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

Every experience in life, everything with which we have come in contact in life, is a chisel which has been cutting away at our life statue, molding, modifying, shaping it. We are part of all we have met. Everything we have seen, heard, felt or thought has had its hand in molding us, shaping us.
Orison Swett Marden

No young man starting in life could have better capital than plenty of friends. They will strengthen his credit, support him in every great effort, and make him what, unaided, he could never be. Friends of the right sort will help him more—to be happy and successful—than much money…
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Friendship

The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Excess, Waste

Just make up your mind at the very outset that your work is going to stand for quality… that you are going to stamp a superior quality upon everything that goes out of your hands, that whatever you do shall bear the hall-mark of excellence.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Excellence

What a great discrepancy there is between men and the results they achieve! It is due to the difference in their power of calling together all the rays of their ability, and concentrating them upon one point.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Achievement, Concentration

You know from past experiences that whenever you have been driven to the wall, or thought you were, you have extricated yourself in a way which you never would have dreamed possible had you not been put to the test. The trouble is that in your everyday life you don’t go deep enough to tap the divine mind within you.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Commitment

There is something greater than wealth, grander even than fame—manhood, character, stand for success… nothing else really does.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Honesty

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

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

Put the uncommon effort into the common task … make it large by doing it in a great way.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Excellence, Effort

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

This is the test of your manhood: How much is there left in you after you have lost everything outside of yourself?
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Courage, Bravery

Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one’s being.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Wisdom, Part of The Whole

Resolve that whatever you do, you will bring the whole man to it; that you will fling the whole weight of your being into it.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Commitment

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

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

You have not found your place until all your faculties are roused, and your whole nature consents and approves of the work you are doing.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Enjoyment

All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Achieving, Great

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

The influential man is the successful man, whether he be rich or poor.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Influence, Leadership

Thrift means that you should always have the best you can possibly afford, when the thing has any reference to your physical and mental health, to your growth in efficiency and power.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Thrift

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

No employer today is independent of those about him. He cannot succeed alone, no matter how great his ability or capital. Business today is more than ever a question of cooperation.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Cooperation, Help

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

There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Confidence

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

It is the youth who sees a great opportunity hidden in just these simple services, who sees a very uncommon situation, a humble position, who gets on in the world.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Opportunity

Superiority—doing things a little better than anybody else can do them.
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Excellence

There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority…
Orison Swett Marden
Topics: Excellence

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

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