Are you someone who is often told that you can’t seem to find the luck to get yourself out of a situation? Have you ever considered the mindset you’re in hindering your ability to succeed?
The Positive Affirmations Center shares quotes from ancient philosophers that will help you push the blocks of negativity out of your life, and instead use thoughts that will help you find success in your daily routine.
The ancient philosophers discuss what they think about success in their lives and what makes them happy. They also discuss the things that they believe would make others successful.
Some of them believed that it was through being virtuous, honest, or politically powerful. The individualistic view of success as something the person does themselves helped mold their idea of what made a person successful.
This quote sums up the idea of success in Stoicism – not being afraid to face difficult situations, but instead choosing to take on those challenges with patience and optimism. Stoicism teaches that those who are at peace with themselves will never be enslaved or made a slave; they always have the freedom to choose their own path in life.
The stoics believed that the path to happiness and success was paved with mastering one’s emotions.
18 Quotes from Ancient Philosophers On Success
- “Achieving success in your life means attaining the things that are necessary to live a good life.” -Niccolo Machiavelli
- “What is the meaning of being successful? Life is not about how many breaths you take, but about how many moments take your breath away.” -Sylvester Stallone
- “Success and happiness go together.” -Woody Allen
- “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” -Winston Churchill
- “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” -Zig Ziglar
- “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” ― Michelangelo
- “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” -Robert J.
- “If you wish to be in the company of those you call successful people, make your own success.”- Maxwell Maltz
- “Success is really just a question of how you define it.”- Jon Bonalc
- “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” – Marcus Aurelius
- “All obstructions in life are not worth a moment of time. One can get around them, go over them, or under them.” – Epictetus
- “There is no obstacle so great that it can keep a man from acting wisely.” – Seneca
- “If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” ― Marcus Aurelius
- “So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted wrongly the first time. – Seneca
- “The height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-content. – Norman Vincent Peale
- “Remember that happiness is something that starts with YOU. If you want others to be happy, you must be happy first yourself. You can only have happiness as a person when your heart is pure and filled with gratitude.” ― Shannon L.
- “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” – Plato
- “Success is not something that can be pursued; it must ensue.” – Henry David Thoreau
When some great purpose inspires you, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world.
Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
