Natalie Babbitt Quotes

Success must include two things: the development of an individual to his utmost potentiality and a contribution of some kind to one's world.

You have to be passionate, you have to be engaged and you have to be contributing to the world.

There are certain people who do not feel like they were raised by wolves, and they are the ones who make the world tick. They are the ones who keep everything functioning so the rest of us can worry about what sort of person we should be.

The value of life is not in its duration, but in its donation. You are not important because of how long you live, you are important because of how effective you live. And most people are concerned about growing old rather than being effective.

What is important - what I consider success - is that we make a contribution to our world.

Every man is indeed bound to do what he can to promote the good of others, and a man who is of no use to anyone is strictly worthless.

It is more important to find out what you are giving to society than to ask what is the right means of livelihood.

No man can perform so little as not to have reason to congratulate himself on his merits, when he beholds the multitude that live in total idleness, and have never yet endeavoured to be useful.

Activity is not achievement. It is not enough to rush about beginning a lot of things and keeping busy. A well-spent life is one that rounds out what it has begun.

I'm psyched about what I can contribute that can be meaningful to myself and to others.

When you find an unwillingness to rise early in the morning, endeavor to rouse your faculties, and act up to your kind, and consider that you have to do the business of a man; and that action is both beneficial and the end of your being.

The man who is successful is the man who is useful.

The goal in life is the same as in basketball: make the effort to do the best you are capable of doing--in marriage, at your job, in the community, for your country. Make the effort to contribute in whatever way you can. You may do it materially or with time, ideas, or work. Making the effort to contribute is what counts. The effort is what counts in everything.

The most successful people have the same twenty-four hours in a day that you do.

Your ability to work with people directly affects your ability to get work done in the world.

Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: the clock and the compass. The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities - what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction - what we feel is important and how we lead our lives. In an effort to close the gap between the clock and the compass in our lives, many of us turn to the field of "time management."

I want to do good work. I want the opportunity to work with good people, and the only way I'm gonna do that is to commit 110% - you get out what you put in.

Successful people do all the things that unsuccessful people don't want to do.

Energy is something you can control, in everything you do, you're going to face people more talented than you. I set myself apart by bringing more energy than they do.

You can be effective in this world without stress.

In a world where profit is consistently put before both people and the planet, climate economics has everything to do with ethics and morality.

There's a responsibility in being a person. It's more than just taking up space where air would be.

I always tried to work hard and stay focused, and just use one opportunity to contribute to the next.

I don't want to put the world to rights... I just don't like people who put the world to wrongs.

The more successful you are, the more mistakes you will make. People who don't do anything, don't make mistakes.