William A. Feather (1889–1981) was an American publisher and author, based in Cleveland, Ohio. Born in Jamestown, New York, Feather relocated with his family to Cleveland in 1903. After earning a degree from Western Reserve University in 1910, he began working as a reporter for the Cleveland Press. In 1916, he established the William Feather Magazine. In addition to writing for and publishing that magazine, and writing for other magazines as H.L. Mencken’s The American Mercury, he ran a successful printing business, and wrote several books.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by William Feather
Almost any idea is good if a man has ability and is willing to work hard. The best idea is worthless if the creator is a loafer and ineffective.
—William Feather
Topics: Ability
A peculiarity of capital is that it cannot be employed productively without benefiting the community in which it is used.
—William Feather
Topics: Money
A determination to succeed is the only way to succeed that I know anything about.
—William Feather
Topics: Perseverance
He that succeeds makes an important thing of the immediate task.
—William Feather
Topics: Success
No task is so humble that it does not offer an outlet for individuality.
—William Feather
Unless a man has been kicked around a little, you can’t really depend upon him to amount to anything.
—William Feather
Topics: Difficulties, Adversity
Of all the young men in America only a few hundred can get into major league baseball, and of these only a handful in a decade can get into the Hall of Fame. So it goes in all human activity … Some become multimillionaires and chairmen of the board, and some of us must be content to play baseball at company picnics or manage a credit union without pay.
—William Feather
Topics: Perfection, Realistic Expectations, Awareness, Acceptance, Expectations, Realization
None of us can buy goodwill; we must earn it.
—William Feather
Topics: Goodwill
One right and honest definition of business is mutual helpfulness.
—William Feather
Topics: Help
If you don’t take it for granted that the other man will do his job, you’re not an executive.
—William Feather
Blow your own horn loud. If you succeed, people will forgive your noise; if you fail, they’ll forget it.
—William Feather
Topics: Self-Discovery
If we don’t discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.
—William Feather
Topics: Discipline
He isn’t a real boss until he has trained subordinates to shoulder most of his responsibilities
—William Feather
Topics: Challenges
If we conducted ourselves as sensibly in good times as we do in hard times, we could all acquire a competence.
—William Feather
Topics: Discipline
Business demands faith, compels earnestness, requires courage, is honestly selfish, is penalized for mistakes, and is the essence of life.
—William Feather
Topics: Business
Here is the secret of inspiration: Tell yourself that thousands and tens of thousands of people, not very intelligent and certainly no more intelligent than the rest of us, have mastered problems as difficult as those that now baffle you.
—William Feather
Topics: Inspirational, Inspiration
Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing.
—William Feather
Topics: Secrets of Success, Decisions
The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men—the man he is and the man he wants to be.
—William Feather
The tragedy is that so many have ambition and so few have ability.
—William Feather
Topics: Ambition
Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn’t stop to enjoy it.
—William Feather
Topics: People, Apathy, Happiness
If at first you don’t succeed try hard work.
—William Feather
Topics: Success
Management is the art of getting three men to do three men’s work.
—William Feather
Topics: Management
The superiority of the American system is eloquently proved by the pressure of people who want to crash our borders.
—William Feather
Topics: America
Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim.
—William Feather
Topics: Kindness, Help
Experience and enthusiasm are two fine business attributes seldom found in one individual.
—William Feather
Topics: Enthusiasm
Business is always interfering with pleasure – but it makes other pleasures possible.
—William Feather
Topics: Pleasure
The petty economies of the rich are just as amazing as the silly extravagances of the poor.
—William Feather
Topics: Wealth
The right man can make a good job out of any job.
—William Feather
Topics: Work
Brains aren’t everything, but they’re important.
—William Feather
Topics: Intelligence
Successful salesman, authors, executives and workmen of every sort need patience. The great liability of youth is not inexperience but impatience.
—William Feather
Topics: Patience
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Katharine Graham American Publisher
Malcolm S. Forbes American Publisher
M. F. K. Fisher American Writer
C. P. Scott British Journalist, Editor
M. Scott Peck American Psychiatrist
Hugh Prather American Christian Author
Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan) American Columnist
James Freeman Clarke American Unitarian Clergyman
Diana Trilling American Literary Critic
Francine du Plessix Gray American Writer, Literary Critic