Wanting to change, to improve, a person’s situation means offering him, for difficulties in which he is practiced and experienced, other difficulties that will find him perhaps even more bewildered.
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
He who leaves his house in search of happiness pursues a shadow.
—Unknown
No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If you were to visit a certain rural section of Vermont, you would be shown two farms only a few miles apart, and you would be told that a lad raised on one of the farms today occupies the most responsible position in the whole world, the Presidency of the United States. From the other farm, you would be told, there went forth another lad who is today the head of one of the leading railroads in the U.S…. Whenever I hear wild denunciations of this country and its institutions I cannot but feel that … no other country on earth offers such advantages and opportunities for children born in humble circumstances.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
When a man’s busy, leisure strikes him as a wonderful pleasure; and at leisure once is he? Straightway he wants to be busy.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
To most of us the real life is the life we do not lead.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Misfortunes come to all men.
—Chinese Proverb
You have no idea how big the other fellow’s troubles are.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
Nothing is so often irretrievably missed as a daily opportunity.
—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) Austrian Novelist
All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.
—Sidney Lumet (1924–2011) American Film Director
Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
Many an opportunity is lost because a man is out looking for four-leaf clovers.
—Unknown
When every blessed thing you have is made of silver, or of gold, you long for simple pewter.
—W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) English Dramatist, Librettist, Poet, Illustrator
The man with toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
In Rome you long for the country. In the country you praise to the skies the distant town.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Grasp your opportunities, no matter how poor your health; nothing is worse for your health than boredom.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
He that is discontented in one place will seldom be happy in another.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
There is hook in every benefit, that sticks in his jaws that takes that benefit, and draws him whither the benefactor will.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
Opportunity is a parade. Even as one chance passes, the next is a fife and drum echoing in the distance.
—Robert Brault
I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.
—Hebrew Proverb
If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
I thought I had reached a point in life where everything would be smooth. But it is not. It just gets more jagged and pitted and filled with turns that take you into the dark recesses of your mind. It never seems to get easy.
—Sylvester Stallone (b.1946) American Actor, Film Director, Screenwriter
We must dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Opportunity has power over all things.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Opportunity is often difficult to recognize; we usually expect it to beckon us with beepers and billboards.
—William Arthur Ward (1921–94) American Author
The prizes go to those who meet emergencies successfully. And the way to meet emergencies is to do each daily task the best we can; to act as though the eye of opportunity were always upon us. In the hundred-yard race the winter doesn’t cross the tape line a dozen strides ahead of the field. He wins by inches. So we find it in ordinary business life. The big things that come our way are seldom the result of long thought or careful planning, but rather they are the fruit of seed planted in the daily routine of our work.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
I look at what I have not and think myself unhappy; others look at what I have and think me happy.
—Philibert Joseph Roux (1780–1854) French Surgeon
Problems are only opportunities with thorns on them.
—Hugh Miller (1802–56) Scottish Geologist, Writer
No one wearies of benefits received.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Pale death with impartial tread beats at the poor man’s cottage door and at the palaces of kings.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending.
—Unknown
He who would be happy should stay at home.
—Greek Proverb
The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.
—Alfred Adler (1870–1937) Austrian Psychiatrist
Beggars do not envy millionaires, though of course they will envy other beggars who are more successful.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
The problem with beauty is that it’s like being born rich and getting poorer.
—Joan Collins (b.1933) English Actress
In this world the one thing supremely worth having is the opportunity to do well and worthily a piece of work of vital consequence to the welfare of mankind.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best, and he answered, “Somebody else’s”.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
If every man’s internal care Were written on his brow, How many would our pity share Who raise our envy now?
—Metastasio (1698–1782) Italian Poet, Librettist
I am not much an advocate for traveling, and I observe that men run away to other countries because they are not good in their own, and run back to their own because they pass for nothing in the new places. For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home?
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Acorns were good till bread was found.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
If it exists, it’s possible.
—Dero A. Saunders (1914–2002) American Journalist, Scholar
Everyone has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman
Opportunity is the best captain of all endeavor.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
No man’s abilities are so remarkably shining as not to stand in need of a proper opportunity.
—Pliny the Elder (23–79CE) Roman Statesman, Scholar
There are three wants which can never be satisfied: that of the rich, who want something more; that of the sick, who want something different; and that of the traveler, who says, “Anywhere but here”.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
So, then, to every man his chance—to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining golden opportunity—to every man his right to live, to work, to be himself, to become whatever his manhood and his vision can combine to make him—this, seeker, is the promise of America.
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.
—Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician
I hate myself on the screen. I want to die… my voice is either too high or too gravelly. I want to dive under the carpet… I’ll love to be tall and willowy… I’m short.
—Elizabeth Taylor (b.1932) English Actor, Activist