Napoleon Hill Quotes

If you can't do great things, do small things in a great way. Cherish your vision and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel. Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent. Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it. If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water's edge. When your desires are strong enough, you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve. Don't wait. The time will never be just right. If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it... A goal is a dream with a deadline. Our only limitations are those we set up in our own minds If you are not learning while you’re earning, you are cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation. The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does. Any ideas, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought. Desire backed by faith knows no such word as impossible. Do not wait: the time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun. Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure. Action is the real measure of intelligence. Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire brings a small amount of heat. A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. A genius is simply one who has taken full possession of his own mind and directed it toward objectives of his own choosing, without permitting outside influences to discourage or mislead him. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve regardless of how many times you may have failed in the past or how lofty your aims and hopes may be. First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything. If you believe yourself unfortunate because you have loved and lost, perish the thought. One who has loved truly, can never lose entirely. Adversity will do something too you or for you... The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going. It is your responsibility to make sure that positive emotions constitute the dominating influence of your mind. Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success. Successful men become successful only because they acquire the habit of thinking in terms of success. The strongest oak tree of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun. Opportunity...it often comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat.

Napoleon Hill

1883 - 1970