quotations about opportunity
Men do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through, one by one, till all are gone.
T. JONES
attributed, The Book of Positive Quotations
To come before the opportunity, is to come before the bird is hatched; and to come after the opportunity is to come when the bird is flown. There is no calling back time, when it is once past.
JOHN FLAVEL
The Herald of Gospel Liberty, September 22, 1921
Sometimes, you need a door slammed in your face before you can hear opportunity knock.
JAMES GEARY
Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists
Bad chances were better than no chances.
STEPHEN KING
Under the Dome
Our most significant opportunities will be found in times of greatest difficulty.
THOMAS S. MONSON
Pathways to Perfection
To think and to will without doing, when there is opportunity, is like a flame enclosed in a vessel and goes out; also like seed cast upon the sand, which fails to grow, and so perishes with its power of germination.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell
Did Mr. Woolworth, who created a chain of more than one thousand five and ten cent stores, wait on opportunity? Did Thomas A. Edison and thousands of men and women who have achieved big things wait on opportunity? Decidedly not! They either created their own opportunity or prepared themselves to receive it when it presented itself.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Opportunity", Human Life from Many Angles
The man who sees an opportunity and does nothing is asleep with his eyes open.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVEN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Corrino
Danger will wink on opportunity.
JOHN MILTON
Comus
To be a great man it is necessary to turn to account all opportunities.
LA ROCHEFOUCAULD
attributed, Day's Collacon
Opportunity to a statesman is as the just degree of heat to chemists; it perfects all the work.
SIR JOHN SUCKLING
attributed, Day's Collacon
Opportunities are importunities; they are like flowers that fade at night; seize them, therefore, while they last.
G. S. BOWES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Individual opportunity is a powerful component of American ideology, powerful enough to elicit support for the system from all quarters, even from many exploited and unorganized workers who are at their bosses' mercy. If workers destined to be used up and discarded by employers cling nevertheless to "the American Way," it is not because they are ignorant of their destiny, but because they sense it. They feel that their only ray of hope for a satisfying life emanates from the "opportunity" the American system provides.
JEFF SCHMIDT
Disciplined Minds
Oft does the mind wish for lost opportunities.
PETRONIUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
Maxims
No great man ever complains of want of opportunity--no, nor of any want except of being wanting to himself.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks: 1838-1842
Your opportunity is just as good, perhaps even better, than any other man's. Get to work where you are. And get to work right now.
WILLIAM A. RADFORD
Cement World, April 15, 1908
It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready to take advantage of them.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
Opportunity knocks once at every man's door and then keeps on knocking.
GEORGE ADE
"The Undecided Bachelor", Knocking the Neighbors
Master of human destinies am I!
Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait,
Cities and fields I walk: I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late
I knock unbidden once at every gate!
If sleeping, wake: if feasting, rise before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate
And they who follow me reach every state
Mortals desire and conquer every foe
Save death: but those who doubt or hesitate,
Condemned to failure, penury and woe,
Seek me in vain and uselessly implore--
I answer not, and I return no more!
JOHN J. INGALLS
"Opportunity"