Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill was an American author who was one of the earliest producers of the modern genre of personal-success literature.

See also: Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960), co-authored with W. Clement Stone

Sourced

• Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.
  • A maxim of Hill's, specifically cited as such, in Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960), co-authored with W. Clement Stone, Ch. 14, p. 222.

• Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.
  • As quoted in Diamond Power : Gems of Wisdom from America's Greatest Marketer (2003) by Barry Farber, p. 53

• A goal is a dream with a deadline.
  • As quoted in Diamond Power : Gems of Wisdom from America's Greatest Marketer (2003) by Barry Farber, p. 60

• Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches. Use auto-suggestion, have faith, imagination and overcome fear and time is your opposite player as in checkerboard.
  • As quoted in Self-Motivation Through Risk Taking! : Are You Leading Or Do You Wither with Problems? (2005) by M. Nadarajan Munisamy

The Law of Success (1937)

The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons : Teaching, for the First Time in the History of The World, the True Philosophy Upon Which All Personal Success Is Built

• Strong, deeply rooted desire is the starting point of all achievement. Just as the electron is the last unit of matter discernible to the scientist. DESIRE is the seed of all achievement; the starting place, back of which there is nothing, or at least there is nothing of which we have any knowledge.
  • p. 109
  • Variant: Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.
    • As quoted in Quote-A-Quote: To Your Success Health Wealth & Happiness (2005) by Michael E. Ruge, p. 38

Think and Grow Rich (1938)

• All achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea!
  • p.18

• Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.
  • p. 38

• Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.
  • p. 54

• We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment.
  Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment, and to build your own life to ORDER.
  • p. 54

• I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action.
  • p. 54

• I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice, therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects.
  • p. 55

• Truly, thoughts are things, and their scope of operation is the world, itself.
  • p. 87

• Do not wait; the time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.
  • p. 127