Quotes About Achievement

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

We have met the enemy and they are ours.

Envisioning the end is enough to put the means in motion.

Five minutes, just before going to sleep, given to a bit of directed imagination regarding achievement possibilities of the morrow, will steadily and increasingly bear fruit, particularly if all ideas of difficulty, worry or fear are resolutely ruled out and replaced by those of accomplishment and smiling courage.

I glory more in the coming purchase of my wealth than in the glad possession.

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men of talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

If you start to take Vienna - take Vienna.

You have to pay the price - but if you do you can only win.

Can anything be sadder than work unfinished? Yes; work never begun.

Productive work is the central purpose of a rational man's life, the central value that integrates and determines the hierarchy of all his other values. Reason is the source, the precondition of his productive work - pride is the result.

If a man is called to be a streetsweep-er, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.

I get satisfaction of three kinds. One is creating something, one is being paid for it and one is the feeling that I haven't just been sitting on my ass all afternoon.

Why, then, the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.

If you are doing your best, you will not have time to worry about failure.

Victories that are cheap are cheap. Those only are worth having which come as the result of hard fighting.

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.

The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value.

To conquer without risk is to triumph without glory.

Excellence costs a great deal.

If you want a place in the sun, you've got to put up with a few blisters.

A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity till he has tasted adversity.

Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat.

I've put my genius into my life; I've only put my talent into my works.