Quotes About Success

1 In this book, I evaluate both American and Russian leaders—their ideas, decisions, and behavior—by how well they succeeded in achieving what in my view were desirable and attainable objectives.

I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I'd rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas.

Capitalism would have never let me be a filmmaker, living in Flint, Michigan with a high school education. I was going to have to make that happen myself.

One of the great failings of our education system is that we tend to focus on those who are succeeding in exams, and there are plenty of them. But what we should also be looking at, and a lot more urgently, is those who fail.

Persistence is the difference that separates winners and losers. It is the difference between success and failure. Successful people fail and keep persisting. Unsuccessful people fail once and give up. It is well said that "we fall down, but we get back up again." Failure is not falling down, it's staying down.

An idea that nobody is born to be a failure.

After completing a Delaware State education, they were afforded opportunities beyond anything they might have imagined - and they opened doors for themselves that surely would have remained closed if they only had a high school education.

I think that when we have a better educated society, when there is less violence in our cities, when people get back into the workforce and have the opportunity to take care of themselves and their families - that for me really is the kind of success and the kind of America that I think most of us still want, we aspire to.

So proud to be joining the best team in the world.

Denis O'B rings to say that the first-week take at the Plaza is £40,000. 'Forty thousand pounds!' Denis incredulates in tones of almost religious fervency. It is impressive and has beaten the previous highest-ever take at the Plaza (which was for Jaws) by £8,000, with seven fewer performances. So all the publicity has had maximum effect.

Frank Muir is affable. 'We're all fag ends in the gutter of life,' he replies cheerfully to my observation that the timing of success is quite unpredictable … 'One realises that all those things like talent, looks, skill and hard work really don't get you anywhere.

Later in my journey I was told of an outrageous but apparently successful attempt to bring tourists to Great Nicobar. During the monsoon torrential rain comes down spectacularly. A bright Indian entrepreneur advertised a tour for rich Arabs from the arid Gulf who could sit on their hotel balcony and watch rain for a week. It was a sell-out.)

No surprise then that the pure socialists support every revolution except for the ones that succeed.

I want to test my maximum and see how much I can do. And I want to change the world of swimming.

I want to be able to look back and say, 'I've done everything I can, and I was successful.' I don't want to look back and say I should have done this or that. I'd like to change things for the younger generation of swimmers coming along.

I think sometimes I guess you see records, say you want to get there and use that as motivation. In a way, it's kind of cool if there is a possibility to rewrite history and be up there with the greats of Olympic history.

I think everything is possible as long as long as you put your mind, work and time into it.

I knew I was not a failure in any way, and so did those close to me. It doesn't matter if you fall short; it is never a failure to go after your goals with everything you've got.

In business, words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.

I'm doing this for me. If I don't become as successful as you all think I would be or should be and you think it tarnishes my career, then that's your own opinion. I'm doing this because I want to come back and I enjoy being in the pool and I enjoy being in the sport of swimming.

It sounds cliche, but success is your friends, your family, what you do, and if you're happy when you wake up.

If your goal is anything but profitability - if it's to be big, or to grow fast, or to become a technology leader - you'll hit problems.

If he only made three miles a day, so be it. Better to have those three miles behind him than ahead.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune …