#achievement

We like to stress the commonness of heroes. Essences seem undemocratic. We feel oppressed by the call to greatness. We regard an interest in glory or perfection as a sign of mental unhealthiness, and have decided that high achievers, who are called overachievers, owe their surplus ambition to a defect in mothering (either too little or too much). We want to admire but think we have a right not to be intimidated. We dislike feeling inferior to an ideal. So away with ideals, with essences. The only ideals allowed are healthy ones -- those everyone may aspire to, or comfortably imagine oneself possessing. ↗

— Susan Sontag

#ambition #democracy #egalitarianism #equality #essence

Teamwork is the secret that make common people achieve uncommon result. ↗

— Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

#advice #community #ifeanyi-enoch-onuoha #inspirational #law

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well. ↗

— Theodore Roosevelt

#adversity #easy #effort #envy #lives

If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by 'we' I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better. It is a talent we have only barely begun to grasp. ↗

— Bill Bryson

#biology #humans #life #science #universe

The generality of mankind is lazy. What distinguishes men of genuine achievement from the rest of us is not so much their intellectual powers and aptitudes as their curiosity, their energy, their fullest use of their potentialities. Nobody really knows how smart or talented he is until he finds the incentives to use himself to the fullest. God has given us more than we know what to do with. ↗

— Sydney J. Harris

#achievement #curiosity #god #laziness #potential

Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit. ↗

— Conrad Hilton

#men

Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills. ↗

— Confucius

#men

The greatest investment one can ever make is the investment into humanity, for an achievement based on positive influence into people's life can stand the test of time, survive through the mortality of men and resound endlessly through posterity ↗

— Uzoma Ezeson

#greatest #investment #men

Achievement is achievement no matter how small it is. ↗

— Veronica Purcell

#motivational

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement. ↗

— Golda Meir

#achievement #be happy #create #fanning #flames