Quotes about Working

At last, the final section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

If you don’t want to work, you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work.

Frederic Ogden Nash, US humorous writer, poet (1902-1971)

 

Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work.

Kenichi Ohmae, Japanese management consultant (b. 1943)

The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.

Richard Bach, US author (b. 1936)

Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.

Katherine Whitehorn, British journalist (b. 1928)

Work is not man’s punishment. It is his reward and his strength and his pleasure.

Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, known as George Sand, French author (1804-1876)

If you do not feel yourself growing in your work and your life broadening and deepening, if your task is not a perpetual tonic to you, you have not found your place.

Orison Swett Marden, US editor, author (1850-1924)

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.

Thomas Alva Edison, US inventor (1847-1931)

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.

Indira Gandhi, Indian Prime Minister (1917-1984)

Good work is always done in defiance of management.

Robert Woodward, US journalist (b. 1943)

It’s not enough to be busy. The question is, what are we busy about?

Henry David Thoreau, US essayist, poet (1817-1862)

No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

Booker T Washington, US educator (1856-1915)

By working faithfully eight hours a day you may eventually get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day.

Robert Frost, US poet (1874-1963)

A man who works with his hands is a labourer; a man who works with his hands and his brains is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.

Louis Nizer, British lawyer (1902-1994)

There is no easy method of learning difficult things. The method is to close the door, give out that you are not at home, and work.

Joseph Marie De Maistre, French diplomat, author (1753-1821)

In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: they must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it.

John Ruskin, British author, art critic (1819-1900)

The superstition that all our hours of work are a minus quantity in the happiness of life, and all the hours of idleness are plus ones, is a most ludicrous and pernicious doctrine, and its greatest support comes from our not taking sufficient trouble, not making a real effort, to make work as near pleasure as it can be.

Arthur James Balfour, 1^st Earl of Balfour, British Prime Minister (1848-1930)

The law of work does seem utterly unfair – but there it is, and nothing can change it; the higher the pay in enjoyment the worker gets out of it, the higher shall be his pay in money also.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)

Work seven days a week and nothing can stop you.

John Moores, British entrepreneur, philanthropist (1896-1993)

The Encyclopaedia of Famous Last Words does not contain the entry, ‘I wish I’d spend more time at the office.’

Quotes about Wisdom

Here's the penultimate section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men’s wisdom.

Michel de Montaigne, French essayist (1533-1592)

Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.

William Cowper, British poet (1731-1800)

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

H L Mencken, US journalist (1880-1956)

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.

John Stuart Mill, British philosopher, economist (1806-1873)

The believer is happy. The doubter is wise.

Hungarian proverb

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight. The truly wise person is ‘colour-blind’.

Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian theologian (1875-1965)

Albert Schweitzer

If one is too late to think, too vain to do a thing badly, too cowardly to admit it, one will never attain wisdom.

Cyril Connolly, British critic, author (1903-1974)

Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so.

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4^th Earl of Chesterfield, British statesman, letter-writer (1694-1773)

Quotes about Winning

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

If it doesn’t matter who wins, then how come they keep score?

Vince Lombardi, US football coach (1913-1970)

He who hesitates is last.

Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts’, probably lost.

Martina Navratilova, Czech/US tennis player (b. 1956)

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.

Joe Paterno, US college football coach (b. 1926)

If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.

Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant, US football coach (1913-1983)

Desire is one of the immense advantages that the underdog often has: simply wanting to win more than the top dog does.

William Bridges, US engineer, researcher, educator (b. 1934)

Please don’t ask me what the score is, I’m not even sure what the game is.

Ashleigh Brilliant, British philosopher, author (b. 1933)

The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you’re still a rat.

Mary Jean ‘Lily’ Tomlin, US comic actress (b. 1939)

Quotes about Voice

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself.

Bernard Baruch, US statesman, businessman (1870-1965)

The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)

A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.

Nelson Mandela, South African statesman (b. 1918)

Nelson Mandela

No leader sets out to be a leader. People set out to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression is of value they become leaders.

Warren Bennis, US academic, management author (b. 1925)

Quotes about Vision

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

Ralph Hodgson, US poet (1871-1962)

If you think big enough, you’ll never have to do it.

Walt Disney died six years before the opening of Walt Disney World. At the opening ceremony, two Disney executives were sitting together. One said, ‘Too bad Walt couldn’t have been here to see this.’ The other responded, ‘You’re wrong. Walt did see this, that’s why it’s here.’

True wisdom consists not in seeing what is immediately before our eyes, but in foreseeing what is to come.

Terence, Roman dramatist (185-129 BC)

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.

Jonathan Swift, Irish clergyman, poet, satirist (1667-1745)

No man that does not see visions will ever realise any high hope or undertake any high enterprise.

Woodrow Wilson, US President (1856-1924)

A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination. He must see things as in a vision, a dream of the whole thing.

Charles Schwab, US industrialist (1862-1939)

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Arthur Schopenhaur, German philosopher (1788-1860)

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision.

Helen Keller, US author, lecturer (1880-1968)

Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Where there is no vision the people perish.

Habakkuk 2:2

The entrepreneur is essentially a visualiser and an actualiser. He can visualise something, and when he visualises it he sees exactly how to make it happen.

Robert L Schwartz, US executive, Rolls Royce (b. 1939)

The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps. We must step up the stairs.

Vance Hepner

Vision is the torch of leadership. Shared vision is the spark of great action.

David Williams, British author, presenter (b. 1950)

One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak.

G K Chesterton, British essayist, author, poet (1874-1936)

The great successful men of the world have used their imaginations, they think ahead and create their mental picture, and then go to work materialising that picture in all its details, filling in here, adding a little there, altering this bit and that bit, but steadily building, steadily building.

Robert Collier, US advertising copywriter (1885-1950)

Quotes about Value

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

What we obtain too cheap we esteem too little; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.

Thomas Paine, British author, political theorist (1737-1809)

Thomas Paine

Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.

Albert Einstein, German physicist (1879-1955)

If you undervalue yourself, no-one’s going to come along and raise your price.

David Williams, British author, presenter (b. 1950)

Steinmetz once charged General Electric $10,000 for chalking an X on a defective machine part. When GE protested and asked him to justify the charge, he sent back this itemised bill – ‘Making one chalk mark - $1; knowing where to place it - $9,999.’

Charles Steinmetz, US electrical engineer (1865-1923)

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to that hour.

Jim Rohn, US motivational speaker, author (1930-2009)

The individual’s most vital need is to prove his worth, and this usually means an insatiable hunger for action. For it is only the few who can acquire a sense of worth by developing and employing their capacities and talents. The majority prove their worth by keeping busy.

Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)

Quotes about Trust

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

Whether you’re on a sports team, in an office or a member of a family, if you can’t trust one another, there’s going to be trouble.

Joe Paterno, US college football coach (b. 1926)

There’s no such thing as ‘half-trust’. The instructor pilot can’t ‘half’ sit next to you on your fist solo.

Tom Peters, US management author, presenter (b. 1942)

The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.

Henry Stimson, US statesman (1867-1950)

Set your expectations high; find men and women whose integrity and values you respect; get their agreement on a course of action; and give them your ultimate trust.

John Akers, US computer executive, IBM (b. 1934)

Organisational leaders who are motivated by the common good not only reject the role of the dictator who rules by fear; they also recognize that demagogues who seduce followers with false promises cannot maintain the trust essential for cooperation.

Michael Maccoby, US management author, psychologist (b. 1933)

You can buy a person’s hand, but you can’t buy his heart. You can buy his back, but you can’t buy his brains.

 Stephen Covey, US management author, presenter (b. 1932)

It’s been my experience that the people who gain trust, loyalty, excitement and energy fast are the ones who pass on the credit to the people who really have done the work. A leader doesn’t need any credit; he’s already in the top slot. He’s getting more credit than he deserves anyway.

Robert Townsend, US author, businessman (1920-1998)

I don’t want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs.

Samuel Goldwyn, Polish/US film producer (1882-1974)

Samuel Goldwyn

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have and take the step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for us to stand on or we will be taught to fly.

Patrick Overton, US poet, playwright, author, presenter

Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, US essayist, poet (1809-1894)

So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?

Luke 16.11

Quotes about Time

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

Dost thou love life?

then do not squander time,

for that is the stuff life is made from.

Benjamin Franklin, US statesman, author, scientist (1706-1790)

The only things that start on time are those things that you’re late for.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1803-1882)

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the greatest innovator.

William Bridges, US engineer, researcher, educator (b. 1934)

We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s gone.

Robert Pirsig, US author, philosopher (b. 1928)

Time makes more converts than reason.

Thomas Paine, British author, political theorist (1737-1809)

You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.

Charles Buxton, British administrator in South America (1853-1934)

No mind is much employed upon the present. Recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

Samuel Johnson, British poet, critic, lexicographer (1709-1784)

Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.

Morgan Scott Peck, US psychiatrist (1936-2005)

The word ‘now’ is like a bomb through the window, and it ticks.

Arthur Miller, US dramatist (1915-2005)

Quotes about Thinking

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

Few people think more than two or three times a year. I’ve made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, essayist (1856-1950)

The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.

Albert Einstein, German physicist (1879-1955)

Of one thing we can be sure. The quality of our life in the future will be determined by the quality of our thinking.

Edward de Bono, Maltese psychologist, author (b. 1933)

No one is thinking if everyone is thinking alike.

George S Patton, US general (1885-1945)

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.

Walter Lippmann, US newspaper commentator, author (1889-1974)

Thought is action in rehearsal.

Sigmund Freud, Austrian founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)

Big thinking precedes great achievement.

Wilferd Arlan Peterson, US poet, author (1900-1995)

Ours is a very fast-moving field. You have to be able to step back from it. Many years ago, I decided to take a week every year and absorb myself in thinking many years ahead. I get colleagues to put together what PhD theses I should read, what products I should play with, what memos I should look at. So, it’s been, except for sleeping a little bit, day and night all by myself uninterrupted. Now, because things are moving so fast, I do it twice a year.

Bill Gates, US computer engineer, entrepreneur (b. 1955)

If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you: but if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.

Donald Marquis, US newspaper owner, poet, playwright (1878-1937)

All the problems in the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.

Thomas J Watson, US businessman, founder of IBM (1874-1956)

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.

Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (1813-1855)

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.

Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)

Most people would rather die than think: many do.

Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, mathematician (1872-1970)

Few minds wear out; more rust out.

Christian Nestell Bovee, US author, lawyer (1820-1904)

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working when you get up in the morning, and doesn’t stop until you get to the office.

Robert Frost, US poet (1874-1963)

Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.

Benjamin Wharf, US linguist (1897-1941)

Life does not consist mainly – or even largely – of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)

All the talk about labour flexibility misses the point. It’s not ways of working that need to become more flexible, it’s ways of thinking.

Simon Caulkin, British journalist

Far from thinking coming after knowledge, knowledge comes on the coat tails of thinking. Therefore, instead of knowledge-centred schools we need thinking-centred schools. This is no luxury, no Utopian vision of erudite and elitist education. These are hard facts about the way learning works.

David Perkins, US psychologist

Quotes about Technology

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.

Alice Kahn, US author, journalist

When all else fails, read the instructions.

 

While modern technology has given people powerful new communication tools, it apparently can do nothing to alter the fact that many people have nothing useful to say.

Lee Gomes, US journalist

Conversations are the way knowledge workers discover what they know, share it with colleagues, and in the process create new knowledge for the organisation. The panoply of modern information and communication technology – for example, computers, faxes, email – can help knowledge workers in this process. But all depends upon the quality of the conversations that such technologies support.

Alan Webber, US editor, author, presenter (b. 1948)

Increasing access to technology improves overall wealth, but also exacerbates inequality, because access benefits the information-rich the most.

John Browning, US scientist, author

The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21^st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human.

John Naisbitt & Patricia Aburdene, US futurist authors (Naisbitt b. 1929; Aburdene b. 1968)

Like it or not, we are entering a phase in which the economy is dominated by technology – therefore dominated by increasing returns and by permanent transience instead of equilibrium.

W Brian Arthur, Irish economist (b. 1945)

Quotes about Teamwork

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.

Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)

Teamwork is essential. It allows you to blame someone else.

Upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.

Alexander the Great, King of Macedon (356-323 BC)

When a blind man carries a lame man, both go forward.

Joseph Stalin, Georgian-born Soviet statesman (1879-1953)

Not even mighty warriors can break a frail arrow when it is multiplied and supported by its fellows. As long as you brothers support one another and render assistance to one another, your enemies can never gain the victory over you. But if you fall away from one another, you can be broken like a frail arrow, one at a time.

Borjigin Temüjin, known as Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol empire (1162-1227)

A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle.

Japanese proverb

When spiders unite they can tie down a lion.

Ethiopian proverb

A paddle here, a paddle there – the canoe stays still.

African proverb

One thing I believe to the fullest is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

Michael Jordan, US basketball player (b. 1963)

Ask not what your team-mates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your team-mates.

Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson, US basketball player (b. 1959)

It’s hard to work in groups when you’re omnipotent.

Q, character in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, created by Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991)

There is no limit to what a man can achieve as long as he doesn’t care who gets the credit.

Bob Woodruff, US country singer songwriter (b. 1961)

The world is moved along, not only be the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.

Helen Keller, US author, lecturer (1880-1968)

The longer a management team is exposed to the problems of the real world the greater is the need to be prepared for a full range of problems and situations, and to have a team ready to meet them.

Raymond Meredith Belbin, British academic, management researcher (b. 1926)

Quotes about Success

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

Secrets for success:

1.      Get up early.

2.      Work hard.

3.      Find oil.

J P Getty, US industrialist (1892-1976)

If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.

Here is the prime condition of success: having begun on one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.

Andrew Carnegie, British industrialist, philanthropist (1835-1919)

Success is a great deodorant.

Elizabeth Taylor, British/US actress (1932-2011)

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Napoleon Bonaparte, French soldier, statesman, revolutionary (1769-1821)

Most successes are unhappy. That’s why they are successes – they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice.

Agatha Christie, British author (1890-1976)

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Herman Cain, US food executive (b. 1945)

Success in highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which comes only to the man who has found the work he likes best.

Napoleon Hill, US motivational author, lecturer (1883-1970)

The fact remains that the overwhelming majority of people who have become wealthy have become so thanks to work they found profoundly absorbing. The long term study of people who eventually became wealthy clearly reveals that their ‘luck’ arose from accidental dedication they had to an area they enjoyed.

Srully Blotnick, US management author, journalist (1941-2004)

 We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?

Jean Cocteau, French poet, playwright, film director (1889-1963)

Everybody loves success, but they hate successful people.

John McEnroe, US tennis player, sports commentator (b. 1959)

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

Gore Vidal, US author, essayist (b. 1925)

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

Allen Stewart Konigsberg, known as Woody Allen, US film actor, director (b. 1935)

I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.

Mary Jean ‘Lily’ Tomlin, US comic actress (b. 1939)

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.

Conrad Hilton, US businessman, founder of Hilton Hotels (1887-1979)

Nothing recedes like success.

Walter Winchell, US journalist, broadcaster (1897-1972)

Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success.

Joyce Brothers, US TV personality, psychologist (b. 1927)

To know how to wait is the great secret of success.

Joseph Marie De Maistre, French diplomat, author (1753-1821)

Quotes about Size

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

Hey, size works against excellence.

Bill Gates, US computer engineer, entrepreneur (b. 1955)

Size isn’t everything. The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine.

Bill Vaughan, US journalist, author (1915-1977)

If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.

Anita Roddick, British retail executive, founder of The Body Shop (1942-2007)

Anita Roddick

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.

E F Schumacher, German/British economist (1911-1977)

What we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. I do not agree with the big way of doing things.

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, known as Mother Teresa, Albanian charity worker (1910-1997)

It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.

Steven Wright, US comedian (b. 1955)

Quotes about Selling

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

If you want to buy from us we speak English, but if you want to sell to us you must speak German.

Helmut Kohl, German statesman (b. 1930)

The merchant has no country.

Thomas Jefferson, US President (1741-1826)

Production minus sales equals scrap.

John Fenton, British sales author, presenter

When we sell products, we don’t sell objects, we sell feelings.

Geoff Burch, British management author, presenter (b. 1951)

It’s not creative unless it sells.

David Ogilvy, US advertising executive (1911-1919)

Plan the sale when you plan the ad.

Leo Burnett, US advertising executive (1891-1971)

Don’t say yes until I finish talking.

Darryl F Zanuck, US film producer, script writer (1902-1979)

Consultants don’t come to your business to give you advice – they come to raise an invoice.

Alan Sugar, British entrepreneur, founder of Amstrad (b. 1947)

Lord Sugar

You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.

Winnie the Pooh, character in a book by A A Milne (1882-1956)

Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

Westley, character in the film ‘The Princess Bride’ written by William Goldman (b. 1931)

Quotes about Self-Confidence

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training.


An updated version of the book is newly available as part of my Almost Free Kindle titles both in the UK and in the USA.

For a man to achieve all that’s demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, German poet, letter-writer (1749-1832)

And above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.

Anthony Trollope, British author (1815-1882)

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Eleanor Roosevelt, US United Nations delegate (1884-1962)

If you are always worried about how you are performing a task, about how others perceive your performance, you will never perform it well. Performance requires forgetting yourself.

Richard Saul Wurman, US architect, author (b. 1935)

The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.

Jesse Owens, US athlete (1913-1980)

Jesse Owens

 

When we examine our self-image we tend to find that it has been formulated by the information we have been given by others about ourselves; the art teacher who continually tells us we will never be a painter; the parent who tells us every day that we are too soft and sensitive; the bully who is praised by his bully father; and so on.

Trevor J Bentley, US facilitator, author

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Nelson Mandela, South African statesman (b. 1918)

Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with a vastly superior talent.

Sofia Villani Scicolone, known as Sophia Loren, Italian actress (b. 1934)

The real ‘haves’ are they who can acquire freedom, self-confidence, and even riches without depriving others of them. They acquire all of these by developing and applying their potentialities. On the other hand, the real ‘have nots’ are they who cannot have aught except by depriving others of it. They can feel free only by diminishing the freedom of others, self-confident by spreading fear and dependence among others, and rich by making others poor.

Eric Hoffer, US philosopher, author, longshoreman (1902-1983)

An individual’s self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behaviour: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change. A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.

Joyce Brothers, US TV personality, psychologist (b. 1927)

Confidence is believing you have something to teach; arrogance is the belief you have nothing to learn.

Dale Dauten, US newspaper columnist (b. 1950)

There are two types of people – those who come into a room and say: ‘Well, here I am!’ and those who come in and say, ‘Well, there you are!’

Frederick L Collins

I can say, ‘I am terribly frightened and fear is terrible and awful and it makes me uncomfortable, so I won’t do that because it’s uncomfortable.’ Or I could say, ‘Get used to being uncomfortable.’ It is uncomfortable doing something that’s risky. But so what? Do you want to stagnate and just be comfortable?

Barbra Streisand, US singer, actress (b. 1942)

Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.

John Donne, British poet (1572-1631)

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

Samuel Johnson, British poet, critic, lexicographer (1709-1784)