Fools wait for opportunities in order to do everything; able men wait only for such chances as they themselves are unable to create.
NORMAN MACDONALD, Maxims and Moral Reflections
Opportunity is often dressed up in work clothes.
CROFT M. PENTZ, The Complete Book of Zingers
The very lack of opportunity the group faces creates a self-defeating cycle and puts pressure on members to limit their aspirations.
ROSABETH MOSS KANTER, Men and Women of the Corporation
- The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of the weak.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN, The Hour of Opportunity
Opportunities multiply as they are seized; they die when neglected.
JOHN WICKER, Into Tomorrow
- 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"
Opportunity is latent in the very foundation of human society. Opportunity is everywhere about us. But the preparation to seize upon the opportunity, and to make the most of it, is to be made by every one for himself ... he will be self-made or never made.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN, The Hour of Opportunity
The door of opportunity is always marked PUSH.
BOB GASS, attributed, Discover Your True Potential
Opportunity is the great bawd.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1735
- The golden opportunity
- Is never offered twice; seize then the hour
- When fortune smiles and duty points the way;
- Nor shrink aside to 'scape the specter fear;
- Nor pause, though pleasure beckon from her bower;
- But bravely bear thee onward to the goal.
Every man knows that there are moments upon which hang the destiny of years. It is only for the moment that the favorable opportunity is presented. If we miss it, months, months and years are lost. What is the doing of a deed but the sowing of a seed? If it is not sown at the right time, it will not germinate. How priceless are the sunny days of youth, so rich in opportunity. Is it not always the nick of time for an active-minded youth? His brain cells and nerves are plastic, and it is easy to make an impression upon the mind itself, by which life's activities may be so regulated that his success will be as certain as the processes of mechanism. The determining moment is often very brief, and if we are on the watch, and always ready to seize it, it will make all the difference to us between success and failure.
ORISON SWETT MARDEN, The Hour of Opportunity
I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. Everyone has bad breaks, but everyone also has opportunities. The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.
SAMUEL GOLDWYN, Forbes Magazine, 1959
- O Opportunity! thy guilt is great:
- 'Tis thou that execut'st the traitor's treason!
- Thou set'st the wolf where he the lamb may get;
- Whoever plots the sin, thou 'point'st the season;
- 'Tis thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason;
- And in thy shady cell, where none may spy him,
- Sits Sin, to seize the souls that wander by him.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, The Rape of Lucrece
Opportunity is one of those things that depend greatly on the eye of the beholder.
ANDREW SANCHEZ, Technical Support Essentials
For a lot of people, it seems that opportunity can be the most elusive event in the world. Indeed, I would argue that opportunity is elusive! By that, I don't mean to say that it never happens. In fact, the very opposite is true. Opportunity is always happening all around us, it is literally everywhere. But it is elusive in that, generally speaking, it is in disguise!
R. IAN SEYMOUR, Discover Your True Potential
To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life.
SAMUEL JOHNSON, address to the electors of Great Britain, 1774
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
When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, The Electrical Workers' Journal, 1957
- We must take the current when it serves
- Or lose our ventures.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar
The successful man is one who had the chance and took it.
ROBER BABSON, attributed, Distilled Wisdom
