3 quotations linked to How to Succeed by or associated with Orison Swett Marden, with source notes, explanations and related topics.
Self-belief, self-respect, character, perseverance, work, ambition and personal agency.
Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.
“We cannot deceive ourselves any of the time, and the only way to enjoy our own respect is to deserve it.”
Self-respect is linked to conduct rather than self-flattery: a stable good opinion of oneself is earned by behaving in ways one can honestly stand behind.
Source note: How to Succeed, “Hold Up Your Head”; Marden follows a Lincoln anecdote by arguing that self-respect depends on deserving one’s own approval.
“Shame and its consequent degradation follow the loss of our own good opinion rather than the esteem of others.”
The sentence places moral injury in losing one’s own considered respect, not merely in losing social approval, making conscience a more important measure than reputation.
Source note: How to Succeed; the sentence appears in Marden’s discussion of temptation, aspiration, and the damage caused when self-respect is surrendered.
“Believe in yourself; you may succeed when others do not believe in you, but never when you do not believe in yourself.”
External encouragement can help, but Marden makes self-belief the non-substitutable part of action: progress is difficult when a person has already decided internally that success is impossible.
Source note: How to Succeed, chapter “Hold Up Your Head,” in the Project Gutenberg text; the book’s period language and success philosophy are preserved as historical self-development writing.