Opportunity Quotes

"What does it mean to be an American? While each of us may have our own specific answer to that question, we likely can agree on the basic principles of America: freedom, equal opportunity, and rights accompanied by responsibilities"

Ben Nelson, Politician

"Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity"

Irving Kristol, Editor

"When a man marries his mistress it creates a job opportunity"

James Goldsmith, Businessman

"The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year"

Voltaire, Writer

"A man must make his opportunity, as oft as find it"

Francis Bacon, Philosopher

"Opportunity knocks for every man, but you have to give a woman a ring"

Mae West, Actress

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity"

Seneca the Younger, Statesman

"Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people"

Jim Rohn, Businessman

"Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity"

George Eliot, Author

"I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living"

John D. Rockefeller, Businessman

"Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty"

John D. Rockefeller, Businessman

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work"

Thomas Edison, Inventor

"Opportunity knocks, but doesn't always answer to its name"

Mason Cooley, Writer

"Ability is of little account without opportunity"

Lucille Ball, Comedian

"The first comedy screenplay that I wrote was Animal House and I always thought I could and should be a director but no one was about to give me that opportunity on Animal House"

Harold Ramis, Actor

"Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity"

H. Jackson Brown, Jr., Author

"The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity"

Lewis Grizzard, Writer

"To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness"

John Dewey, Philosopher

"I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear"

Oprah Winfrey, Entertainer

"The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are"

John Burroughs, Author

"The man who is denied the opportunity of taking decisions of importance begins to regard as important the decisions he is allowed to take"

C. Northcote Parkinson, Historian

"I thank Marc Jacobs so much for giving me the opportunity to design a shoe for Louis Vuitton, but the thing that broke my heart most was when they said, 'You're finished. The shoe's finished.'"

Kanye West, Musician

"Thirty-three-years-old, still creating art. It's rage, it's creativity, it's pain, it's hurt, but it's the opportunity to still have my voice get out there through music"

Kanye West, Musician

"Living in this manner also gave them the opportunity to locate targets and develop methods of attack that would make the most impact on the population, infrastructure, and governments of these areas"

Jo Bonner, Politician

"Actually to be a champion your goal is to be a little bit better each day, making sure that every day is an opportunity to be at your best"

Phil Heath, Athlete

"Luck is where opportunity meets preparation"

Denzel Washington, Actor

"Self-confidence is very important. If you don't think you can win, you will take cowardly decisions in the crucial moments, out of sheer respect for your opponent. You see the opportunity but also greater limitations than you should. I have always believed in what I do on the chessboard, even when I had no objective reason to. It is better to overestimate your prospects than underestimate them"

Magnus Carlsen

"On the Wednesday evening - that is, the day I saw her Majesty on this particular point - I had the opportunity of conferring with all those whom I proposed to submit to her Majesty as Ministers"

Robert Peel, Leader

"If you are not egotistical, you will welcome the opportunity to learn more"

John Templeton, Businessman

"Your regrets aren't what you did, but what you didn't do. So I take every opportunity"

Cameron Diaz, Actress

"If I had a choice of educating my daughters or my sons because of opportunity constraints, I would choose to educate my daughters"

Brigham Young, Leader

"When I got a call from Los Angeles to do the Tonight Show, I considered it more of an inconvenience than an opportunity"

Lorna Luft, Actress

"Understandably, no peace can sustained when people continue to suffer from hunger, lack of jobs, lack of basic public services - and most of all - lack of opportunity or hope"

Mikhail Saakashvili, Statesman

"I think the value of venues like CNBC is that they give investors an opportunity to reevaluate the situation minute by minute, but maybe we don't need to follow the market so closely"

Maria Bartiromo, Journalist

"Having the opportunity to follow the market frequently gives you the opportunity to see if you need to reevaluate your portfolio. But reevaluating your portfolio shouldn't trigger a sell signal so frequently"

Maria Bartiromo, Journalist

"There was an interesting article in Los Angeles Magazine about women directors. A woman director makes one bad independent film and her career is over. Guys tend to get an opportunity to learn from their mistakes"

Dick Wolf, Producer

"I have the opportunity to be part of swimming history. To take the sport to a new level would be an honor for me. There's no better time to try this than now"

Michael Phelps, Athlete

"Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance"

J. Donald Walters, Author

"The market system requires that people be committed and willing to work hard. Inherent with that is what I call a merit system, which I think gives people the greatest opportunity"

Lee R. Raymond, Businessman

"The perfection of our union, especially our commitment to equality of opportunity, has been a story of constant striving to live up to our Founding principles. This is what Abraham Lincoln meant when he said, 'In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve.'"

Paul Ryan, Politician

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