B.C. Forbes Quotes

Mediocre men wait for opportunity to come to them. Strong able alert men go after opportunity.

Money or even power can never yield happiness unless it be accompanied by the goodwill of others.

Are you doing the kind of work you were built for so that you can expect to be able to do very large amounts of that kind and thrive under it? Or are you doing a kind of which you can do comparatively little?

The real friend is he or she who can share all our sorrow and double our joys.

It is when things go hardest when life becomes most trying that there is greatest need for having a fixed goal. When few comforts come from without it is all the more necessary to have a fount to draw on from within.

The human being who lives only for himself finally reaps nothing but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles satisfies. Don't put off the joy derivable from doing helpful kindly things for others.

Pity the human being who is not able to connect faith within himself with the infinite.... He who has faith has ... an inward reservoir of courage hope confidence calmness and assuring trust that all will come out well-even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.

Lady Luck generally woos those who earnestly enthusiastically unremittingly woo her.

Turn resolutely to work to recreation or in any case to physical exercise till you are so tired you can't help going to sleep and when you wake up you won't want to worry.

Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can't expect an angel to look out.

The man who has done his level best…is a success, even though the world write him down a failure.

Search and you will find that at the base and birth of every great business organization was an enthusiast a man consumed with earnestness of purpose with confidence in his powers with faith in the worthwhileness of his endeavors.

The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.

Diamonds are only lumps of coal that stuck to their jobs.

Opportunity can benefit no man who has not fitted himself to seize it and use it. Opportunity woos the worthy shuns the unworthy. Prepare yourself to grasp opportunity and opportunity is likely to come your way. It is not so fickle capricious and unreasoning as some complain.

Our future and our fate lie in our wills more than in our hands for our hands are but the instruments of our wills.

Judgment can be acquired only by acute observation by actual experience in the school of life by ceaseless alertness to learn from others by study of the activities of men who have made notable marks by striving to analyze the everyday play of causes and effects by constant study of human nature.

The way to make a true friend is to be one. Friendship implies loyalty esteem cordiality sympathy affection readiness to aid to help to stick to fight for if need be. ... Radiate friendship and it will return sevenfold.

Call the roll in your memory of conspicuously successful business giants and ... you will be struck by the fact that almost every one of them encountered inordinate difficulties sufficient to crush all but the gamest of spirits. Edison went hungry many times before he became famous.

Many of the most successful men I have known have never grown up. They have retained bubbling-over boyishness. They have relished wit they have indulged in humor. They have not allowed "dignity" to depress them into moroseness. Youthfulness of spirit is the twin brother of optimism and optimism is the stuff of which American business success is fashioned. Resist growing up!

Triumph often is nearest when defeat seems inescapable.

You have no idea how big the other fellow's troubles are.

Jealousy is an inner consciousness of one's own inferiority. It is a mental cancer.

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

The men who have done big things are those who were not afraid to attempt big things who were not afraid to risk failure in order to gain success.

The man of fixed ingrained principles who has mapped out a straight course and has the courage and self-control to adhere to it does not find life complex. Complexities are all of our own making.

The man who has done his level best and who is conscious that he has done his best is a success even though the world may write him down a failure.

Call the roll in your memory of conspicuously successful [business] giants and if you know anything about their careers you will be struck by the fact that almost every one of them encountered inordinate difficulties sufficient to crush all but the gamest of spirits. Edison went hungry many times before he became famous.

When it comes to betting on yourself ... you're a chicken-livered coward if you hesitate.

How we love to blame others for our misfortunes! Almost every individual who has lost money in stock speculation has on the tip of his tongue an explanation which he trots out to show that it wasn't his own fault at all.... Hardly one loser has the manliness to say frankly "I was wrong."

Life is just an endless chain of judgements. . . . The more imperfect our judgement the less perfect our success.

Many a man has walked up to the opportunity for which he has long been preparing himself looked it full in the face and then begun to get cold feet... when it comes to betting on yourself and your power to do the thing you know you must do or write yourself down a failure you're a chicken-livered coward if you hesitate.