Napoleon Hill Quotations

The starting point of all achievement is desire.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.

The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.

When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

Don't wait. The time will never be just right.

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.

If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water's edge.

The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.

Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

Wise men, when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet, give themselves the benefit of the doubt, and remain silent.

Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.

Until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy.

Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth.

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.

Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.

Before success comes in any man's life, he's sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That's exactly what the majority of men do.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

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.

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

Big pay and little responsibility are circumstances seldom found together.

Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it.

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

There is no such thing as Something for nothing.

Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win - essential to success.

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

Until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire, you will be neither successful nor happy.

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man.

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.

Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.

We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.

You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.

The battle is all over except the 'shouting' when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.

No man is ever whipped until he quits - in his own mind.

Failure is nature's plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.

Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.

No accurate thinker will judge another person by that which the other person's enemies say about him.

Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you; until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire; until you have formed the habit of looking for the good instead of the bad there is in others, you will be neither successful nor happy.

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

You don't have to fear defeat if you believe it may reveal powers that you didn't know you possessed.

Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

One must marry one's feelings to one's beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one's life.

No man can succeed in a line of endeavor which he does not like.

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.

One must marry one's feelings to one's beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one's life.

What ever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire brings a small amount of heat.

A man is as big as the measure of his thinking.

Success in highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which comes only to the man who has found the work he likes best.

Most misfortunes are the result of misused time.

The path of least resistance makes all rivers, and some men, crooked.

Through some strange and powerful principle of ''mental chemistry'' which she has never divulged, nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire, ''that something'' which recognizes no such word as ''impossible,'' and accepts no such reality as failure.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.

Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.

Edison failed 10, 000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.

The starting point of all achievement is desire. Weak desire brings weak results.

The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.

Opportunity often comes in disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

You must get involved to have an impact. No one is impressed with the won-lost record of the referee.

Do not wait; the time will never be ''just right.'' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

The battle is all over except the ''shouting'' when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.

If you're not learning while you're earning, you're cheating yourself out of the better portion of your compensation.

Character is to man what carbon is to steel.

IDEAS CAN BE TRANSMUTED INTO CASH THROUGH THE POWER OF DEFINITE PURPOSE, PLUS DEFINITE PLANS.

No man can afford to express, through words or acts, that which is not in harmony with his own beliefs, and if he does so, he must pay by the loss of his ability to influence others.

Success is very largely a matter of adjusting one's self to the ever-varying and changing environments of life, in a spirit of harmony and poise.

No alibi will save you from accepting the responsibility.

Self-confidence may be mistaken for egotism if it is not accompanied by humility of the heart.

Practice being grateful for everything that life has blessed you with.

A Positive Mental Attitude is the right mental attitude. What is the right mental attitude? It is most often comprised of the "plus" characteristics symbolized by such words as faith, integrity, hope, optimism, courage, initiative, generosity, tolerance, tact, kindliness, and good common sense. A person with positive mental attitude aims for high goals and constantly strives to achieve them.