Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Orison Swett Marden (American New Thought Writer)

Dr. Orison Swett Marden (1848–1924) was an influential American writer, editor, and motivational speaker, contributing significantly to the self-help and personal development movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rooted in New Thought philosophy, his ideas emphasized positive thinking, perseverance, and self-discipline.

Born in Thornton Gore, New Hampshire, Marden faced early adversity with the loss of his father at three years old. He pursued education and graduated from Boston University School of Law (1871.) In 1897, he established the Success Magazine, known for its inspirational content and practical advice on personal and professional success.

Marden’s impact extended through his articles and books, such as Pushing to the Front (1894) and An Iron Will (1901.) He believed in the transformative power of positive thoughts and actions, resonating with a wide audience. Beyond his literary contributions, Marden became a sought-after speaker and lecturer. Other notable works include Character: The Grandest Thing in the World (1899,) Cheerfulness as a Life Power (1899,) The Hour of Opportunity (1900,) and How They Succeeded: Life Stories of Successful Men Told by Themselves (1901.)

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Orison Swett Marden

There is no investment you can make which will pay you so well as the effort to scatter sunshine and good cheer through your establishment.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Praise

The hand cannot reach higher than does the heart.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Prophecy, Vision

Man becomes a slave to his constantly repeated acts. What he at first chooses, at last compels.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Habits, Habit

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

Live and let live is not enough; live and help live is not too much.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Service

You will never succeed while smarting under the drudgery of your occupation, if you are constantly haunted with the idea that you could succeed better in something else.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Enjoyment

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, Success & Failure

It is just the little difference between the good and the best that makes the difference between the artist and the artisan. It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that makes the master’s fame.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Excellence

We advance on our journey only when we face our goal, when we are confident and believe we are going to win out.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Journeys, Goal, Expectation

The best thing about giving of ourselves is that what we get is always better than what we give. The reaction is greater than the action.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Forgiveness

All men who have achieved great things have been great dreamers.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Imagination, Dreams

Opportunities? They are all around us… There is power lying latent everywhere waiting for the observant eye to discover it.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Society, Opportunity, Success

It is what we do easily and what we like to do that we do well.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Enjoyment

Make it a life-rule to give your best to whatever passes through your hands. Stamp it with your manhood. Let superiority be your trademark…
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Excellence

Character is the indelible mark that determines the only true value of all people and all their work.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Character

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

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.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Ability, Possibilities

The sculptor will chip off all unnecessary material to set free the angel. Nature will chip and pound us remorselessly to bring out our possibilities. She will strip us of wealth, humble our pride, humiliate our ambition, let us down from the ladder of fame, will discipline us in a thousand ways, if she can develop a little character, Everything must give way to that. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, fame is nothing, manhood is everything.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Growth

A will finds a way.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Attitude

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

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.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Originality, Inaction

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
Topics: Failure

Every germ of goodness will at last struggle into bloom and fruitage… true success follows every right step.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Success, Goodness

People who have accomplished work worthwhile have had a very high sense of the way to do things. They have not been content with mediocrity. They have not confined themselves to the beaten tracks; they have never been satisfied to do things just as others so them, but always a little better. They always pushed things that came to their hands a little higher up, this little farther on, that counts in the quality of life’s work. It is constant effort to be first-class in everything one attempts that conquers the heights of excellence.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Excellence

What keeps so many employers back is simple unwillingness to pay the price, to make the exertion, the effort to sacrifice their ease and comfort.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Value

A good system shortens the road to the goal.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Planning

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.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Vision, Achievement, Prophecy

We make the world we live in and shape our own environment.
Orison Swett Marden

We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Prophecy, Vision

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

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