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Unless you have prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable to you just in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it.

Orison Swett Marden

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Orison Swett Marden
Age: 75 †
Born: 1848
Born: June 11
Died: 1924
Died: March 10
Author
Medical Writer
Philosopher
Physician Writer
Poet Lawyer
Writer
New Hampshire
United States
O. Swett Marden
Make
Valuable
Prepared
Occasion
Unless
Occasions
Education
Preparation
Chance
Proportion
Opportunity
Educated
Use
Ridiculous
Great
Profit

More quotes by Orison Swett Marden

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Every great man has become great, every successful man has succeeded, in proportion as he has confined his powers to one particular channel.
Orison Swett Marden
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There is a legend that when God was equipping man for his long life journey of exploration, the attendant good angel was about to add the gift of contentment and complete satisfaction. The Creator stayed his hand and said, 'No, if you bestow that upon him you will rob him forever of all joy of self-discovery.'
Orison Swett Marden
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Fear is a great robber of power. It paralyzes the thinking faculties, ruins spontaneity, enthusiasm, and self confidence. It has a blighting effect upon all one's thoughts, moods, and efforts. It destroys ambition and efficiency.
Orison Swett Marden
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But how shall I get ideas? ''Keep your wits open! Observe! Observe! Study! Study! But above all, Think! Think! And when a noble image is indelibly impressed upon the mind - Act!
Orison Swett Marden
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The divine injunction to be perfect, even as He is perfect, was not given man to mock him. The possibility of our waking in His likeness is literally true.
Orison Swett Marden
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Let us open up our natures, throw wide the doors of our hearts and let in the sunshine of good will and kindness.
Orison Swett Marden
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We cannot rise higher than our thought of ourselves.
Orison Swett Marden
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It is the youth who sees a great opportunity hidden in just these simple services, who sees a very uncommon situation, a humble position, who gets on in the world.
Orison Swett Marden
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If we get the good that belongs to us here and now, we must extract the sweetness of each passing minute while it is ours. That is the real art of living in the today.
Orison Swett Marden
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What we do for a living does not matter as much as how we do it.
Orison Swett Marden
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Many mothers make the mistake of forever looking for the bad in the child, trying to . . . uproot and drive it out. This is like trying to eject the darkness from a room without opening the shutters and letting in the light. As John Newton said, 'I cannot sweep the darkness out, but I can shine it out.'
Orison Swett Marden
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Joyfulness keeps the heart and face young.
Orison Swett Marden
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Just make up your mind at the very outset that your work is going to stand for quality... that you are going to stamp a superior quality upon everything that goes out of your hands, that whatever you do shall bear the hallmark of excellence.
Orison Swett Marden
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There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority.
Orison Swett Marden
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Our destiny changes with our thought we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thought corresponds with our desire.
Orison Swett Marden
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Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities strong men make them.
Orison Swett Marden
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One of the best strengtheners of character and developers of stamina ... is to assume the part you wish to play to assert stoutly the possession of whatever you lack.
Orison Swett Marden
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No employer today is independent of those about him. He cannot succeed alone, no matter how great his ability or capital. Business today is more than ever a question of cooperation.
Orison Swett Marden
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The greatest advantage of books does not always come from what we remember of them, but from their suggestiveness, their character-building power.
Orison Swett Marden
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Real happiness is so simple that most people do not recognize it. It is derived from the simplest, the quietest, the most unpretentious things in the world.
Orison Swett Marden