It still holds true that man is most
uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.
— Eric Hoffer
No business opportunity
is ever lost. If you fumble it your competitor will find it.
— Unknown wise person
Retirement is a great opportunity. It is the beginning
of life — not the
end.
— from How
to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too
many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car, a teaspoon instead of a steam
shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little.
— Ben Sweetland
Ability is of little account without opportunity.
— Napoleon
When written in Chinese the word crisis is composed of two characters. One
represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
— John F. Kennedy
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
— Paul Valery
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing, it was here
first.
— Mark Twain
The wise people are in New York because the foolish went there first. That's the way
wise men make a living.
— Finley Peter Dunne
Great opportunity is all around you and it will inspire you to either take
advantage of it or deny that it is there.
— from Life's Secret Handbook
My life is filled with many obstacles. The greatest obstacle is me.
— Jack Parr
Everyone who does not work has a scheme that does.
— Unknown wise person
Opportunity can't reward you with its many gifts if you fail to
recognize it and act on it. What most people don’t seem to realize is that there is just as much
money to be made from the wreckage of a civilization as from the upbuilding of one. Let the good times
roll!
— from Life's Secret Handbook by Ernie J. Zelinski
Watch for big problems. They disguise big opportunities.
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.
— Joseph Stalin
Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no
one to blame.
— Erica Jong
Life is a game.
Happy people are the players.
Unhappy people are the spectators.
Which would you like to be?
— from Life's Secret Handbook by Ernie Zelinski
Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because
they’re looking for ideas.
— Paula Poundstone
There's no disaster that can't become a blessing, and no blessing
that can't become a disaster.
— from Messiah's Handbook by Richard Bach
This American system of ours . . . call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it
what you like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands
and make the most of it.
— Al Capone
Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and
make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.
— Orison Swett Marden
We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible
situations.
— AuntGranny Charles R. Swindoll
God gives the nuts but he does not crack them.
— German Proverb
If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into
someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
— Jim Rohn
Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.
— Demosthenes
If you don't act now while it's fresh in your mind, it will probably join
the list of things you were always going to do but never quite got around to. Chances are you'll also miss
some opportunities.
— Paul Clitheroe
When you find yourself on the side of majority, question yourself about what you are
doing and why. It is likely wrong.
— from Look Ma; Life's Easy: How Ordinary People Attain Extraordinary Results
If your house is on fire, warm yourself by it.
— Spanish proverb
I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.
— Mark Twain
It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking
action.
— Al Batt
When it comes to making more money, most people look at the world and see
the same opportunities they’ve seen before: typically, a job. Because they don’t awaken their mind and
expand their vision, they don’t see other opportunities. Yet opportunities do exist. So how do you change
your thinking so you can see them? One way to jolt the brain out of its preconceived category thinking is
to bombard it with new experiences.
— Joe Vitale
Persistence is what makes the impossible possible, the possible likely, and the
likely definite.
— Robert Half
Here is a myth for you if myths are your pleasure:
"There is no more opportunity in this world."
Most people held this false belief fifty years ago, the majority agreed with it five years ago, and
practically everyone clings to it today.
Clearly, this myth will also be the screaming rage in the future.
Hang on to this myth, and you are destined to miss great opportunities for the rest of your life.
— from Life's Secret Handbook by Ernie Zelinski
Taking advantage of opportunity is reading motivational retirement sayings at work so that I don't
have to contemplate the act of committing suicide.
— Dave Erhard
The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
— David Ogilvy
Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.
— Zig Ziglar
I have not failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.
— Thomas Alva Edison
The only way most people recognize their limits is by trespassing on them.
— Tom Morris
Three rules of work
1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.
2. From discord, find harmony.
3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
— Albert Einstein
Foster a curiosity for the uncommon, regardless of how unpopular it is. The uncommon is where
opportunity likes to hide.
— from Life's Secret Handbook by Ernie Zelinski
Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something,
wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.
— Albert Einstein
What small potatoes we all are, compared with what we might be!
— Charles Dudley Warner
I can't do no literary work for the rest of this year because I'm
meditating another lawsuit and looking around for a defendant.
— Mark Twain
All right, let's not panic. I'll make the money by selling one of my
livers. I can get by with one.
— Homer Simpson
I saw a sign at a gas station. It said "help wanted". There was another
sign below it that said "self service". So I hired myself. Then I made myself the boss. I gave myself a
raise. I paid myself. Then I quit.
— Steven Wright
The first half of it [life] consists of the capacity to enjoy without the
chance; the last half consists of the chance without the capacity.
— Mark Twain
I shall make electricity so cheap that only the rich can afford to burn
candles.
— Thomas Edison
I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.
— Duke Ellington
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of
gaining our own esteem.
— Samuel Johnson
My ship came in yesterday but I was at the bus depot.
— Unknown loser
We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that
intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.
— Eric Hoffer
You never plough a field by turning it over in your mind.
— Irish proverb
If you believe it can't be done, at least don't get in the way of the
person who is doing it.
— Unknown Wise Person
The toughest form of mountain climbing is getting out of a rut.
— Unknown Wise Person
When opportunity knocks a grumbler complains about the noise.
— Unknown opportunist
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love;
there's only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.
— Dr. Wayne Dyer
Sometimes it's difficult to know who's knocking — opportunity or temptation.
— Unknown opportunist
While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.
— Publilius Syrus
This would be a better world if we'd let opportunity do all the knocking.
— Unknown opportunist
The wisdom of a learned man cometh by opportunity of leisure: and he that hath little business
shall become wise.
— Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus 38:25.
Life is full of golden opportunities for doing what we don't want to do.
— Unknown opportunist
Opportunity usually knocks but once, and that may be the reason it has a better reputation than other
knockers.
— Unknown opportunist
An opportunist hears opportunity at the door before it knocks.
— Unknown opportunist
Did you ever notice how many "once-in-a-lifetime opportunities" you can do without?
— Unknown wise person
You probably won't hear opportunity knock; if the television set is always
on.
— Unknown wise person
God makes opportunities, but He expects us to hunt for them.
— Unknown opportunist
Why don't we jump at opportunities as quickly as we jump to conclusions?
— Unknown opportunist
OPPORTUNITY is not “knocking.” It is pounding on your door.
— Tom Peters
Life is full of hard knocks, but answer them all. One might be opportunity.
— Unknown opportunist
There is no security on this earth. Only opportunity.
— Douglas MacArthur
Don't believe you have to travel far and wide to discover
opportunities.
The best opportunities will always be found in your own back yard, and not half way around the world in
someone else's backyard.
You have to look for them, however.
— from Life's Secret Handbook by Ernie Zelinski
God hides things by putting them near you.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
The right man is the one who seizes the moment.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Opportunities flit by while we sit regretting the chances we have lost, and happiness that comes to us
need not, because of the happiness that is gone.
— Jerome K. Jerome
Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't
recognize them.
— Attributed to Ann Landers
Opportunities are often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be listening.
— Unknown wise person
Never neglect the opportunity of keeping your mouth shut.
— Unknown opportunist
Even when opportunity knocks, a man still has to get off his seat and open
the door.
— Unknown opportunist
Great opportunities come to those who make the most of small ones.
— Unknown opportunist
Remember that just the moment you say, "I give up," someone else seeing
the same situation is saying, "My, what a great opportunity."
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Opportunity is a good deal more conspicuous on the way out than on the way in.
— Unknown opportunist
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
— William Shakespeare
There is a tide in the affairs of women,
Which, taken at the flood, leads — God knows where.
— Lord Byron
You don't have to be in a key position to open the door of opportunity.
— Unknown opportunist
Opportunity has the uncanny habit of favoring those who have paid the
price of years of preparation.
— Unknown wise person
Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.
— Unknown wise person
When opportunity knocks, invite it to stay for dinner.
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
— Unknown wise person
Be more attentive to what successful people have to say about all the
opportunity around you.
Anything important — which takes only two minutes to point out — will exceed most people's attention span
by at least a minute and a half.
Learn to pay attention for two minutes at a time — and you will see more opportunity than you know
what to do with.
— from Life's Secret Handbook
To be blind is bad, but worse is to have eyes and not to see.
— Helen Keller
Opportunity does not batter the door off its hinges when it knocks.
— Unknown wise person
In the orchard of opportunity, it is better to pick the fruit than to wait for it to fall.
— Unknown wise person
Volunteer. Sometimes the jobs no one wants conceal big opportunities.
— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Opportunity does not send letters of introduction.
— Unknown wise person
Chance is always powerful. Let your hook be always cast; in the pool where
you least expect it, there will be a fish.
— Ovid
If you create the circumstances, opportunity will knock more than once upon your door.
— Unknown wise person
Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one
coming.
— Richard Branson
Once an opportunity has passed, it cannot be caught.
— Unknown wise person
The door of opportunity is opened by pushing. Opportunity does knock sometimes, but most
— Unknown wise person
Too many men are out in the backyard looking for four—leaf clover when opportunity knocks at their front
door.
— Unknown wise person
Your beliefs about the lack of opportunity around you in the
present and in the future will turn out to be self-fulfilled prophecies.
— Dave Erhard
Ninety-five percent of the beliefs we have stored in our minds [about
opportunity and many other things in life] are nothing but lies and we suffer because we believe all
those lies.
— Don Miguel Ruiz in his bestseller The Four
Agreements
We are seldom able to see an opportunity until it has ceased to be one.
— Unknown wise person
Having a great deal of opportunity proves nothing.
Opportunity without creative action is like a brand new Ferrari without an engine.
You possess something valuable, but it won't get you anywhere.
— from Life's Secret Handbook
Opportunity has been described as a baldheaded
man with a lock of hair in front. If you don't grab it as it approaches, you can't grab it at all.
— Unknown wise person
For some reason a pessimist always complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.
— Unknown wise person
Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.
— Unknown wise person
If the knock at the door is loud and long, it isn't opportunity. It's relatives.
— Unknown wise person
The reason some men don't go very far in life is that they sidestep opportunity and shake hands with
temptation.
— Unknown wise person
What do you see?
OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE
— Exercise used by Ernie Zelinski in a Creativity Seminar
Two people look at the same Exercise above:
One sees "Opportunity Is Nowhere" and one sees "Opportunity Is Now Here."
— Ernie Zelinski
Two men look out through the same bars:
One sees the mud, and one the stars.
— Frederick Langbridge
Opportunity has to knock, but it is enough for temptation to stand outside and whistle.
— Unknown wise person
Many a man creates his own lack of opportunities.
— Unknown wise person
Many people seem to think that opportunity means a chance to get money
without earning it.
— Unknown wise person
The gates of opportunity swing on four hinges: initiative, insight, industry, and integrity.
— Unknown wise person
Those who wait for opportunities to turn up usually find themselves turned down.
— Unknown wise person
The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees
the opportunity in every difficulty.
— L P. Jacks
For the modern girl, opportunity doesn't knock. It parks in front of her home and honks the horn.
— Unknown opportunist
Never waste time reflecting on opportunities you have missed. While thus
reflecting you might miss some more.
— Unknown opportunist
