Seth Godin Quotes

Sometimes you get lucky and things are as easy as you had imagined, but that's rarely the case.

People who think achieving success is a linear A-to-Z process, a straight shot to the top, simply aren't in touch with reality.

Is it conceivable that a newly emancipated people can soar to the heights of liberty, and, unlike Icarus, neither have its wings melt nor fall into an abyss? Such a marvel is inconceivable and without precedent. There is no reasonable probability to bolster our hopes.

...nothing ever happens quickly (except when it does). Nothing is ever, ever easy (except when it is). And, most of all, nothing ever goes perfectly according to plan (except in the movies).

Of persons I will say this: it is difficult to tell when they are running aright but easy to see when something has gone awry.

Most people will not do the hard work it takes to make success easy. Don't be like most people.

People think you're like The Godfather, waiting for scripts to come in. But, you're hustling, you're desperate, you're panicked and you're horrified. The movie you think you're going to do next, you don't do. The movie you think you're never going to do, you make.

Droplets, droplets: we are all identical drips and drops of people, hovering, waiting to be tipped, waiting for someone to show us the way, to pour us down a path.

I am the worst judge of how a movie is going to do. I always have great and ambitious hopes, but none of them see the light of day.

True' and 'false' are the evasions of people who never want to arrive at a decision. Truth is something without end.

One possible reason why things aren't going according to plan is that there never was a plan.

The only people I've met in this world who never doubt are materialists and atheists.

How wrong people always were when they said: 'It's better to know the worst than go on not knowing either way.' No; they had it exactly the wrong way round. Tell me the truth, doctor, I'd sooner know. But only if the truth is what I want to hear.

We must be fully committed, but we must also be aware at the same time that we might possibly be wrong. People who claim to be absolutely convinced that their stand is the only right one...is a dead giveaway of unconscious doubt. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt, but in spite of doubt.

Successful people don't fear failure, but understand that it's necessary to learn and grow from.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

I can guarantee people, then, that if they learn, discover, understand, explore, and apply the same principles that I learned, that success is predictable.

How could two people who were so in love not end up happily ever after? It had to work. Didn’t it?

The biggest piece of advice that I give young comedians is: If it's your goal to get where I'm at, go do something else. Because you'll never get here. Never. The odds are so bad. Because not only do you have to be a really, really strong comedian but you also have to be lucky. And most people don't get that combination.

I've done far too many things that I felt were going to be genius that weren't and I've done some things that I didn't think were going to be much that really connected with people. So expectations are left at the door. But hope exists all the time.

Failure is no more fatal than success is permanent.

It's hard dealing with day to day disappointments and feeling like you can't find success. Especially when your best friend is Pixar.

Nothing in life that’s worth anything is easy.

You certainly don't need to have everything figured out in the path from here to world domination.

People are invariably surprised to hear me say I am both an atheist and an agnostic, as if this somehow weakens my certainty. I usually reply with a question like, “Well, are you a Republican or an American?” The two words serve different concepts and are not mutually exclusive. Agnosticism addresses knowledge; atheism addresses belief. The agnostic says, “I don't have a knowledge that God exists.” The atheist says, “I don't have a belief that God exists.” You can say both things at the same time. Some agnostics are atheistic and some are theistic.