Napoleon Hill
Author and impressario
1883 – 1970
No accurate thinker will judge another person by that which the other person’s enemies say about him.
The starting point of all achievement is desire.
Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once,
whether you ready or not,
to put this plan into action.
If you cannot do great things,
do small things in a great way.
All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.
When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.
The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.
Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.
The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.
Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.
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.
Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.
There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.
Money without brains is always dangerous.
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.
Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.
The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.
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.
The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.
It is always your next move.
Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.
Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.
Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.
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.
Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.
You give before you get.
No man can succeed in a line of endeavor which he does not like.
You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.
Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.
Everyone enjoys doing the kind of work for which he is best suited.
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.
Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.
Action is the real measure of intelligence.
Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.
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.
Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
Wise men,
when in doubt whether to speak or to keep quiet,
give themselves the benefit of the doubt,
and remain silent.
Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.
No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind.
Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.
Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.
Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
Think and grow rich.
Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.
Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.
The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.
More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth.
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.
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.
Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.
Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.
If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.
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.
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.
Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.
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.
It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.
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.
Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price.
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.
If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge.
It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.
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.
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.
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 ladder of success is never crowded at the top.
Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.
War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man.
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.