The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.
For every promise, there is a price to pay.
Disgust and resolve are two of the great emotions that lead to change.
Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t miss a book.
It isn’t what the book costs; it’s what it will cost if you don’t read it.
The book you don’t read won’t help.
We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. It takes time to bring value to the marketplace, but we get paid for the value,
not for the time.
Don’t just let your business or your job make something for you; let it make something of you.
The worst days of those who enjoy what they do are better than the best days of those who don’t.
We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons: inspiration or desperation.
If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.
Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?
You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.
Don’t be afraid to borrow if someone else has said it well. Winston Churchill said, “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” That’s so well said. You could stay up all night and not think of that.
The best advice I ever came across on the subject of concentration is: Wherever you are, be there.
When you know what you want, and you want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.
Never begrudge the money you spend on your own education.
Measure your emotions. You don’t need an atomic explosion for a minor point.
It’s too bad failures don’t give seminars. Wouldn’t that be valuable? If you meet a guy who has messed up his life for forty years, you’ve just got to say, ‘John, if I bring my journal and promise to take good notes, would you spend a day with me?’
Inevitability is being 200 feet from Niagara Falls in a little boat with no motor and no oars.
The philosophy of the rich versus the poor is this: The rich invest their money and spend what is left; the poor spend their money and invest what is left.
I used to say, “Things cost too much.” Then my teacher straightened me out on that by saying, “The problem isn’t that things cost too much. The problem is that you can’t afford it.” That’s when I finally understood that the problem wasn’t “it” - the problem was “me!”
We all know a variety of ways to make a living. What’s even more fascinating is figuring out ways to make a fortune.
To become financially independent you must turn part of your income into capital; turn capital into enterprise; turn enterprise into profit; turn profit into investment; and turn investment into financial independence
Financial independence is the ability to live from the income of your own personal resources.
We all need lots of powerful long-range goals to help us past the short-term obstacles.
If you wish to find, you must search. Rarely does a good idea interrupt you.
Ideas can be life changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.
We need a variety of input and influence and voices. You cannot get all the answers to life and business from one person or from one source.
Don’t use your mind for a filing cabinet. Use your mind to work out problems and find answers; file away good ideas in your journal.
How many languages can a child learn? As many as you will take the time to teach them.
If kids clearly see the promise, they will gladly pay the price.
Lead the way by personal example and by personal philosophy.
When dealing with people, I generally take the obvious approach. When someone says, “This always happens to me and that always happens to me. Why do these things always happen to me?” I simply say, “Beats me. I don’t know. All I know is that those kinds of things seem to happen to people like you.”
Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.
If you talk to your children, you can help them to keep their lives together. If you talk to them skillfully, you can help them to build future dreams.
Americans are incredibly impatient. Someone once said that the shortest period of time in America is the time between when the light turns green and when you hear the first horn honk.
Income seldom exceeds personal development.
What you become directly influences what you get.
To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. Instead of going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you become, you can attract.
The most important question to ask on the job is not “What am I getting?” The most important question to ask on the job is “What am I becoming?”
After you become a millionaire, you can give all of your money away because what’s important is not the million dollars; what’s
important is the person you have become in the process of becoming a millionaire.
The only thing worse than not reading a book in the last ninety days is not reading a book in the last ninety days and thinking that it doesn’t matter.
Take advice, but not orders. Only give yourself orders. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Since I will be no one’s slave, I will be no one’s master.”
You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of. You don’t have charge of the constellations, but you do have charge of whether you read, develop new skills, and take new classes.
Your paycheck is not your employer’s responsibility; it’s your responsibility. Your employer has no control over your value, but you do.
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they may have planned for you? Not much.
To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, whom could I ask?
The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, “If you will take care of me, I will take care of you.” Now I say, “I will take care of me for you if you will take care of you for me.
Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for fewer challenges; wish for more wisdom.
You must either modify your dreams or magnify your skills.
Sophistication is understanding the difference between trinkets and treasures.
Money doesn’t make you sophisticated. Only study and practice make you sophisticated. Even people of modest means can become sophisticated because it is within study and practice. How much is a night out at the symphony? About thirty dollars. You say, “Poor people can’t afford thirty dollars to go to the symphony.” Yes, they can. It’s only thirty Hershey bars!
One of my good friends always says, “Things don’t just happen; things happen just.’
Start from wherever you are and with whatever you’ve got.
Be a student of the fine, not just the mundane and the ordinary that sustains our lives. We all need to be students of refinement, not just existence.
Don’t read a book and be a follower; read a book and be a student.
Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.
Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are.
Average people look for ways of getting away with it; successful people look for ways of getting on with it.
Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.
Time is the best-kept secret of the rich.
The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become. That is why I wish to pay fair price for every value. If I have to pay for it or earn it, that makes something of me. If I get it for free, that makes nothing of me.
Values were meant to be costly. If it doesn’t cost much, we probably wouldn’t appreciate the value.
The two great words of antiquity are behold and beware.
Vocabulary enables us to interpret and to express. If you have a limited vocabulary, you will also have a limited vision and a limited future.
People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn’t matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Six years later I’m a millionaire and they are all still blaming the economy, the government, and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.
Don’t spend all of your money a quarter at a time. Save up and buy something special, something fine, something of lasting value, or something that will give you rich memories for a lifetime. Remember, all that candy money can add up to a small fortune. And for a sophisticated person, quality is far more important than quantity. Better a few treasures than a house full of junk.