185 Opportunity Quotes

If there is not the war, you don't get the great general; if there is not a great occasion, you don't get a great statesman; if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.

Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.

A lot of girls ask for advice on how to get into acting, and I'm kind of the worst person to ask, because it just kind of fell in my lap... I was just in the right place at the right time.

Genius is present in every age, but the men carrying it within them remain benumbed unless extraordinary events occur to heat up and melt the mass so that it flows forth.

Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint.

Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.

In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.

We are told that talent creates its own opportunities. But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.

The keen spirit Seizes the prompt occasion, makes the thought Start into instant action, and at once Plans and performs, resolves and executes!

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars.

You convey too great a compliment when you say that I have earned the right to the presidential nomination. No man can establish such an obligation upon any part of the American people. My country owes me no debt. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor. In no other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope. My whole life has taught me what America means. I am indebted to my country beyond any human power to repay.

One chance is all you need.

Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence.

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

When the sun shineth, make hay.

The tide tarrieth no man.

I see the new Latin artist as a pioneer, opening up doors for others to follow. And when they don't open, we crowbar our way in.

Nothing happens quite by chance. It's a question of accretion of information and experience ... it's just chance that I happened to be here at this particular time when there was available and at my disposal the great experience of all the investigators who plodded along for a number of years.

Every dog must have his day.

The time for your labor has been granted.

Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.

Now we are expected to be as wise as men who have had generations of all the help there is, and we scarcely anything.

People think that at the top there isn't much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.

You can't sleep your way into being a star. It takes much, much more. But it helps a lot of actresses get their first chance that way.

Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise.

A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing.

Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee.

If one cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.

Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.

I had some good opportunities. I was lucky to have had the chance to do things differently. Architecture is about surprise.

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.

Well, then it is necessary to make the attempt, since the entire offensive has no more than a 10 per cent chance of success. It must be done, since this offensive is the last remaining chance to conclude the war favourably.

Turn away no more; Why wilt thou turn away? The starry floor, The watery shore,> Is given thee till the break of day.

Good research clearly indicates that Americans would support affirmative action programs that capture the idea of equal opportunity.

Education is equipping our children to walk through doors of opportunity.

It is not our background that will count but our individual actions and initiatives. Education is the great leveller: irrespective of origin, it places everyone on the same footing.

'It's rather like a Poe story, isn't it,' said Patrick luxuriously, unfocusing his eyes. 'A person sees the chance of a better life passing by, and he makes as if to call out' - he flung one arm in the imploring gesture of a soul in torment - 'but something in his nature makes him hesitate. He pauses ... he closes his lips ... he steps back ... and then he slides down, and down, and down.'

I do believe that everyone growing up faces differential opportunities. With me, it was books and travel and some good teachers. With somebody else, it may be a boy scout master. With somebody else, it will be a clergyman. Somebody else, an uncle who was wiser than the father. I think young people ought to seek that differential experience that is going to knock them off dead center. I was a typical American school boy. I happened to get straight A's and be pretty good in sports. But I had no great vision of what I could be. And I never had any yearning. My job was to live through Friday afternoon, get through the week, and eat something. And then along came these differential experiences that you don't look for, that you don't plan for, but, boy, you better not miss them. The things that make you bigger than you are. The things that give you a vision. The things that give you a challenge.

'Through one of those fantastical phone calls when your agent calls you and says 'Stephen Spielberg is on the phone, he wants to speak to you about his next film.' And once you've peeled yourself of the ceiling you go, *clears throat* Yeah, great.' - about how he got the role of Gigolo Joe

Clever boys. They'll do it, if we give them half a chance. They will do it

'Though everyone says my son looks like me, I think he's an exact replica of Gauri. He took to me instantly, he even talks to me. I'll tell my son to grab all the opportunities he can, he shouldn't wait for them to come knocking. And when he grows up, I'll flirt with all his girlfriends. That's for sure.' - Shahrukh

When I Asked God for Favors He Showed Me Opportunities to Work Hard

Every day, I'm standing outside trying to sing my way in:

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.

Gay Boy Scouts simply means the opening of the door of opportunity to gays in the Boy Scouts.

Bud, I'm giving you the the big shot here, because Hendrie blew it with all those phoney-baloney voices.

Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. And everyone here will ultimately be judged - will ultimately judge himself - on the effort he has contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and goals have shaped that effort.

On this generation of Americans falls the burden of proving to the world that we really mean it when we say all men are created free and are equal before the law. All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.

Our attitude toward immigration reflects our faith in the American ideal. We have always believed it possible for men and women who start at the bottom to rise as far as their talent and energy allow. Neither race nor place of birth should affect their chances.

I've been around quite a lot. For me, competing on Idol is just like another day at the office. But I'm not getting any younger and this is just an awesome opportunity.

In America any boy may become President, and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes.

Fortune seized at the right moment gives victory.

Opportunity, n. A favorable occasion for grasping a disappointment.

Youth, n. The Period of Possibility, when Archimedes finds a fulcrum, Cassandra has a following and seven cities compete for the honor of endowing a living Homer.

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.

It's a great country, where anybody can grow up to be president... except me.

Everything comes if a man will only wait.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.

I think the unique thing about music and graphic art is as oposed to, say, acting and directing, that if you are good you can always create a place for yourself. In acting, for instance, there's only a certain amount of good parts; you have to find the right vehicle. But if you're making good music, man, there's so much room. I think that any group that's really good can make it, anytime. That was my feeling behind the Mamas and Papas. When I heard us sing together the first time: we knew, we knew: this is it. This was when we first came to California, after we'd left the islands.

She then gave her a pair of slippers made of glass, the prettiest in the world.

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.

Were all men equal to-night, some would get the start by rising an hour earlier to-morrow.

He that leaveth nothing to chance will do few things ill, but he will do very few things.

I guess it just proves that in America anyone can be president.

Finding a four leaf clover is a sign that you have been down on your hands and knees.

'I think that we (Indo-Fijians) have a great future in this country if we can grab the opportunities that are ahead of us.'

In this industry, interest in you comes in waves, it's so tidal. And so I don't really want to jump on the first wave that comes along.

If there's ever a price on your head, take it.

She had an unequalled gift, especially pen in hand, of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities.

Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they are gone forever.

See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.

Art is long, life short; judgment difficult, opportunity transient.

We're here to talk about education. But I want to say something before that....You know, education, if you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.

A diamond was laying in the street covered with dirt. Many fools passed by. Someone who knew diamonds picked it up.

Now we can cross the Shifting Sands.

I had a brief theater background and loved the backstage world there's more backstage work in television, so I saw a job advertised and applied, and got it. That was back in 1977, when getting jobs was easy.

My maxim was, la carriere est ouverte aux talents, without distinction of birth or fortune.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

The favorable opportunity must be seized; for fortune is female, and if you balk her today you must not expect to meet her again tomorrow.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.

I only had one shot in the locker and I fired it.

Can a souffle rise twice?

I dare to imagine a country where every child I hold in my hands, are all God's children, regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of whether they're boy or girl, regardless of religion, regardless of rich or poor, that every child I hold in my hands, will have the same chance to reach her full potential or his full potential. That is the goodness of our country. That is the essence of the American dream.

There will be no real content among American women unless they are made and kept more ignorant or unless they are given equal opportunity with men to use what they have been taught. And American men will not be really happy until their women are.

While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.

Fortunam citius reperias quam retineas.

'We must move with speed to mobilise all sectors of society in a stepped-up drive against HIV/AIDS, accelerating the pace to halt the virus before the Pacific's window of opportunity slams shut.'