Think and Grow Rich

by Napoleon Hill

“You see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win!

faith is the only known antidote for failure!

Taking inventory of mental assets and liabilities, you will discover that your greatest weakness is lack of self-confidence. This handicap can be surmounted, and timidity translated into courage, through the aid of the principle of autosuggestion.

“I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul!”

Lack of understanding of this fact has been the source of confusion to millions of people who falsely believe that “knowledge is power.” It is nothing of the sort! Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end.

“How many soldiers did the British send over to America to put down the Rebellion of 1776?” In answer to the last question, Mr. Ford replied, “I do not know the exact number of soldiers the British sent over, but I have heard that it was a considerably larger number than ever went back.”

there is one astounding weakness to this marvelous system— it is free! One of the strange things about human beings is that they value only that which has a price.

I am also trying to emphasize another point, namely, that both success and failure are largely the results of habit!

Whoever you are, wherever you may live, whatever occupation you may be engaged in, just remember in the future, every time you see the words “Coca-Cola,” that its vast empire of wealth and influence grew out of a single idea, and that the mysterious ingredient the drug clerk— Asa Candler— mixed with the secret formula was. . . imagination Stop and think of that, for a moment.

Ideas are intangible forces, but they have more power than the physical brains that give birth to them. They have the power to live on, after the brain that creates them has returned to dust. For example, take the power of Christianity.

Thomas A. Edison “failed” ten thousand times before he perfected the incandescent electric light bulb.

Lack of persistence. Most of us are good “starters” but poor “finishers” of everything we begin. Moreover, people are prone to give up at the first signs of defeat. There is no substitute for persistence.

Quick riches are more dangerous than poverty.

“Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them.