Successful quotes
4.7K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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"Am I Machiavellian? I don't think I'm quite the mastermind people would have me be. Everything I do tends to be very successful and it may have something to do with the fact that I'm very good, not necessarily that I manipulate. But that doesn't often occur to people."
"My mom raised me to be successful and not be a knucklehead and do the wrong things. She still talks to me to this day about those things."
"Most of the successful people I know mostly listen, not talk."
"The primary reason for underachievement and failure is that the great majority of people don't decide to be successful."
"The predominant quality of successful people is optimism.... Your level of optimism is the very best predictor of how happy, healthy, wealthy, and long-lived you will be."
"The more accurately you can think about who you are, what you want to accomplish and how to accomplish it, the more successful you will be."
"But then when I'm in a halfway successful movie, it irritates the hell out of the critics in New York, because they'd like to kill my pictures if they could. So maybe I'm pretty good in the movie. Then they use all these words like I'm 'surprisingly' good, or 'shockingly enough,' I'm good. It's like I crawled out from under a magazine and they're surprised I can act."
"There is no way of making a business successful that can vie with the policy of promoting those who render exceptional service."
"The opportunities and threats existing in any situation always exceed the resources needed to exploit the opportunities or avoid the threats. Thus, strategy is essentially a problem of allocating resources. If strategy is to be successful, it must allocate superior resources against a decisive opportunity."
"I love to sing. I don't think it's strange for singers to act, or painters to sculpt. I don't want to ever feel like I'm cornered into one expression of creativity because I'm successful at making films or being an actor. I guess it's best to not paint yourself into that corner."
"Socialization would be the most successful thing to bring mainstream audiences to online computers."
"Do you have a passion for what you do and do you love what you do? If you don't, then it can be drudgery, it can be hard, it can be work. But when you find something that you enjoy a lot, then you're more willing to sacrifice a lot of things in order to be successful as a teacher."
"There are people who have figured out the exact, you know, Kanye West formula, the mix between "Graduation" and "808s," and were able to become more successful at it."
"A classic,' suggested Anthony, 'is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it's safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It's acquired a picturesque dignity to take the place of its fashion."
"I'm vain enough to think that I've made a successful life. I've had everything I've ever wanted. You can't beat that."
"Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to necessity, because his freedom is always won in his never wholly successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity."
"Often the difference between a successful marriage and a mediocre one consists of leaving about three or four things a day unsaid."
"All long-term social change comes from the successful efforts of one or another struggling organizations to capture the minds of a hard core of future leaders."
"Object to merit and distinction, and you're setting your face against quality, independence, originality, genius against all the richness and variety of life. When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help."
"Do what you need to do, so that you can do what you want to do. Success and convenience do not go together. You have what it takes to be successful, so you have to step up your game and make room for it."
