Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Jim Rohn

American Personal Development Author and Speaker

"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."

"Dreams get you started; discipline keeps you going."

"Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day."

"If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary."

"Life responds to deserve and not to need."

"If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us."

"Success is steady progress toward one's personal goals."

"You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go."

"The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get."

"To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. Instead of going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you become, you can attract."

"Asking is the beginning of receiving. "

"Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion."

"Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said. "

"Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. "

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. "

"Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention. "

"If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around."

"Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."

"The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become. "

"If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us. "

"Make measurable progress in reasonable time. "

"The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy. "

"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of."

"Life is a unique combination of "want to" and "how to" and we need to give equal attention to both."

"The great gift of the human imagination is that it has no limits or ending."

"Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value."

"Part of success is preparation on purpose."

"Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is poverty. Ignorance is devastation. Ignorance is tragedy. Ignorance is illness. It all stems from ignorance."

"To become financially independent you must turn part of your income into capital, turn capital into enterprise, turn enterprise into profit, turn profit into investment, and turn investment into financial independence. "

"One person caring about another represents life's greatest value. "

"Disgust and resolve are two of the great emotions that lead to change. "

"Self-preservation has a tendency to lead to poverty."

"We all have two choices. We can make a living or we can design a life. "

"The goal of effective communication should be for the listener to say, "Me, too!" versus "So what?" "

"Don't join an easy crowd. You won't grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to perform are high. "

"You must constantly ask yourself these question: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, What do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? "

"Kids don't lack capacity, only teachers. "

"Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. "

"There is no greater leadership challenge than parenting."

"Time is our most valuable asset, yet we tend to waste it, kill it, and spend it rather than invest it."

"The greatest gift you can give somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, "If you will take care of me, I will take care of you." Now I say, “I will take care of me for you, if you will take care of you for me." "

"Sometimes you need to stay in touch but be out of reach."