'Tis not in mortals to command success, But we'll do more, Sempronius; we'll deserve it.

-Addison,Joseph
  Cato, act1, sc.2, l.43^4.

Eighty percent of success is showing-up.

-Allen,Woody pseudonym of  Allen Stewart Konigsberg
Quoted in Thomas  J Peters and Robert H  Waterman  Among Friends (1982).

   When success happens to an English writer, he acquires a new typewriter.When success happens to an American writer, he acquires a new life.

-Amis, Martin Louis
  The Moronic Inferno,'Kurt Vonnegut'.

One's religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success.

-Barrie, SirJ(ames) M(atthew)
The Twelve-Pound Look.

For an actress to be a success she must have the face of Venus, the brains of Minerva, the grace of Terpsichore, thememoryof Macaulay, thefigure of Juno, and thehide of a rhinoceros.

-Barrymore, Ethel
Quoted in George  Jean Nathan The Theatre in the Fifties (1953).

Success never depended on pandering to the public taste. It has always been founded on simplicity.

-Baron
Quoted in  A  J P  Taylor Beaverbrook (1972), ch.13.

Have little care that Life is brief, And less that art is long. Success is in the silences, Though fame is in the song.

-Carman, (William) Bliss
  Ballads and Lyrics,'Envoi'. These lines are reproduced on the plaque erected in his honour at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada.

No onecanguaranteesuccessinwar, butonlydeserveit.

-Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer
  Letter to Lord Wavell, 26 Nov. Quoted in Winston Churchill The Second World War, vol.2 (1949), ch.27.

Science is triumphant with far-ranging success, but its triumph is somehow clouded by growing difficulties in providing for the simple necessities of human life on earth.

-Commoner, Barry
  Science and Survival.

Success is counted sweetest By those who ne'er succeed.

-Dickinson, Emily Elizabeth
c.1859  Complete Poems, no.67 (first published1890).

Tell all theTruth but tell it slantö Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight TheTruth's superb surprise.

-Dickinson, Emily Elizabeth
c.1868  Complete Poems, no.1129 (first published1945).

If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z.Work is x ; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

-Einstein, Albert
  In the Observer,15  Jan.

   Success is relative: It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  The Family Reunion, pt.2, sc.3.

Success is feminine and like a woman; if you cringe beforeher shewill override you. Sotheway totreat her is to show her the back of your hand. Then maybe she will do the crawling.

-Faulkner,William Harrison
  Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

Oh, doughty sons of Hungary! May all success Attend and bless Your warlike ironmongery!

-Gilbert, Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck)
  Chorus, Princess Ida, act 3.

He would certainly have despised Christ for being the son of a carpenter, if the NewTestament had not proved in time to be such a howling commercial success.

-Greene, (Henry) Graham
  Dr Fischer of Geneva, ch.7.

   The 'men of the hour', the self-assured who strut among us in the jingling harness of their success and importance, how can you let yourself be irritated by them. Let them enjoy their triumphöon the level to which it belongs.

-Hammarskjo«  ld, Dag HjalmarAgne Carl
  Va«  gmarken (translated by L Sjsy«  berg and W H  Auden as Markings,1964).

  Never let success hide its emptiness from you; achievement its nothingness; toil its desolation. Keep alivetheincentivetopushonfurther, that pain inthesoul that drives us beyond ourselves. Do not look back, and do not dream about the future either. It will neither give you back the past, nor satisfy your other daydreams. Your duty, your reward, your destiny are here and now.

-Hammarskjo«  ld, Dag HjalmarAgne Carl
Va«  gmarken (translated by L Sjsy«  berg and W H  Auden as Markings,1964).

He was a self-made manwho owed his lackof successto nobody.

-Heller,Joseph
  Of Colonel Cargill. Catch-22, ch.3.

Success and failure are both difficult to endure. Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, meditation, medication, depression, neurosis and suicide.With failure comes failure.

-Heller,Joseph
  Interview in Playboy,  Jun.