William Arthur Ward Quotes

Your success stops where your character stops. You can never rise above the limitations of your character.

I'm often asked, Which is more important--attitude or skill? The answer is that it's somewhat like asking which leg of a three-legged stool is most important. It is my complete conviction, based on a considerable amount of research, that if you have the right attitude, combined with the right skills, and build your attitude and your skills on a solid character base, you can enjoy long-lasting success.

He that has energy enough to root out a vice should go further, and try to plant a virtue in its place.

Honesty and integrity are absolutely essential for success in life - all areas of life. The really good news is that anyone can develop both honesty and integrity.

Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat; Of habits devil, is angel yet in this.

Don’t nurture a sense of guilt; rather, nurture a sense of responsibility married with a sense of humility.

The structure of human betterment cannot be built upon foundations of materialism or business, but upon the bedrock of individual character in free men and women.

Championships are mythical. The real champions are those who live through what they are taught in their homes and churches. The attitude that 'We've got to win' in sports must be changed. Teach your youngsters, who are the future hope of America, the importance of love, respect, dedication, determination, self-sacrifice, self-discipline and good attitude. That's the road up the ladder to the championships.

Even behind bars, even on Death Row, you can fail up, because life is about committing ourselves on a daily basis to the best in us. Freedom is a state of mind. Freedom is an attitude. Freedom is a spirit. You may be behind bars, but you still have the capacity to be free.

When every situation which life can offer is turned to the profit of spiritual growth, no situation can really be a bad one.

Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight. True education combines intellect, beauty, goodness, and the greatest of these is goodness. When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

You are not only a man, you are a superior man: a man who does his best to live as love in the world and in his intimacy, a man whose heart remains open and whose truth remains strong.

I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.

It is not where you start out in life that counts the most, it is how you choose to face it.

Aptitude starts with attitude.

The secret is contained in a three-part formula I learned in the gym: self confidence, a positive mental attitude, and honest hard work.

Despite the obvious fault in the universe, it cannot be used as an excuse for not trying to be your best self. Instead, use unfairness as a starting point to be sure that your actions are the best you can muster, and find peace in navigating your time here with grace and humor whenever possible.

Be successful not just in what you do, but in who you are.

A perspective that allows you to consistently make decisions based on the right set of criteria. Positivity and forward thinking. I work on that one every day, and every day I get a little better. Better at knowing that there is no obstacle that I cannot overcome. Nothing I can be faced with that I won't grow mentally stronger and wiser from having endured.

Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be, all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.

Be grateful that your righteous life molds you so that you don’t fit where you don’t belong

Character is the one thing we make in this world and take with us into the next.

Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by how one thinks and acts.