Orison Swett Marden Quotes & Sayings

There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. — Orison Swett Marden

Self-Control is the very essence of character. To be able to look a man straight in the eye, calmly and deliberately, without the slightest ruffle of temper under extreme provocation, gives a sense of power which nothing else can give. To feel that you are always, not sometimes, master of yourself, gives a dignity and strength to character, buttresses it, supports it on every side, as nothing else can. This is the culmination of thought mastery. — Orison Swett Marden

No young man starting in life could have better capital than plenty of friends. They will strengthen his credit, support him in every great effort, and make him what, unaided, he could never be. Friends of the right sort will help him more - to be happy and successful - than much money. — Orison Swett Marden

Fun is the cheapest and best medicine in the world for your children as well as for yourself. Give it to them in good large doses. It will not only save you doctors' bills, but it will also help to make your children happier, and will improve their chances in life. — Orison Swett Marden

Find your purpose and fling your life out to it. Find a way or make one. Try with all your might. Self-made or never made. — Orison Swett Marden

The time will come when human drones will be ostracized from society as nobodies, as thieves of honest men's efforts, thieves of the results of honest men's labor. The coming civilization will not tolerate these thieves of society, these lazy vagabonds who do nothing but steal the products of their labor and demoralize society by their vicious example. — Orison Swett Marden

Genius unexecuted is no more genius than a bushel of acorns is a forest of oaks. — Orison Swett Marden

There is no medicine like hope ... — Orison Swett Marden

A lobster, when left high and dry among the rock, does not have the sense enough to work his way back to the sea, but waits for the sea to come to him. If it does not come, he remains where he is and dies, although the slightest effort would enable him to reach the waves, which are perhaps within a yard of him. The world is full of human lobsters; people stranded on the rocks of indecision and procrastination, who, instead of putting forth their own energies, are waiting for some grand billow of good fortune to set them afloat. — Orison Swett Marden

It is just as important to set apart time for the development of our aesthetic faculties as for cultivating the money-getting instinct. A man cannot live by bread alone. His higher life demands an impalpable food. — Orison Swett Marden

Society is to the individual what the sun and showers are to the seed. It develops him, expands him, unfolds him, calls him out of himself. Other men are his opportunity. Each one is a match which ignites some new tinder in him unignitible by any previous match. Without these the sparks of individuality would sleep in him forever. — Orison Swett Marden

Wanted, a man who will not lose his individuality in a crowd, a man who has the courage of his convictions, who is not afraid to say "No," though all the world say "Yes. — Orison Swett Marden

The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do. — Orison Swett Marden

There's no grander sight in the world than that of a person fired with a great purpose, dominated by one unwavering aim. — Orison Swett Marden

Resolve that you will be the master and not the slave of circumstances. — Orison Swett Marden

A constant struggle, a ceaseless battle to bring success from inhospitable surroundings, is the price of all great achievements. — Orison Swett Marden

If someone offered to purchase a large percentage of your life power you would not think of selling it, even for a fabulous sum. — Orison Swett Marden

Nothing that the mind of man can conceive is impossible. — Orison Swett Marden

The habit of learning to appreciate to the utmost every situation in life adds wonderfully to the sum total of one's happiness. But many people are incapable of real happiness because they never learn to appreciate anything except that which appeals to their own comfort, pleasure, or appetite. — Orison Swett Marden

The influential man is the successful man, whether he be rich or poor. — Orison Swett Marden

The man who has no money is poor, but one who has nothing but money is poorer. He only is rich who can enjoy without owning; he is poor who though he has millions is covetous. — Orison Swett Marden

No man can stand still; the moment progress is not made, retrogression begins. If the blade is not kept sharp and bright, the law of rust will assert its claim. — Orison Swett Marden

Most of us are at war with ourselves, are our own worst enemies. We expect a great deal of ourselves, yet we do not put ourselves in a condition to achieve great things. We are either too indulgent to our bodies, or we are not indulgent enough. — Orison Swett Marden

Opportunity is coy, is swift, is gone, before the slow, the unobservant, the indolent, or the careless can seize her. — Orison Swett Marden

And above all, study, study, study ! All the genius in the world will not help you along with any art unless you become a hard student. It — Orison Swett Marden

Every man must play the part of his ambition. If you are trying to be a successful man, you must play the part. — Orison Swett Marden

Every man ultimately falls into the company with which he affiliates. And he is the strongest who draws men to himself, who creates the company; and this is through having a positive quality - courage and physical prowess. — Orison Swett Marden

Even the men most richly endowed with ability, education, and opportunity, even the giants of the race, after the completest life possible, feel, as they stand on the edge of the grave, that they are but human acorns with all their possibilities still in them, just beginning to sprout. — Orison Swett Marden

The true doctrine is that labor - systematic, effective, congenial labor - is not only a necessity, but is the source of the highest enjoyment. — Orison Swett Marden

Our visions are the plans of the possible life structure, but they will end in plans if we do not follow them up with a vigorous effort to make them real, just as the architect's plans will end in his drawings if they are not followed up and made real by the builder. — Orison Swett Marden

Work faithfully, and you will put yourself in possession of a glorious and enlarging happiness. — Orison Swett Marden

The power of material things, to bestow happiness, to bring joy into the life is tremendously exaggerated. The right mental attitude, the trained mind, will bring to us the best there is in the universe. — Orison Swett Marden

Necessity has been a priceless spur which has helped men to perform miracles against incredible odds. — Orison Swett Marden

Play is as necessary to the perfect development of a child as sunshine is to the perfect development of a plant. — Orison Swett Marden

Love, like the sun, never sees the dark side of anything. — Orison Swett Marden

WHATEVER THE SOUL IS TAUGHT to expect, that it will build.
Our heart longings, our soul aspirations, are something more than mere vaporings of the imagination or idle dreams. They are prophecies, predictions, couriers, forerunners of things which can become realities. They are indicators of our possibilities. They measure the height of our aim, the range of our efficiency. — Orison Swett Marden

Analyzing what you haven't got as well as what you have is a necessary ingredient of a career. — Orison Swett Marden

The greatest advantage of books does not always come from what we remember of them, but from their suggestiveness, their character-building power. — Orison Swett Marden

The man who would forge to the front in this competitive age must be a man of prompt and determined decision. — Orison Swett Marden

Whatever our creed, we feel that no good deed can by any possibility go unrewarded, no evil deed unpunished. — Orison Swett Marden

Nothing is more foolish, nothing more wicked than to drag the skeletons of the past, the hideous images, the foolish deeds, the unfortunate experiences of yesterday into today's work to mar and spoil it. There are plenty of people who have been failures up to the present moment who could do wonders in the future if they only could forget the past, if they only had the ability to cut it off, to close the door on it forever and start anew. — Orison Swett Marden

The wearer of smiles and the bearer of a kindly disposition needs no introduction, but is welcome anywhere. — Orison Swett Marden

As long as a man faces life hopefully, confidently, triumphantly he is not a failure — Orison Swett Marden

The achievements of willpower are almost beyond computation. Scarcely anything seems impossible to the man who can will strongly enough and long enough. — Orison Swett Marden

It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that make the master's fame. — Orison Swett Marden

Dreams that are realized become an inspiration for new endeavor. It is in the power to make the dream good that we find the hope of this world. — Orison Swett Marden

The universe is one great kindergarten. Everything that exists has brought with it its own peculiar lesson. The mountain teaches stability and grandeur; the ocean immensity and change. Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon our soul. — Orison Swett Marden

If we put the emphasis upon the right things, if we live the life that is worth while and then fail, we will survive all disasters, we will out-live all misfortune. We should be so well balanced and symmetrical, that nothing which could ever happen could throw us off our center, so that no matter what misfortune should overtake us, there would still be a whole magnificent man or woman left after being stripped of everything else. — Orison Swett Marden

All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible. — Orison Swett Marden

It is psychological law that whatever we desire to accomplish we must impress upon the subjective or subconscious mind. — Orison Swett Marden

The great aim of your life should be to keep your powers up to the highest possible standard, to so conserve your energies, guard your health, that you can make every occasion a great occasion. — Orison Swett Marden

Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them. — Orison Swett Marden

Robust health and optimism produce happiness. The power of a sunny soul to transform the most trying situations in life is beyond all power to compute. The world loves the sunny soul, the man who carries his holidays in his eye and his sunshine with him. The determination to be kind and helpful to every one, to be cheerful, no matter what comes to us, is a great happiness producer. When a man does not find repose in himself it is vain for him to seek it elsewhere. — Orison Swett Marden

Opportunities? They are all around us ... There is power lying latent everywhere waiting for the observant eye to discover it. — Orison Swett Marden

We must give more in order to get more. It is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest. — Orison Swett Marden

Life is not mean, it is grand; if it is mean to any, he or she makes it so. God made it glorious. It is paved with diamonds; its banks he fringed with flowers. He overarched it with stars. Around it He spread the glory of the physical universe-suns, moon, worlds, constellations, systems-all that is magnificent in motion, sublime in magnitude, and grand in order and obedience. God would not have attended life with this broad march of grandeur if it did not mean something. — Orison Swett Marden

Where did the idea come from that we should take life so seriously, anyway? Why should a man be such a slave to his breadwinning? We ought to be able to get a good living, even to make fortunes, and yet have a good time every day of our lives. This idea of being a slave most of the time, and of only occasionally enjoying a holiday, is all wrong. — Orison Swett Marden

What a great discrepancy there is between people and the results they achieve! It is due to the difference in their power of calling together all the rays of their ability, and concentrating them upon one point. — Orison Swett Marden

Some people get along beautifully, for half a lifetime, perhaps, while everything goes smoothly. While they are accumulating property and gaining friends and reputation, their characters seem to be strong and well-balanced; but the moment there is friction anywhere, - the moment trouble comes, a failure in business, a panic, or a great crisis in which they lose their all, - they are overwhelmed. They despair, lose heart, courage, faith, hope, and power to try again, - everything. Their very manhood or womanhood is swallowed up by a mere material loss. — Orison Swett Marden

Economize in other things if you must, wear threadbare clothes if necessary, but never cheat your body or brain by the quality and quantity of your food. Poor, cheap food which produces low vitality and inferior brain force is the worst kind of economy. — Orison Swett Marden

The trouble with us is that we try to find happiness where it does not exist, in transient, impermanent things; we try to find it in the gratification of desire; we seek it in animal pleasure. Happiness lives in giving, in doing, not in getting, in grasping. — Orison Swett Marden

He is the richest man who enriches his country most; in whom the people feel richest and proudest; who gives himself with his money; who opens the doors of opportunity widest to those about him; who is ears to the deaf, eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. — Orison Swett Marden

A great many young men try to justify themselves and check inward protests by the perpetual self-suggestion that it is better to keep on, for the present, in questionable occupations, because the great financial reward will put them in position to do better later. This is a sort of sedative to the conscience to keep it quiet until they can afford to listen to it. — Orison Swett Marden

It is those who have this imperative demand for the best in their natures, and who will accept nothing short of it, that holds the banners of progress, that set the standards, the ideals, for others. — Orison Swett Marden

History furnishes thousands of examples of men who have seized occasions to accomplish results deemed impossible by those less resolute. Prompt decision and whole-souled action sweep the world before them. — Orison Swett Marden

If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. — Orison Swett Marden

Work, love and play are the great balance wheels of man's being. — Orison Swett Marden

Like the sun, love radiates and warms into life all that it touches. — Orison Swett Marden

Why do we allow the mirage of to-morrow to keep our eyes from the beauties of to-day? — Orison Swett Marden

We cannot separate our lives from time. Why is it that we are so extravagant, so thoughtless, in our waste of time, especially in youth, when we cling so tenaciously to life? You cannot separate a wasted hour from the same duration of your life. If you waste your time, you must waste your life. If you improve your time, you cannot help improving your life. — Orison Swett Marden

A man will remain a rag-picker as long as he has only the vision of a rag-picker. — Orison Swett Marden

Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one's being. — Orison Swett Marden

Self-confidence carries conviction; it makes other people believe in us. — Orison Swett Marden

We lift ourselves by our own thought; we climb upon our vision of ourselves. — Orison Swett Marden

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. — Orison Swett Marden

Whoever uplifts civilization is rich though he die penniless, and future generations will erect his monument. — Orison Swett Marden

Before water generates steam, it must register two hundred and twelve degrees of heat. Two hundred degrees will not do it; two hundred and ten will not do it. The water must boil before it will generate enough steam to move an engine, to run a train. Lukewarm water will not run anything.
A great many people are trying to move their life trains with lukewarm water - or water that is almost boiling - and they are wondering why they are stalled, why they cannot get ahead. They are trying to run a boiler with two hundred or two hundred and ten degrees of heat, and they cannot understand why they do not get anywhere.
Lukewarmness in his work stands in the same relation to man's achievement as lukewarm water does to the locomotive boiler. No man can hope to accomplish anything great in this world until he throws his whole soul, flings his force to his whole life, into it. — Orison Swett Marden

You cannot measure a man by his failures. You must know what use he makes of them. What did they mean to him. What did he get out of them. — Orison Swett Marden

He who improves an opportunity sows a seed which will yield fruit in opportunity for himself and others. — Orison Swett Marden

You are never to allow a shadow of doubt to enter your mind that the Creator intended you to win in life's battle. — Orison Swett Marden

No man is beaten until his hope is annihilated, his confidence gone, As long as a man faces life hopefully, confidently, triumphantly, he is not a failure; he is not beaten until he turns his back on life. — Orison Swett Marden

GUARD YOUR WEAK POINT. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty: and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. - Bible. The first and best of victories is for a man to conquer himself: to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful and vile. - Plato. The worst education which teaches self-denial is better than the best which teaches everything else and not that. - John Sterling. Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. - Seneca. The energy which issues in growth, or assimilates knowledge, must originate in self and be self-directed. - Thomas J. Morgan. — Orison Swett Marden

Aim at perfection in everything?, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable. - Chesterfield. — Orison Swett Marden

It is the idle man, not the great worker, who is always complaining that he has no time or opportunity. — Orison Swett Marden

The educated man ought to be able to do something better, something higher than merely to put money in his purse. Money-making can not compare with man-making. — Orison Swett Marden

The sort of man you will make of yourself, how you will be regarded by the world, whether people will admire and respect or despise you, whether you win the approval or the condemnation of your Maker - all this is in your own hands. — Orison Swett Marden

Sweeter than the perfume of roses is a reputation for a kind, charitable, unselfish nature; a ready disposition to do to others any good turn in your power. — Orison Swett Marden

We lift ourselves by our thought, we climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always, everywhere - your ideal of what you long to attain - the ideal of health, efficiency, success. — Orison Swett Marden

Unless generosity of spirit prevails among men, there can never be upon earth an ideal life. — Orison Swett Marden

He has missed the finest lesson of culture and experience who has not learned how to enjoy without owning. — Orison Swett Marden

There is nothing in this world which men desire and struggle for, and that is good for them, of which there is not enough for everybody. — Orison Swett Marden

There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority. — Orison Swett Marden

Live and let live is not enough; live and help live is not too much. — Orison Swett Marden

She alone is the happy woman who has learned to extract happiness, not from ideal conditions, but from the actual ones about her. The woman who has mastered the secret will not wait for ideal surroundings; she will not wait until next year, next decade, until she gets rich, until she can travel abroad ... but she will make the most out of life today, where she is. Paradise is here or nowhere. You must take your joy with you or you will never find it. — Orison Swett Marden

The world is a looking-glass which flings back to us the reflection of ourselves. If we laugh it laughs back at us. If we shed tears, it reflects a sorrowful face. — Orison Swett Marden

Cicero said: "Not to have a mania for buying, is to possess a revenue." Many are carried away by the habit of bargain-buying. "Here's something wonderfully cheap; let's buy it." "Have you any use for it?" "No, not at present; but it is sure to come in useful, some time. — Orison Swett Marden

One should live between extravagance and meanness. Don't save money by starving your mind. It is false economy never to take a holiday, or never to spend money for an evening's amusement or for a useful book. — Orison Swett Marden

Existence is the privilege of effort, and when that privilege is met like a man, opportunities to succeed along the line of your aptitude will come faster than you can use them. — Orison Swett Marden

Agassiz would not lecture at five hundred dollars a night, because he had no time to make money. — Orison Swett Marden

The most fascinating person is always the one of the most winning manners; not the one of greatest physical beauty. — Orison Swett Marden