Alexander Graham Bell on success

You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them.

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with — a man is what he makes of himself.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Julius Caesar100–44 BCInscription on the triumphal wagon reported in The Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, as translated by Robert Graves (1957).

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail.

Benjamin Franklin1706–1790Poor Richard’s Almanack

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.