The 50 Most Famous Quotes From Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) was an American self-help author and motivational speaker best known for his work on personal success and the principles of achieving greatness. His most famous book, Think and Grow Rich (1937), is considered one of the best-selling books of all time and is a cornerstone in the self-help and personal development fields.

Hill’s philosophy centers around the idea that success can be achieved through focused thinking, clear goals, and the application of certain universal principles. He believed that the mind’s power could shape one’s destiny and that success begins with a definite purpose and a burning desire to achieve it.

Here are some of Napoleon Hill’s most famous quotes, which encapsulate his philosophy on success and personal achievement:

1. Do you know that there is a big difference between an idle wish for the attainment of a definite object and a burning desire to attain it? Anybody can wish for things, and most people do, but only a few know how to desire so deeply that it turns into a flame of resolute determination.
2. By and Large, Th ere is No Such Th ing as Something for Nothing. In the Long Run, You Get Exactly Th at for Which You Pay, Whether You Are Buying an Automobile or a Loaf of Bread.
3. A Winner Never Quits, and A Quitter Never Wins!
4. If You Must Slander Someone, Don’t Speak It, But Write It in the Sand near the Water’s Edge!
5. The person who is eternally driven by a burning desire for the achievement of some definite objective is practically sure to find ways and means of attaining it.
6. This is an age when service is uppermost in the minds of men. The person who finds a better way of rendering even the most humble sort of service may write his own salary ticket and collect it without protest. If you can improve the wrapper on a package of goods, or dress a window more attractively, or find a way to create greater harmony among the people who work with you, you are on the great highway to sure success, if you put your ability into action.
7. One reason why the person who performs more service and better service than he is paid for is always in demand is the fact that he meets with little competition in this practice.
8. When riches begin to come, they come so quickly, in such great abundance, that one wonders where they have been hiding during all those lean years.
9. There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.
10. If you form the habit of rendering more service and better service than that for which you are paid, very soon the Law of Increasing Returns will begin to work in your favor.
11. It is a peculiar trait of human nature, but it is true, that the most successful men will work harder for the sake of rendering useful service than they will for money alone.
12. The worst day in a man’s life is when he sits down and begins thinking how he can get something for nothing.
13. Useful ideas are generally the creation of people who make it their business to render more service and better service than that for which they are paid; they are seldom created by those who do just enough with which to “get by.”
14. If you wait until you are entirely ready, until you have in hand everything that you need for success, you will never get anywhere because worthwhile success is something that can be achieved only by the person who starts where he stands, and has the imagination and courage to meet emergencies as they arise. If you wait until the time is right for you to begin, you might as well give up hope, for the time will never be just right. Do the best you can with the tools at hand; other and better tools will become available when necessity becomes greater.
15. Temporary defeat does not mean failure. Great leaders accept defeat only as a signal for greater effort.
16. Education means development from within. The word “educate” comes from the Latin word educo, which means “to induce, to draw out, to develop from the inside.” Instruction is not education, because instruction does not always cause the human brain to develop from within.
17. Intellectual, organized thought is the beginning of all constructive achievement.
18. The man who has a Definite Major Purpose in life and a definite plan for achieving that purpose has already gone nine-tenths of the distance toward success.
19. There is always plenty of capital for legitimate purpose, but no man with a “poverty consciousness” can get a cent of it for any purpose. Capital has a peculiar way of getting into the hands of those who are successful and who carry the atmosphere of success with them wherever they go.
20. If you have no major purpose in life, you are licked before you start, no matter how much schooling you may have had.
21. Remember that a real leader assumes full responsibility, not only for his own acts, but also for the acts of his subordinates.
22. Many a man limits himself and makes promotion impossible because he lacks the courage to teach someone else how to hold down his job. Consequently, when the job higher up is open, he will not get it because his employer has no one to take his place.
23. You can have no greater asset than the confidence men place in you. Build on it and add to it. Do not knock the pins out from under it by welshing or repudiating your word. When you agree to do a thing, do it, not because you must, but for the better reason that this will add to the value of your reputation and build new confidence.
24. If you wish to know what is fair and just in your dealings with your fellow men, reverse every situation that you are about to create for the other fellow and see yourself in his place. If you would not be delighted to take the part which you have laid out for the other fellow, you may be sure the transaction is not based upon justice.
25. An educated person is one who knows how to get everything he wants without violating the rights of other people.
26. The only lasting favor which the parent may confer upon the child is that of helping the child to help itself.
27. You are a human magnet and you are constantly attracting to you people whose character harmonizes with your own.
28. Remember, your only real limitation is the one that you set up in your own mind.
29. Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all; to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
30. Your reputation is what people believe you to be; your character is what you really are. Build your character strongly, and your reputation can look out for itself.
31. You can if you think you can.
32. Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.
33. Your world consists largely of what you think. No one on earth can take away from you your right to think as you please. Therefore, your destiny is eternally bound up in the nature of your dominating thoughts.
34. Your dominating thoughts have a tendency to externalize themselves. If you wish to change your financial status, first change your dominating thoughts.
35. The greatest achievement was at first, and for a time, just a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest visions of the soul, a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities!
36. No thought, whether it is negative or positive, can enter the subconscious mind without the aid of the principle of autosuggestion.
37. Ideas are the beginning of all successful achievement. Nothing is as productive of useful ideas as the exchange of thoughts between groups of people who are earnestly interested in each other’s welfare. A man would seldom go wrong in his decisions and business plans if he had the privilege of counseling with half a dozen men who would offer him constructive analysis of his plans.
38. Through the law of harmonious attraction, “troubles” are generally found where they are welcome; they go where they have been invited.
39. If The Thing You Wish To Do Is Right, and You Believe In It, Go Ahead and Do It! Put Your Dream Across, and Never Mind What “They” Say If You Meet With Temporary Defeat, For They, Perhaps, Do Not Know that EVERY FAILURE BRINGS WITH IT THE SEED OF AN EQUIVALENT BENEFIT.
40. Success Requires No Apologies; Failure Permits No Alibis.
41. This is not an age favorable to the skeptic or the Doubting Thomas. The person who thinks it cannot be done is kept busy trying to get out of the way of those who are doing it. This is an age when anything can happen, and this is because men have discovered that they can do anything they believe they can.
42. Confidence is the basis of all personal achievement. With it, you get whatever you go after, because no one wishes to stand in your way.
43. Faith! If you know some person who believes in you, who knows all of your faults and still stands by you faithfully on account of the good there is in you, be careful not to lose that person’s friendship. With the aid of one such person, you can become strong. With the aid of two such persons, you can become a giant. With the aid of three such persons, you can become a genius and rise to heights of achievement such as most people never dream of attaining.
44. Your world consists largely of what you think. No one on earth can take away from you your right to think as you please; therefore, your destiny is eternally bound up in the nature of your dominating thoughts.
45. No man has a chance to enjoy permanent success until he begins to look in the mirror for the real causes of all his mistakes.
46. Faith is the keystone to the arch of your temple of success. Without it, your building will tumble.
47. Who told you it couldn’t be done? What great achievement has he to his credit that entitles him to use the word “impossible” so freely?
48. The man who receives no pay from his labor except that which comes in his pay envelope is underpaid and cheated, no matter what his salary may be. The real pay for labor comes from the joy one gets out of performing it. The money one receives is merely incidental.
49. A Definite Chief Aim will teach you how to save wasted effort and to fix your heart and hand upon a definite, well-conceived purpose in life.
50. Occasions of defeat are permanent only in the mind that accepts them as such.
51. Webster was twenty-two years in writing his dictionary, and Edison was defeated 10,000 times before he completed the incandescent electric lightbulb. Verily, there is virtue in persistence.
52. Revenge is a form of “black plague” which drives away the sort of thoughts which lead to a worthy achievement, kills off constructive ambition, destroys enthusiasm, dwarfs the imaginative faculty of the brain, undermines self-control, and stands as a barrier to permanent success in a hundred other ways. Revenge is a cuttleworm, which bores from within and destroys the finer emotions of the heart.
53. ANYBODY can wish for riches, and most people do, but only a few know that a definite plan, plus a burning desire for wealth, are the only dependable means of accumulating wealth.

Napoleon Hill’s teachings continue to inspire and motivate people around the world, emphasizing that success is a product of mindset, determination, and the proactive pursuit of goals. His principles have influenced countless individuals seeking to achieve personal and professional success.

• Top 15 Must-Read Books for Personal Growth and Mastery
• Top 10 Highly Recommended Books To Read
• 7 Biographies That Changed The World
• 7 Books That Will Teach You to Live a More Joyful Life
• 7 Must-Read Books for Mastering Personal Finance
• 17 Popular Quotes About Chocolate
• Top 5 Books for Easy Reading and Relaxation
• 18 Timeless Lessons From Winston Churchill
• Eid Greetings in Different Languages from Across the World
• 10 Great Lessons from the Book “Purple Cow”