Orison Swett Marden

Charm of personality is a divine gift that sways the strongest characters and sometimes even controls the destinies of nations.

There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake.

The most fascinating person is always the one of the most winning manners; not the one of greatest physical beauty.

Sweeter than the perfume of roses is a reputation for a kind, charitable, unselfish nature; a ready disposition to do to others any good turn in your power.

You have not found your place until all your faculties are roused, and your whole nature consents and approves of the work you are doing.

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.

Every young man or woman should weigh the matter well before concluding that a college education is out of the question.

One of the greatest boons that can ever come to a human being is to be born on a farm and reared in the country. Self-reliance and grit are oftenest country-bred.

The man who would forge to the front in this competitive age must be a man of prompt and determined decision.

It is the idle man, not the great worker, who is always complaining that he has no time or opportunity.

If a thing seems to you worth working for at all, if it appears to you of moment enough to challenge any effort, then put into what you do all the enthusiasm of which you are capable, regardless of criticism.

It is just as important to set apart time for the development of our aesthetic faculties as for cultivating the money-getting instinct. A man cannot live by bread alone. His higher life demands an impalpable food.