Orison Swett Marden

Talk happiness. The world is sad enough without your woe.

He can who thinks he can, and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable, indisputable law.

Our trials, our sorrows, and our griefs develop us. . . .

There is no law by which one can, as long as he thinks he can't.

Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.

To many a man, and sometimes to a youth, there comes the opportunity to choose between honorable competence and tainted wealth. . . . The young man who starts out to be poor and honorable, holds in his hand one of the strongest elements of success.

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.

No man is beaten until his hope is annihilated, his confidence gone. As long as a man faces life hopefully, confidently, triumphantly he is not a failure; he is not beaten until he turns his back on life.

But how shall I get ideas? Keep your wits open! Observe! Study! Study! but above all, think! Think! and when a noble image is indelibly impressed upon the mind - Act!

It is certain that the greatest poets, orators, statesmen, and historians, men of the most brilliant and imposing talents, have labored as hard, if not harder, than day laborers; and that the most obvious reason why they have been superior to other men is that they have taken more pains than other men.