Almost none of them recommend aiming at it
Einstein suggests aiming at value instead. Thoreau says it arrives for people too busy to look. Angelou defines it in terms nobody else can score. Churchill says it is not final anyway. There is a consistent pattern in advice from people who were, by any external measure, extremely successful: they treat success as a poor target and a decent by-product. Colin Powell’s line is the plainest version — there are no secrets, which is an unwelcome finding for anyone hoping the difference was information rather than years.
Two citations out of seventeen, and six findings
This room has the worst verification record in either collection — two exact sources across seventeen lines — and simultaneously the most findings, at six. Those two facts are the same fact. Success is the most commercially valuable thing to be quoted about, so lines about it are attached to whoever sells best: Churchill, Jefferson, Einstein, Edison. Almost none of it survives being looked up. What the room contains is therefore mostly true sentences credited to the wrong people, which is a more interesting exhibit than a wall of verified ones.
What is the best quote about success?
Einstein’s — “try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.” It is the only one that supplies a different target rather than better encouragement toward the same one.
Did Churchill say “success is not final, failure is not fatal”?
It is attributed to him almost universally and does not appear in his published speeches or writings. The International Churchill Society lists it among sayings he did not say, so it is labelled attributed here.
Did Peter Drucker say “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”?
The documented line is Alan Kay’s, at Xerox PARC in 1971, and he said invent the future, not create it. Similar remarks are attributed to Drucker and to Dandridge Cole, and Dennis Gabor got there first in 1963: “The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.” It is filed here as attributed to Peter Drucker, which means widely credited and not traced to a primary source.
Did Seneca say “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”?
Only fastened to Seneca since the 1990s. Other books name the football coach Darrell K. Royal or the salesman Elmer G. Letterman, and neither is likely to be the origin either: an unattributed version appears in The Youth’s Companion in 1912. It is filed here as attributed to Seneca, which means widely credited and not traced to a primary source.
Did Thomas Jefferson say “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”?
Nothing like it appears in Jefferson’s papers. The older form — “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it” — has been credited to Stephen Leacock, though it is not in the book usually named. It is filed here as attributed to Thomas Jefferson, which means widely credited and not traced to a primary source.
Did Albert Einstein say “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of valu…”?
As published the line reads: “Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.” The version in circulation, and the one shown here, has drifted from it. It is filed here as attributed to Albert Einstein, which means widely credited and not traced to a primary source.