55 Best Quotes On Habits By Og Mandino

During World War II, Augustine “Og” Mandino was a pilot and after the end of the war, he began working as an editor at a magazine.

This sparked his interest in the written word and later on, he went to become one of the most influential motivational authors of his time.

Mandino’s writing still resonates with readers today and many turn to his books in search of meaning. His way of conveying his message is through stories, which is very effective to get his message across. People often think about Og’s words for days after reading his work, which is always a good sign.

In fact, Og Mandino has changed the lives of so many people, that thousands have credited him with turning their lives around.

If this doesn’t impress you, here is even more data on the guy – his books have been sold in 18 languages, for more than 25 million copies. His most famous work has to be The Greatest Salesman in the World, which was published in 1968. It’s in the top three of my most favorite books that changed my life.

The book is a simple read, which offers advice on how to be successful at all aspects of life. Thanks to this book, Mandino quickly became one of the most famous motivational speakers in the U. S.

He left much wisdom in his writing, which we can luckily still appreciate today. Here are some of Og Mandino’s best quotes on habits, which people have credited for their success in life.

Og Mandino’s Best Quotes On Habits

1. “This too shall pass.”

2. “Never will I overindulge the requests of my flesh, rather I will cherish my body with cleanliness and moderation.”

3. “When we were given dominion over the world, we were also given dominion over ourselves. God is not our navigator. It was never His intention to chart a course for each of use and thus place us all under His bondage. Instead, He bestowed each of us with intellect and talent and vision to map our own way, to write our own Book of Life in any manner we choose.”

4. “As a child I was slave to my impulses; now I am slave to my habits, as are all grown men.”

5. “Truly, many times have you heard me say that the rewards are great if one succeeds but the rewards are great only because so few succeed. Many succumb to despair and fail without realizing that they already possess all the tools needed to acquire great wealth. Many others face each obstacle in their path with fear and doubt and consider them as enemies when, in truth, these obstructions are friends and helpers.”

6. “Obstacles are necessary for success because in selling, as in all careers of importance, victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats. Yet each struggle, each defeat, sharpens your skills and strengths, your courage and your endurance, your ability and your confidence and thus each obstacle is a comrade-in-arms forcing you to become better … or quit. Each rebuff is an opportunity to move forward; turn away from them, avoid them, and you throw away your future.”

7. “My actions are ruled by appetite, passion, prejudice, greed, love, fear, environment, habit, and the worst of these tyrants is habit.”

8. “I am the end product of thousands of years of evolution; therefore, I am better equipped in both mind and body than all the emperors and wise men who preceded me.”

9. “Today I shall give myself in sacrifice and work; for tomorrow I will have nothing to give and there will be none to receive.”

10. “I can accomplish far more than I have, and I will, for why should the miracle that produced me end with my brith? Why can I not extend that miracle to my deeds of today?”

11. “Thus, the first law I will obey, which precedeth all others is—I will form good habits and become their slave.”

12. “I will read each scroll for thirty days in this prescribed manner, before I proceed to the next scroll.”

13. “First, I will read the words in silence when I arise. Then, I will read the words in silence after I have partaken of my midday meal. Last, I will read the words again just before I retire at day’s end, and most important, on this occasion I will read the words aloud.”

14. “When I am tempted to criticize I will bite on my tongue; when I am moved to praise I will shout from the roofs. ”

15. “The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what the task may be. This is a habit followed by all successful people since the beginning of time. Therefore I saith the surest way to doom yourself to mediocrity is to perform only the work for which you are paid.”

16. “The creation of a thousand forests is in a single acorn. Concentration”

17. “I will consider each day’s effort as but one blow of my blade against a mighty oak.”

18. “I will live this day as if it is my last. And if it is not, I shall fall to my knees and give thanks.”

19. “Victory comes only after many struggles and countless defeats.”

20. “A new book is very much like a child. Sooner or later it must go out into the world and succeed or fail on its own, usually leaving behind one or two loving people filled with concern and guilt and wondering if they had truly done all they could have to prepare their issue for the cruel marketplace of life.”

21. “Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles.”

22. “No longer will I judge a man on one meeting; no longer will I fail to call again tomorrow on he who meets me with hate today.”

23. “What you wish can only be accomplished by changing one person at a time.”

24. “Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed. The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow. The sooner you plant that seed the sooner shall the tree grow. And the more faithfully you nourish and water that tree with consistent savings, the sooner may you bask in contentment beneath its shade.”

25. “Success is not something that must be deserved or earned. It is more an inherent right—an inherent responsibility. The only qualification for success is that you be you, that you utilize whatever combination of talent you possess to the fullest extent possible.”

26. “I will form good habits and become their slave.”

27. “If I become overconfident I will recall my failures. If I overindulge I will think of past hungers. If I feel complacency I will remember my competition. If I enjoy moments of greatness I will remember moments of shame. If I feel all-powerful I will try to stop the wind. If I attain great wealth I will remember one unfed mouth. If I become overly proud I will remember a moment of weakness. If I feel my skill is unmatched I will look at the stars. Today I will be master of my emotions.”

28. “Failure no longer will be my payment for struggle. Just as nature made no provision for my body to tolerate pain neither has it made any provision for my life to suffer failure. Failure, like pain, is alien to my life. In the past I accepted it as I accepted pain. Now I reject it and I am prepared for wisdom and principles which will guide me out of the shadows into the sunlight of wealth, position, and happiness far beyond my most extravagant dreams until even the golden apples in the Garden of Hesperides will seem no more than my just reward.”

29. “No one else can live your life for you. No one else can succeed for you!”

30. “True wealth is of the heart, not of the purse.”

31. “Never feel shame for trying and failing for he who has never failed is he who has never tried.”

32. “They are the living dead and we have many of those among us, spending their days whining and complaining and never making any attempt to change their lives for the better.”

33. “A good many of our higher-bracket businessmen might have been just as rich, just as powerful, but more respected and infinitely happier, if they had taken the slower and longer road of absolute ethical integrity and moral decency.”

34. “I would rather try to succeed and fail than try to do nothing and succeed.”

35. “Nothing will make us so charitable and tender to the faults of others, as, by self-examination, thoroughly to know our own.”

36. “There are certain constant factors to be found in true success whether it be the success of an Andrew Carnegie or of a Mahatma Gandhi. These are the essential factors, independent of wealth or achievement, poverty or asceticism. These are the dynamic factors in success, the very bone and sinew of it. The first constant factor is purpose. One must know that in whatever he does he is moving forward toward a goal. Aimlessness is the worst enemy of success. One can hardly feel successful in a bog. But as long as one has purpose he feels that his energies and creative thought are taking him somewhere, and there is satisfaction in the journey just as there is despair whenever we feel, as we often insightfully put it, that we are “getting nowhere.”

37. “Nature already has supplied me with knowledge and instinct far greater than any beast in the forest and the value of experience is overrated, usually by old men who nod wisely and speak stupidly.”

38. “I will not allow yesterday’s success to lull me into today’s complacency, for this is the great foundation of failure.”

39. “We are held back by too much caution. We are timid about venturing. We are not bold enough. And so we die before we reach middle age, although we will not be lowered into the ground until we pass three score and ten.”

40. “But be careful not to let yourself slip into the situation where your goals concern only your business or making money. Think of your marriage, your children, and your friends as important areas in which to improve your life.”

41. “About 90 percent of the things in our lives are right, and about 10 percent are wrong. If we want to be happy, all we have to do is to concentrate on the 90 percent that are right, and ignore the 10 percent that are wrong. If we want to be worried and bitter and have stomach ulcers, all we have to do is to concentrate on the 10 percent that are wrong and ignore the 90 percent that are glorious.”

42. “You merely picture in your mind having already accomplished or attained your goal, whatever it may be. Hold it firmly in your thoughts, picture it as already being yours, and amazing things will happen.”

43. “Which two, among a thousand wise men, will define success in the same words; yet failure is always described but one way. Failure is man’s inability to reach his goals in life, whatever they may be.”

44. “Time teaches all things to him who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity.”

45. “Realise that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.”

46. “Let others build a cave with their clay. I will build a castle with mine.”

47. “I was not delivered unto this world in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep. I will hear not those who weep and complain, for their disease is contagious. Let them join the sheep. The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny.”

48. “Work as though you would live forever, and live as though you would die today. Go another mile!”

49. “It is those who concentrates on but one thing at a time who advance in this world. The great man or woman is the one who never steps outside his or her specialty or foolishly dissipates his or her individuality.”

50. “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, he can achieve.”

51. “Only action determines my value in the market place and to multiply my value I will multiply my actions.”

52. “So many of us think ourselves into smallness, into inferiority, by thinking downward. We are held back by too much caution. We are timid about venturing. We are not bold enough… Struck down by our own caution, our own lack of faith in ourselves and our abilities. Opportunities? There were many. But always there was risk. Do we dare? We vacillate. Time hurries by. Opportunity gone. We anguish. The years roll on. Finally, we convince ourselves that it’s too late and settle for cheap imitations of life.”

53. “It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world.”

54. “So long as I have something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for, I shall be happy.”

55. “Good habits are the key to all success. Bad habits are the unlocked door to failure.”