Dr. Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) was an American inspirational author who wrote on success in life and how to achieve it. His writings discuss common-sense principles and virtues that make for a well-rounded, successful life. Many of his ideas are based on New Thought philosophy.
Source: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Works by Orison Swett Marden
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.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Expectation
Our thoughts and imagination are the only real limits to our possibilities.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Possibilities, Potential
Who would have ever heard of Theodore Roosevelt outside of his
immediate community if he had only half committed himself?
The great secret of his career was that he has flung his whole
life with all the determination and energy he could muster.
—Orison Swett Marden
Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them… they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will slink out of sight.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Challenges, Difficulty, Obstacles, Fear
The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Opportunity, Luck
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.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Achievement, Success & Failure, Success
When a man feels throbbing within him the power to do what he undertakes as well as it can possibly be done, this is happiness, this is success.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Success, Strength
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
Topics: Honesty
There is no medicine like hope, no incentives so great, and no tonics so powerful as the expectation of something better tomorrow.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Hope, Future, Medicine
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
Topics: Excellence
The quality of your work, in the long run, is the deciding factor on how much your services are valued by the world.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Work
Go as far as you can see, and when you get there you will see farther.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Goals
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.
—Orison Swett Marden
We must give more in order to get more, It is the generous giving of ourselves that produce the generous harvest.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Charity, Giving
The hopeful man sees success where others see failure; sunshine where others see shadows and storm.
—Orison Swett Marden
Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Strength, Failure
Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.
—Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Success & Failure, Achievement
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