Success & Failure Quotes — page 2

The first obligation of Simplicity is that of using the simplest means to secure the fullest effect. But although the mind instinctlvely rejects all needless complexity, we shall greatly err if we fail to recognise the fact, that what the …

An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot; it will succeed where diplomatic management would fall: it is neither the Rhine, the Channel, nor the ocean that can arrest its progress: it will march on the horizon …

The unrestricted competition so commonly advocated does not leave us the survival of the fittest. The unscrupulous succeed best in accumulating wealth.

The first work of importance of this character [I] constructed in Spain... in 1868—the manufactory of Batllo in La Corts de Serria. ...Afterwards I built others. In some cases the risk and danger caused by the irregularity of the materials …

He don't look the sort of fellow I like; but he's got money and he comes here, and he's good looking, — and therefore he'll be a success.

Germany possesses an army commensurate with her needs, and if Great Britain has a navy corresponding to her requirements, Europe in general cannot fail to regard it as a most important factor for the maintenance of peace.

The way to secure success, is to be more anxious about obtaining than about deserving it; the surest hindrance to it is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the discernment of the public.

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury – to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.

Better have failed in the high aim, as I, Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed,— As, God be thanked! I do not.

Ambition raises a secret tumult in the soul, it inflames the mind, and puts it into a violent hurry of thought.

It is neither capital nor labor but management that brings success, since management will attract capital, and capital can employ labor.

If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for.

And, having once decided to achieve a certain task, achieve it at all costs of tedium and distaste. The gain in self-confidence of having accomplished a tiresome labour is immense.

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

Goodness is always an asset. A man who is straight, friendly and useful may never be famous, but he is respected and liked by all who know him. He has laid a sound foundation for success and he will have a worthwhile life.

Success soon palls. The joyous time is, when the breeze first strikes your sails, and the waters rustle under your bows.

At the vital moment there seems to be a failure of leadership, and also a failure of the general human spirit among the peoples. I hope I am wrong, but I have a sense of impending calamity, a fear that the war was only the vanguard of …

If a man is not bound down, he is sure to succeed.

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.

Ambition is but Avarice on stilts and masked.

The task of the wise government of so vast an empire may be an impossible one—I often fear it is so—we may fail in our efforts, but, whether we fail or succeed, let us do our best to compensate for the wrong of the past and the present by …

30. The obstacles to soul cognition are bodily disability, mental inertia, wrong questioning, carelessness, laziness, lack of dispassion, erroneous perception, inability to achieve concentration, failure to hold the meditative attitude …

You cannot judge a man's life by the success of a moment, by the victory of an hour, or even by the results of a year. You must view his life as a whole.

Everything that happened, good or bad, would subtract something from the lessening store of useful energy, till a time arrived when nothing could happen any more, and the universe, frozen into eternal repose, would for ever be as if it …