Orison Swett Marden Quotes

Worry clogs the brain and paralyzes the thought. A troubled brain can not think clearly, vigorously, locally.

He can who thinks he can, and he can't who thinks he can't.

We lift ourselves by our thought.

It is like the seed put in the soil - the more one sows, the greater the harvest.

Unless you have prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable to you just in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it.

Make every occasion a great occasion, for you can never tell who may be taking your measure for a higher place.

Doing common things uncommonly well.

Every thought which enters the mind, every word we utter, every deed we perform, makes its impression upon the inmost fiber of our being and the result of these impressions is our character. The study of books, of music, or of the fine arts is not essential to a lofty character. It rests with the worker whether a rude piece of marble shall be squared into a horse-block or carved into an Apollo, a Psyche, or a Venus di Milo. It is yours, if you choose, to develop a spiritual form more beautiful than any of these, instinct with immortal life, refulgent with all the glory of character.

A woman who is self-reliant, positive, optimistic, and undertakes her work with the assurance of success magnetizes her condition. She draws to herself the creative powers of the universe.

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.

There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become.

We do not know what we can bear until we are put to the test. Many a delicate mother, who thought that she could not survive the death of her children, has lived to bury her husband and the last one of a large family, and in addition to all this has seen her home and last dollar swept away; yet she has had the courage to bear it all and to go on as before. When the need comes, there is a power deep within us that answers the call.

We win half the battle when we make up our minds to take the world as we find it including the thorns.

We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves.

Deep within man dwell those slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him, that he never dreamed of possessing; forces that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action.

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

Your expectations opens or closes the doors of your supply, If you expect grand things, and work honestly for them, they will come to you, your supply will correspond with your expectation.

Character: the grandest thing in the world.

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.

Character is a mark cut upon something, and this indelible mark determines the only true value of all people and all their work.

Concentrate . . . for the greatest achievements are reserved for the man of single aim, in whom no rival powers divide the empire of the soul.

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

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.

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.

Man becomes a slave to his constantly repeated acts. What he at first chooses, at last compels.

Without continuous effort there cannot be continuous achievement.

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

When you finish a thing you ought to be able to say to yourself: 'There, I am willing to stand for that piece of work. It is not pretty well done; it is done as well as I can do it; done to a complete finish. I will stand for that. I am willing to be judged by it.'

What are stumbling blocks and defeat to the weak and vacillating are but stepping stones to victory to the determined soul.

The size of your accomplishments, the quality of your achievement, will depend very largely on how big a man you see in yourself, what sort of image you get of your possible self, yourself at your best.

We fail to see that we can control our destiny; make ourselves do whatever is possible; make ourselves become whatever we long to be.

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.

Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances.

Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.

Power gravitates to the man who knows how.

Put the uncommon effort into the common task... make it large by doing it in a great way.

Put yourself in your customer's place.

One of the best strengtheners of character and developers of stamina ... is to assume the part you wish to play; to assert stoutly the possession of whatever you lack.

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.

No one should voluntarily remain in an environment which prevents his development.

The world makes way for the man with an idea.

There is only one thing for us to do, and that is to do our level best right where we are every day of our lives; To use our best judgment, and then to trust the rest to that Power which holds the forces of the universe in his hands.

Nothing else so destroys the power to stand alone as the habit of leaning upon others. If you lean, you will never be strong or original. Stand alone or bury your ambition to be somebody in the world.

Aspiration lifts the life; groveling lowers it. When we are striving for excellence in everything we do the entire life grows and expands, but if we allow our standards to drop, there is a natural progression that follows, a tendency for a downward effort in all that we do thereafter.

Begin where you are; work where you are; the hour which you are now wasting, dreaming of some far off success may be crowded with grand possibilities.

The trouble with us is that we expect too much from the great happenings, the unusual things, and we overlook the common flowers on the path of life, from which we might abstract sweets, comforts, delights.

Every youth owes it to himself and to the world to make the most possible out of the stuff that is in him.

Self-confidence carries conviction; it makes other people believe in us.