quotations about opportunity
Master of human destinies am I!
Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait,
Cities and fields I walk: I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late
I knock unbidden once at every gate!
If sleeping, wake: if feasting, rise before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate
And they who follow me reach every state
Mortals desire and conquer every foe
Save death: but those who doubt or hesitate,
Condemned to failure, penury and woe,
Seek me in vain and uselessly implore--
I answer not, and I return no more!
JOHN J. INGALLS
"Opportunity"
Although opportunity is more definite than luck, and is apparently governed by more distinguishable laws, it cannot always be corralled and is at times elusive. It is an undeniable fact that equal opportunity does not present itself with apparent fairness; but it is also as positive a fact that opportunity is likely to come to those who seek it, and to avoid those who make no effort to meet it or to prepare themselves to entertain it when it does come.
NATHANIEL CLARK FOWLER
Getting a Start
The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger--but recognize the opportunity.
RICHARD NIXON
attributed, Taking Charge: Crisis Intervention in Criminal Justice
There comes a moment in every life when the Universe presents you with an opportunity to rise to your potential. An open door that only requires the heart to walk through, seize it and hang on. The choice is never simple. It's never easy. It's not supposed to be. But those who travel this path have always looked back and realized that the test was always about the heart.... The rest is just practice.
JAIME BUCKLEY
Prelude to a Hero
Turn your obstacles into opportunities and your problems into possibilities.
ROY T. BENNETT
The Light in the Heart
Many people are waiting for opportunity to knock at the door, but when it does knock they are seldom ready to take advantage of it. No man or woman need wait on opportunity. We all have the innate potential power to create our own opportunities.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Opportunity", Human Life from Many Angles
The most successful are those who have not waited for opportunity, but have reached out after it, conquered it and made it their servant.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Opportunity", Human Life from Many Angles
Man is, to a considerable extent, the child of opportunity. Estimate as highly as we may the power of the individual achievement of success, there is yet another factor in the product, the power of circumstances, which we cannot wholly ignore. It has been remarked that the same tree that is soft and spongy in a fat swamp, with its heavy air, grows hard and noble on the hillside.
WILLIAM MATTHEWS
Hints on Success in Life
Never see change as a threat, because it can be an opportunity to learn, to grow, evolve and become a better person.
RODOLFO COSTA
Advice My Parents Gave Me
Opportunities multiply as they are seized; they die when neglected.
JOHN WICKER
Into Tomorrow
Opportunity is often dressed up in work clothes.
CROFT M. PENTZ
The Complete Book of Zingers
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
EDITH LOVEJOY PIERCE
Meditations for Women
He who is alert, and sees and appreciates opportunity, is on the certain road to happiness.
NICIAS BALLARD COOKSEY
Helps to Happiness
In all your dealings, remember that today is your opportunity; tomorrow some other fellow's.
GEORGE HORACE LORIMER
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son
It's them as take advantage that get advantage i' this world, I think: folks have to wait long enough afore it's brought to 'em.
GEORGE ELIOT
Adam Bede
If time be a ring of gold, opportunity is the rich diamond that gives it both its value and glory.
JOHN FLAVEL
"A Treatise of the Soul of Man"
An opportunity is a conjunction of circumstances by which one may improve his condition of life or his equipment for life.
WILLIAM DEWITT HYDE
Vocations
Opportunity is a God whose face is concealed by hair, so that we seldom know him when he comes to us. He has wings on his feet, so that when once gone he cannot be overtaken.
D. A. K. STEELE
The Chicago Clinic, April 1989
Opportunity leads even moderate men astray from the path of duty by the hope of self-aggrandisement.
SALLUST
attributed, Day's Collacon
The taking or neglecting of an opportunity is the gaining or losing of great fortune.
LORD BURLEIGH
attributed, Day's Collacon