Success

"Everyone knows how compromised the idea of bureaucracy as a meritocratic system is. The first criterion of loyalty to any organization is therefore complicity. Career advancement is not based on merit but on a willingness to play along with the fiction that career advancement is based on merit, or with the fiction that rules and regulations apply to everyone equally, when in fact they are often deployed as an instrument of arbitrary personal power. ... As whole societies have come to represent themselves as giant credentialized meritocracies, rather than as systems of predatory extraction, we bustle about, trying to curry favor by pretending we actually believe it to be true."

"Somebody said it couldn't be done, But he with a chuckle replied That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin On his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn't be done, and he did it."

"My definition of success is doing what you love. I feel many people do things because they feel they have to, and are hesitant to risk following their passion."

"'Tis a lesson you should heed, Try, try again. If at first you don't succeed, Try, try again."

"No wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice...p. 55"

"No person may enjoy outstanding success without good health. Many of the causes of ill health are subject to mastery and control. These, in the main are: a. Overeating of foods not conducive to health. b. Wrong habits of thought... c. Wrong use of, and over indulgence in sex. d. Lack of proper physical exercise e. An inadequate supply of fresh air, due to improper breathing.... The most damaging forms of intemperance are connected with eating, strong drink, and sexual activities. Overindulgence in any of these is fatal to success..."

"Success comes through the application of power, and power is attained through the cooperative efforts of other people. A negative personality will not induce cooperation. p. 87... Sons and daughters of wealthy men, and others who inherit money which they did not earn... is often fatal to success... There is no substitute for honesty... there is NO hope for the person who is dishonest p.88..."

"You have absolute control over but one thing, and that is your thoughts. p. 173... Doubting Thomases scoffed scornfully when Henry Ford tried out his first crudely built automobile on the streets of Detroit... Mind control is the result of self-discipline and habit. You either control your mind or it controls you. p. 173"

"Building alibis with which to explain away failure is a national pastime. The habit is as old as the human race, and is fatal to success! Why do people cling to their pet alibis? The answer is obvious. They defend their alibis because THEY CREATE them! A man's alibi is the child of his own imagination. It is human nature to defend one's own brain-child...Building alibis is a deeply rooted habit. Habits are difficult to break, especially when they provide justification for something we do. Plato had this truth in mind when he said, The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile. ...In parting, I would remind you that "Life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite you is time. If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate indecision! p. 173"

"No weapon formed against you will have any success, and you will condemn any tongue that rises up against you in the judgment."

"If one cannot have success, the next most agreeable thing is failure."

"For me success was always going to be a Lamborghini. But now I've got it, it just sits on my drive."

"“Just act like you have maximum security clearance,” Sebastian said. “That, in a nutshell, is the secret of success and the best advice I can give you.”"

"The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal, the more mendacious is the life displayed. So I am against all big organizations as such, national ones first and foremost; against all big successes and big results; and in favor of the eternal forces of truth which always work in the individual and immediately unsuccessful way, under-dogs always, till history comes, after they are long dead, and puts them on top."

"Capitalist-private property relations are the source of class inequalities, which is the primary factor in my being a member of a class that bears all the burdens of society without enjoying its advantages. Under the influence of illegitimate-capitalist values, I was pursuing the alleviation of social-economic hardship through individual advancement. This is a wholly inadequate remedy to social problems because it doesn’t challenge the fundamental injustice of class-exploitation and class-oppression, which are responsible for creating the socio-economic ills in the first place. Unaware of my class interest, I was perpetuating my own oppression by engaging in competitive capitalist practices that ensure the smooth functioning of the system as the exploiting minority profits in more ways than one off the division and disunity engendered by competition, so prevalent amongst the exploited. Look around: competition, euphemistically called “individuality,” permeates and is systematically promoted to the masses of people while the corporate conglomerations and Fortune 500 are busy “merging and monopolizing.”"

"The secret to success is the willingness to serve without aspiring for rewards."

"Some of you will be successful, and such will need but little philosophy to take them home in cheerful spirits; others will be disappointed, and will be in a less happy mood. To such, let it be said, “Lay it not too much to heart.” Let them adopt the maxim, “Better luck next time”; and then, by renewed exertion, make that better luck for themselves."

"Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don’t recognize them."

"Achieving success is an unquantifiable notion – indeed, success carries with it an aura of money and power, and things like that, which – certainly for me – would be detrimental."

"Problems or successes, they all are the results of our own actions. Karma. The philosophy of action is that no one else is the giver of peace or happiness. One's own karma, one's own actions are responsible to come to bring either happiness or success or whatever."

"I've had marvellous and incredible luck, and devoted parents, sisters, friends, and teachers. What more can one ask? These things contribute enormously. Probably the major part of one's success is due to these factors."

"History shows us that when we become success-dominated, we lose sight of our real reasons for living."

"Food is the origin of success."

"Heaven, when it sent me into the world, did not give me a soul suited to the air of courts. I do not find in myself the virtues necessary to succeed, and make my fortune there. My chief talent is to be frank and sincere."

"If you want to succeed in investments, start early and try hard and keep doing it. All success comes that way, by and large."

"Is the proposed operation likely to succeed? What might be the consequences of failure? Is it in the realm of practicability in terms of matériel and supplies?"

"If you don't have that sense of national unity, then it's very hard for a country to succeed."

"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success."

"Perioderna av framgång är mer riskfyllda än andra har jag alltid tyckt. Går allting helt enligt ritningarna riskerar man att farten blir allt för hög. Projekten enorma, och självförtroendet väl stort. Är tiderna goda finns alltid alternativ. Då finns risk att man väljer fel. I dåliga tider är det däremot inte särskilt svårt att inse vad som behöver göras."

"Success is whatever humiliation everyone has agreed to compete for."

"Fortunate people seldom mend their ways, for when good luck crowns their misdeeds with success they think it is because they are right."

"Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals."

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood: who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

"It is a bad thing for a nation to raise and to admire a false standard of success; and there can be no falser standard than that set by the deification of material well-being in and for itself."

"‘Since tyrants by the sale of human life Heap luxuries to their sensualism, and fame To their wide-wasting and insatiate pride, Success has sanctioned to a credulous world The ruin, the disgrace, the woe of war."

"I'm on the road to success, I strive to be the best. I never settle for less, if I'm broke I can't rest."

"Failure makes success so much sweeter, and allows you to thumb your nose at the crowds."

"Success to me is having ten honeydew melons and eating only the top half of each one."

"It is held that one fulfils his whole duty when he is industrious in his business or vocation, observing also the decencies of domestic, civil, and religious life. But activity of this kind stirs only the surface of our being, leaving what is most divine to starve; and when it is made the one important thing, men lose sense for what is high and holy, and become commonplace, mechanical, and hard. Science is valuable for them as a means to comfort and wealth; morality, as an aid to success; religion, as an agent of social order. In their eyes those who devote themselves to ideal aims and ends are as foolish as the alchemists, since the only real world is that of business and politics, or of business simply, since politics is business."

"All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour."

"Success makes some crimes honorable."

"Men rush to California and Australia as if the true gold were to be found in that direction; but that is to go to the very opposite extreme to where it lies. They go prospecting farther and farther away from the true lead, and are most unfortunate when they think themselves most successful."

"Success is the necessary misfortune of life, but it is only to the very unfortunate that it comes early."

"...he's got money ... and he's good looking, — and therefore he'll be a success."

"I remind young people everywhere I go, one of the worst things the older generation did was to tell them for twenty-five years "Be successful, be successful, be successful" as opposed to "Be great, be great, be great". There's a qualitative difference."

"Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna, or it can smooth the edges, take away the insecurities, let the nice things come out."

"The gentleman knows that whatever is imperfect and unrefined does not deserve praise. ... He makes his eyes not want to see what is not right, makes his ears not want to hear what is not right, makes his mouth not want to speak what is not right, and makes his heart not want to deliberate over what is not right. ... For this reason, power and profit cannot sway him, the masses cannot shift him, and nothing in the world can shake him."

"One whose intentions and thoughts are cultivated will disregard wealth and nobility. One whose greatest concern is for the Way and righteousness will take lightly kings and dukes. It is simply that when one examines oneself on the inside, external goods carry little weight. A saying goes, "The gentleman makes things his servants. The petty man is servant to things.""

"From the Three Dynasties down to the present day it has been like this. The good and honest people are ignored, while spineless flatterers are advanced."