Zig Ziglar

I read for the ‘ah-ha’s,’ the information that makes a light bulb go off in my mind. I want to put information in my mind that is going to be the most beneficial to me, my family and my fellow man – financially, morally, spiritually, and emotionally.

Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking tartar sauce with you.

Encouragement is the fuel on which hope runs.

Don’t be distracted by criticism. Remember – the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you.

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.

Every obnoxious act is a cry for help.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

To be candid, some people have given positive thinking a bad name. I can’t stand to hear some gung-ho individual say that with positive thinking you can just do ‘anything.’ If you think about that one for a moment, you recognize the absurdity of it.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all-in which case, you fail by default.

Be grateful for what you have and stop complaining – it bores everybody else, does you no good, and doesn’t solve any problems.

Once you focus on your life’s objectives, you need to focus on your instructors to make sure they are qualified to teach you what you want to know. They should have already been where you want to go and have lived to tell about it.

Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.

There were no role models, there were no other people I knew who were dealing with the same issues that I was dealing with. I had no idea if this was a stage I was going through or not. But I go to the draft board in Brooklyn and I fill out the form and there was a question that said ‘Do you have homosexual tendencies?’ and I check yes. But where-ever I was on line I’d see people I went to high school with and I was afraid of anyone knowing this about me so I kept on falling back into line and falling back into line. If you said you had homosexual tendencies they sent you to a psychiatrist. He said ‘I see here you’ve checked the box?’ And I said ‘yup’. He said ‘So do you think you’d have a problem serving in the armed forces?’ I said well you know ‘So many men.’ And I was out of the service.

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

Knowledge is that which benefits, not that which is memorised.

My philosophy in life is this: if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.

Winners lose much more often than losers. So if you keep losing but you’re still trying, keep it up! You’re right on track.

It is in the ordinary events of every day that we develop the proactive capacity to handle the extraordinary pressures of life. It’s how we make and keep commitments, how we handle a traffic jam, how we respond to an irate customer or a disobedient child. It’s how we view our problems and where we focus our energies. It’s the language we use.

If you aim at nothing, you will hit every time.

What you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

We grow great by dreams.