IT’S ONLY WHEN YOU MAKE THE PROCESS YOUR GOAL THAT THE BIG DREAM CAN FOLLOW
—OPRAH
“As long as we dare to dream and don’t get in the way of ourselves, anything is possible—there’s truly no end to where our dreams can take us.”
“Be daring, be different, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers…”
Years ago I was in the parking lot across the street from Spago, I could see the stars with their Oscars going into the after party. I said to myself, ‘I want to do that one day’…After I got the Oscar and walked offstage, I said to Kevin [Kline], ‘Did that just happen?’ It felt like I fell asleep in the mail room and I was going to wake up and find out it was all a dream.”
“My mother and father were poor, and when I turned pro, I started making money…I wasn’t thinking of being the greatest. But I knew I had a chance. And when I won at the Olympics, that sealed it: I was the champ.”
“Nothing really worth having is easy to get. The hard-fought battles, the goals won with sacrifice, are the ones that matter.”
“Fortune helps those who dare.”
“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will.”
“I fear only God. I don’t fear any human. When you have that kind of spirit, you can just do what you have to do. Let it roll.”
“My life…is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”
“If you can allow yourself to breathe into the depth, wonder, beauty, craziness, and strife—everything that represents the fullness of your life—you can live fearlessly. Because you come to realize that if you just keep breathing, you cannot be conquered.”
“One night a seventy-year-old woman came up to me after the show [The Color Purple on Broadway] and told me she’d also been a single mother who had dropped out of school, and now she’s taking nursing classes. She said, ‘You inspired me.’ You can’t tell me that dreams don’t come true. My life is proof that they do.”
“Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how…We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.”
“Adventure comes with no guarantees or promises. Risk and reward are conjoined twins—and that’s why my favorite piece of advice needs translation but no disclaimers: Fortes fortuna javat. ‘Fortune favors the brave,’ the ancient Roman dramatist Terence declared. In other words, there are many good reasons not to toss your life up in the air and see where it lands. Just don’t let fear be one of them.”
“I come from a family whose belief was, You can do it, but you have to work really hard.”
“There are so many talented actors who don’t ever get the chance…I go down on my knees in extreme gratitude. I don’t take it for granted. I know all these actors who are probably more talented than I am. I’ve taken the chance and done my best with it.”
“Failure is a signpost to turn you in another direction.”
“The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”
“You can do anything you want to do. What is rare is this actual wanting to do a certain thing: wanting it so much that you are practically blind to other things, that nothing else will satisfy you…I know I have said a lot when I say, ‘You can do anything you want to do.’ But I mean it…Blunder ahead with your personal view…The real work of art is the result of a magnificent struggle.”
“What I know for sure is that no matter where you stand right now—on a hilltop, in a gutter, at a crossroads, in a rut—you need to give yourself the best you have to offer in this moment. This is it. Rather than depleting yourself with judgments about what you haven’t done, who you could have become, why you haven’t moved faster, or what you should have changed, redirect that energy toward the next big push—the one that takes you from enough to better. The one that takes you from adequate to extraordinary. The one that helps you rise up from a low moment and reach for your personal best.”
“Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.”
“In action lies wisdom and confidence.”
“To be fully human is…to know that it’s possible to face the unimaginable and somehow put one foot in front of the other.”
“To follow your life’s guidance, you may have to reassign some seemingly important things to ‘unimportant.’ If you believe that pleasing your horrible boss or having a spotless house is a higher priority than playing with your children or sleeping off the flu, be prepared for a long and strenuous battle against destiny. Also, be prepared to lose.”
“Miracles sometimes happen, but more often they’re made of faith and wit and hope and imagination, to say nothing of sweat.”
“When people tell me something is impossible, I try to prove them wrong.”
“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
“I truly believe that a woman can have anything she wants—if she’s willing to do the hard work it takes to get it.”
“The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.”
“Courage is only an accumulation of small steps.”
“A voice in me said, You have to rise to the occasion or the best in you will die. We always have that voice; we just have to make a choice to listen to it. We all have it; that’s God’s given light. It’s just whether you have the courage to step into your destiny.”
“I believe that one of life’s greatest risks is never daring to risk…Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.”
“One of the things that’s great about failure is, it’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be. You think it’s going to be the end of the world, and it’s really not.”
“I notice well that one stray step from the habitual path leads irresistibly into a new direction.”
“What would happen if we declared our home, our relationships, our lives a gossip-free zone? We’d probably be surprised at how much time we’d free up to do the work that’s most significant—building our dreams rather than tearing down others’.”
“Courage is the most important of all virtues, because without courage, you cannot practice any of the other virtues consistently.”
“Every successful person I have ever known has had it—that instinct to sense and seize the right moment without wavering or playing it safe.”
“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”
“All of us need a vision for our lives, and even as we work to achieve that vision, we must surrender to the power that is greater than we know. It’s one of the defining principles of my life that I love to share: God can dream a bigger dream for you than you could ever dream for yourself.”
“You need more than just passion to start a business—you need a plan.”
“The only courage you ever need is the courage to live your heart’s desire.”
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
“Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.”
“To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given the chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life.”
“There is only one success…to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
“I began to develop a very focused sense of purpose when I was about twenty. That’s when the Islamic Revolution turned my world upside down. I lost friends and family, my home and possessions. The revolution propelled me to where I am today: trying to make sense of our world. My commitment is to constancy…I have not changed what I believe about truth, integrity, morality, and duty.”
“I think we’re shaped by failure at least as much as we’re shaped by our successes. When I have guests on a show, I like to talk to them about their failures—not to show them up, but because that’s part of what defines us. Sometimes it’s not the cheery, upbeat lessons that really explain how a person got to be where they are. It’s the things they tried to do and couldn’t do. The things they’re still struggling to do.”
“Try more things. Learning to swim won’t stop you from reading Shakespeare. Finding your voice won’t stop you from writing novels. You should be cooking on all four burners.”
“The only place where success comes before work is a dictionary.”
“As much as you plan and dream and move forward in your life, you must remember that you are always acting in conjunction with the flow and energy of the universe. You move in the direction of your goal with all the force and verve you can muster—and then let go, releasing your plan to the power that’s bigger than yourself…Dream big—dream very big. Work hard—work very hard. And after you’ve done all you can, you stand, wait, and fully surrender.”
“The person with the plan most often carries the day.”
“I do have a core of trust that I’ll figure things out and find my way. And if whatever I try is not a good experience, even that is a good experience. If something turns out badly, it’s interesting.”
“God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.”
“Courage means doing the impossible within the possible.”
“Let passion drive your profession.”
“Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things.”
“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work. You don’t give up.”
“There’s an old gospel song with a refrain I love: ‘I’ve got fire, fire, fire shut up in my bones.’ We were all born with this fire, but beginning in childhood, we let others snuff it out. Passion is the log that keeps the fire of purpose blazing. Your work now is to find that fire and rekindle it—and then let it burn.”
“We are more than we imagine ourselves to be. It’s what we tell our children, our parents, our friends. But how often do we tell it to ourselves? And if we do, how often do we prove it? How often do we challenge ourselves to do something new?”
“It’s only when we truly know that we have a limited time on earth—and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up—that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it [were] the only one we had.”
“My only guiding light has been my desire to be the best actor I can be, no matter how daunting the process. I still have to squeeze my way into auditions, because people can’t imagine that someone who looks the way I do could play a certain role. It doesn’t occur to them—but I know I can make it occur to them, if they just give me a chance.”
“Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.”
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
“Change is the only constant; hanging on is the only sin.”
“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it’s a thing to be achieved.”
“It’s really not just one choice that matters—it’s all the baby choices that will lead you to the ultimate moment, when you can make the strongest stand and commitment to yourself and the life that’s calling you.”
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.”
“I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody.”
“There are no secrets to success. It is a result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
“The true meaning of courage is to be afraid, and then, with your knees knocking and your heart racing, to step out anyway—even when that step makes sense to nobody but you. I know that’s not easy. But making a bold move is the only way to truly advance toward the grandest vision the universe has for you.”
“There is a strength and spirit in Americans that is rare and unparalleled anywhere in the world. We have a resilience that most people don’t have, and trials bring out the best in us.”
“Even the most powerful women I know go out of their way to say that they’re not really interested in power. Imagine a man saying that.”
“If you have an impulse to do something, and it’s not totally irresponsible, why not do it? It might be just the journey you’ve always needed.”
“I have never encountered a successful person who didn’t have to sacrifice in one area of life in order to be successful in another…If you have tons of resources in the monetary account but zero balances in the emotional, family, physical, and spiritual accounts, that spells a bankrupt life.”
“I like to dream big! Education is the key to unlocking the world, a passport to freedom—and to the children of Africa, education is everything. So it’s with tremendous pleasure that I introduce you to my dreams come true: the girls who will grow up to be the women who will be the leaders of tomorrow.”
“If life doesn’t offer you a game worth playing, then invent a new one.”
“I’ve never done anything for the sake of ambition that I regret…Ambition can look very good on some women. If you find the world hates you for it, then sure, stop raising your hand in class—but be sure to get the A anyway.”
“I think people who lack self-esteem lack it because they haven’t taken enough risks and haven’t succeeded enough. Nobody can talk you into feeling good about yourself—you get the solid good feelings from success.”
“Before opening your mouth, ask yourself two questions: What do I really want? Is what I’m about to say or do right now going to get me closer to what I want?”
“My definition of possible has broadened remarkably, as has my ability to pursue those possibilities with calm assurance. In the past, I thought I could only bring one thing to the world, but now the world is welcoming me in other ways. My career is fulfilling, but so is finding a stray cat a loving home.”
“I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you.”
“Surviving is unrelenting perseverance that brings us back to where we were before our crisis. Thriving is a kind of superresilience that goes far beyond recovery. Thrivers know when it’s time to disengage from a challenge and set new goals. Sometimes creative surrender is a better policy than perseverance.”
“FOR ME, THE PATH TO SUCCESS WAS NEVER ABOUT ATTAINING INCREDIBLE WEALTH OR CELEBRITY. IT WAS ABOUT THE PROCESS OF CONTINUALLY SEEKING TO BE BETTER, TO CHALLENGE MYSELF TO PURSUE EXCELLENCE ON EVERY LEVEL. THE QUESTION I ASK EVERY DAY IS THE SAME AS IT’S ALWAYS BEEN: HOW MUCH FARTHER CAN I STRETCH TO REACH MY FULL POTENTIAL? WAHT I KNOW FOR SURE IS TAHT IT’S ONLY WHEN YOU MAKE THE PROCESS YOUR GOAL THAT THE DREAM CAN FOLLOW.”
–OPRAH