"The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen"
About this Quote
The subtext is self-mythmaking with a purpose. Wright cultivated the persona of the prophetic genius; this sentence doubles as a user manual for that persona. If you project inevitability loudly and long enough, you recruit collaborators, silence dissent, and bend the room around your idea. In that sense, the quote is an early articulation of what we now call a self-fulfilling prophecy, but with a distinctly American, bootstrap swagger: reality is negotiable if your conviction is strong enough.
There’s also a quieter, thornier implication: “belief” can become a moral alibi. If outcomes validate belief, then failure reads as insufficient faith rather than flawed design, bad ethics, or structural inequality. Wright’s certainty helped him invent forms; it also helped him bulldoze criticism. The brilliance of the line is its double edge: it captures how creative work actually gets made while smuggling in a flattering story about who deserves to win.
Quote Details
| Topic | Motivational |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Wright, Frank Lloyd. (2026, January 14). The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-thing-always-happens-that-you-really-believe-33206/
Chicago Style
Wright, Frank Lloyd. "The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen." FixQuotes. January 14, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-thing-always-happens-that-you-really-believe-33206/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen." FixQuotes, 14 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-thing-always-happens-that-you-really-believe-33206/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.











