Zig Ziglar

The person who dumps garbage into your mind will do you considerably more harm than the person who dumps garbage on your floor, because each load of mind garbage negatively impacts your possibilities and lowers your expectations.

I’ve got to confess I’m a pragmatic optimist myself.

Fact: If standard of living is your number one objective, quality of life almost never improves. But if quality of life is your number one objective, standard of living invariably improves.

Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.

It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without integrity you will never be one.

I seldom read anything that is not of a factual nature because I want to invest my time wisely in the things that will improve my life. Don’t misunderstand; there is nothing wrong with reading purely for the joy of it. Novels have their place, but biographies of famous men and women contain information that can change lives.

Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have.

You will have failures in your life, but it is what you do during those valleys that will determine the heights of your peaks.

I’m so optimistic, I’d go after Moby Dick in a rowboat and take the tartar sauce with me.

Isn’t it amazing how much stuff we get done the day before vacation?

I gave up the guitar in 1965. Didn’t want to see a guitar. I’d go out and get drunk. When I came out of the heart surgery, the doc said, “Promise me you’ll work hard.” I said, “I thought working hard is what got me here.” He said, “No, working is what will keep you alive.”

Relish the opportunity to be an outsider. Embrace that label – being an outsider is fine, embrace the label – because it’s the outsiders who change the world and who make a real and lasting difference.

A good tool improves the way you work. A great tool improves the way you think.

All one needs to do is read – books, magazines, research the Internet – and pay attention to the influencers in their lives to discover the myriad people of strong moral character who have and still are making positive, meaningful contributions and differences in our world.

Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.

When somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough.

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.