Press on. Obstacles are seldom the same size tomorrow as they are today.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
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 (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins; not through strength, but through persistence.
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (1940–2021) American Author of “Life’s Little Instruction Book”
For every mountain, there is a miracle.
—Robert H. Schuller (1926–2015) American Christian Televangelist, Author
I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed. Out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race.
—Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American Educationist
Obstacles will look large or small to you according to whether you are large or small.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
The great obstacle to progress is prejudice.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Everyone who achieves success in a great venture, solves each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves. And they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They keep going regardless of the obstacles they met.
—W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American Self-help Guru, Entrepreneur
Imaginary obstacles are insurmountable. Real ones aren’t. But you can’t tell the difference when you have no real information. Fear can create even more imaginary obstacles than ignorance can. That’s why the smallest step away from speculation and into reality can be an amazing relief. The Reality Solution means: Do it before you’re ready.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach
When something does not insist on being noticed, when we aren’t grabbed by the collar or struck on the skull by a presence or an event, we take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.
—Cynthia Ozick (b.1928) American Novelist, Short-story Writer, Essayist
Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Real obstacles don’t take you in circles. They can be overcome. Invented ones are like a maze.
—Barbara Sher (1935–2020) American Career Coach
Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats. Yet each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence and thus each obstacle is a comrade-in-arms forcing you to become better … or quit. Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid them, and you throw away your future.
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a Wilderness.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Essayist, Physician
Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.
—Helen Keller (1880–1968) American Author
We are built to conquer environment, solve problems, achieve goals, and we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
To fight fear, act. To increase fear—wait, put off, postpone.
—David J. Schwartz (1927–87) American Self-help Author
The things you want are always possible; it is just that the way to get them is not always apparent. The only real obstacle in your path to a fulfilling life is you, and that can be a considerable obstacle because you carry the baggage of insecurities and past experience.
—Les Brown
It’s the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance and sweeps away all obstacles.
—Claude M. Bristol (1891–1951) American Journalist, Self-Help Author
Without belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget those acts of courage with which men … have lived. The courage of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment; but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy. A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures—and that is the basis of all human morality…. In whatever arena of life one may meet the challenge of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience—the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men—each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient—they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, and no trust.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The obstacle is the path.
—Zen Proverb Japanese School of Mahayana Buddhism
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney
You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
—James Lane Allen (1849–1925) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Do Not Quit
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low, and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit…
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar.
So, stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit…
It’s when things go wrong that you mustn’t quit.
—Edgar Guest (1881–1959) British-born American Poet
The senses have been conditioned by attraction to the pleasant and aversion to the unpleasant: a man should not be ruled by them; they are obstacles in his path.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
The mere fact that you have obstacles to overcome is in your favor…
—Robert Collier (1885–1950) American Self-Help Author
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; ‘Tis dearness only that gives everything its value.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Inventor
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