will come to you, your supply will correspond with your expectation."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Your outlook upon life, your estimate of yourself, your estimate of your value are largely colored by your environment. Your whole career will be modified, shaped, molded by your surroundings, by the character of the people with whom you come in contact every day."
by Orison Swett Marden
"This force, which is the best thing in you, your highest self, will never respond to any ordinary half-hearted call, or any milk-and-water endeavor, It can only be reached by your supremest call, your supremest effort. It will respond only to the call that is backed up by the whole of you, not part of you; you must be all there in what you are trying to do. You must bring every particle of your energy, unanswerable resolution, your best efforts, your persistent industry to your task or the best will not come out of you. You must back up your ambition by your whole nature, by unbounded enthusiasm and a determination to win which knows no failure... Only a masterly call, a masterly will, a supreme effort, intense and persistent application, can unlock the door to your inner treasure and release your highest powers."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The greatest trouble with most of us is that our demands upon ourselves are so feeble, the call upon the great within of us so weak and intermittent that it makes no impression upon the creative energies; it lacks the force that transmutes desires into realities."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Resolve that whatever you do, you will bring the whole man to it; that you will fling the whole weight of your being into it."
by Orison Swett Marden
"You know from past experiences that whenever you have been driven to the wall, or thought you were, you have extricated yourself in a way which you never would have dreamed possible had you not been put to the test. The trouble is that in your everyday life you don't go deep enough to tap the divine mind within you."
by Orison Swett Marden
"We fail to see that we can control our own destiny; make ourselves do whatever is possible; make ourselves become whatever we long to be."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Every experience in life, everything with which we have come in contact in life, is a chisel which has been cutting away at our life statue, molding, modifying, shaping it. We are part of all we have met. Everything we have seen, heard, felt or thought has had its hand in molding us, shaping us."
by Orison Swett Marden
"It is just the little difference between the good and the best that makes the difference between the artist and the artisan. It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that makes the master's fame."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Great men are but common men more fully developed and ripened."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Doing common things uncommonly well."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority..."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Just make up your mind at the very outset that your work is going to stand for quality... that you are going to stamp a superior quality upon everything that goes out of your hands, that whatever you do shall bear the hall-mark of excellence."
by Orison Swett Marden
"There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up, who pushes on when everyone else turns back."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Every germ of goodness will at last struggle into bloom and fruitage;...true success follows every right step."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The sculptor will chip off all unnecessary material to set free the angel. Nature will chip and pound us remorselessly to bring out our possibilities. She will strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, let us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways, if she can develop a little character, Everything must give way to that. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, fame is nothing, manhood is everything."
by Orison Swett Marden
"The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably thought and act."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Man becomes a slave to his constantly repeated acts. What he at first chooses, at last compels."
by Orison Swett Marden
"Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe."
by Orison Swett Marden
"If we put the emphasis upon the right things, if we live the life that is worth while and then fail, we will survive all disasters, we will out-live all misfortune. We should be so well balanced and symmetrical, that nothing which could ever happen could throw us off our center, so that no matter what misfortune should overtake us, there would still be a whole magnificent man or woman left after being stripped of everything else."
by Orison Swett Marden
"All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers. Imagination"
by Orison Swett Marden
"He is the richest man who enriches his country most; in whom the people feel richest and proudest; who gives himself with his money; who opens the doors of opportunity widest to those about him; who is ears to the deaf; eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. Such a man makes every acre of land in his community worth more, and makes richer every man who lives near him."
by Orison Swett Marden


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