Quotes from Orison Swett Marden

connected with an electric wire

You cannot take advantage of God's child and have God for a partner, because you will then be working against Him instead of with Him.

A man who might have been symmetrical, well-rounded, had he availed himself of every opportunity of touching life along all sides, remains a pygmy in everything except his own little specialty, because he did not cultivate his social side. It

Surgeons report that after a great victory, for instance, the wounds of the soldiers, as has been noticed in many similar instances, heal much more rapidly than the wounds of the soldiers in the defeated army, showing that the mental exhilaration, which accompanies the consciousness of victory, is a stimulant, a tonic, while conversely the despondency, which accompanies defeat, is also a physical depressant.

The gods sell anything and to everybody at a fair price. Success is on sale in the world market place. All who are willing to pay the price can buy it.

Who would back you in a race While defeat is in your face?

The highest reputation in every department of human exertion is reserved for minds of one faculty, where no rival powers divide the empire of the soul, and where there is no variety of pursuits to distract and perplex its energies.

If he would only burst his self-imposed shackles, get out of himself, break away from the narrow bounds of his sickly, limited thought, he could be a power in the world.

Success comes through a perfectly scientific mental process. The man who becomes prosperous believes that he is going to be prosperous. He has faith in his ability to make money. He does not start out with his mind filled with doubts and fears, and all the time talk poverty and think poverty, walk like a pauper and dress like a pauper. He turns his face towards the thing he is trying for and is determined to get, and will not admit its opposite picture in his mind.

If you have not what you like, like what you have until you can change your environment. Do not waste your vitality in hating your life; find something in it which is worth liking and enjoying, while you keep steadily at work to make it what you desire. Be happy over something, every day, for the brain is a thing of habit, and you cannot teach it to be happy in a moment, if you allow it to be miserable for years.

No two things differ more than Hurry and Dispatch. Hurry is the mark of a weak mind, Dispatch of a strong one.

Self-confidence has ever been the best substitute for friends, pedigree, influence, and money. It is the best capital in the world; it has mastered more obstacles, overcome more difficulties, and carried through more enterprises than any other human quality.

The world is a whispering gallery which sends back the echo of our own voice. It is a mirror which reflects the face that looks in it. If we laugh, it laughs back; if we frown, it reflects a frown.

If we were all in our right places, doing the thing nature planned us to do, our work would be almost like play. Where the heart is there is no friction or discord, and friction and discord are what wear life out. These are what exhaust the vitality and waste the brain power. If you love your work, it will not be a grind. On the contrary, it will be a pleasure, a perpetual stimulus.

I know of no one thing that will have a greater influence upon your life than the forming of the habit of thinking of yourself as lucky, regarding yourself as extremely fortunate in your birth, in your location, in your adaptation to your particular line of work, as fortunate in your ambition and in your chance in life to make good.

Each of us has the same number of hours in his day, the same number of days in his year, and the chief difference between the success and the failure lies in the use to which the hours' and the days are put.

Specialties facilitate commerce, and promote efficiency in the professions, but are often narrowing to individuals. The spirit of the age tends to doom the lawyer to a narrow life of practice, the business man to a mere money-making career.

Open eyes will discover opportunities everywhere; open ears will never fail to detect the cries of those who are perishing for assistance; open hearts will never want for worthy objects upon which to bestow their gifts; open hands will never lack for noble work to do.

LIVE UPWARD. Do what thou dost as if the stake were heaven, And this thy last deed ere the judgment day. If you wish to reach the highest begin at the lowest.

It is human nature to help a man along the way he is going; if he is going up, the world will boost him; if he is going down, the world will kick him. If a man lacks faith in himself, the world will lack faith in him.

Every child should be taught to expect success, and to believe that he was born to achieve, as the acorn is destined to become an oak. It is cruel for parents and teachers to tell children that they are dull or stupid, or that they are not like others of their age.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope. --HELEN KELLER

success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed : pay the price and it is yours.

Ambition is the spur that makes man struggle with destiny. It is heaven's own incentive to make purpose great and achievement greater.