Denis E. Waitley (born 1933), is an American motivational speaker, writer, and consultant. He has been recognized as the best-selling author of the audio series, The Psychology of Winning and books such as “Seeds of Greatness” and “The Winner’s Edge”. Waitley has been inducted into the International Speakers’ Hall of Fame.
Denis Waitley Quotes
1. “It’s not what you are that holds you back, it’s what you think you are not.”
— Denis Waitley
2. “The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.”
— Denis Waitley
3. “A good life is a collection of happy memories.”
— Denis Waitley
4. “The real risk is doing nothing.”
— Denis Waitley
5. “Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward, toward finding the answer.”
— Denis Waitley
6. “Personal development is the belief that you are worth the effort, time, and energy needed to develop yourself.”
— Denis Waitley
7. “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.”
— Denis Waitley
8. “Give your best effort, because you are worth your best effort.”
— Denis Waitley
9. “Losers let it happen; winners make it happen!”
— Denis Waitley
10. “Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.”
— Denis Waitley
11. “There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons.”
— Denis Waitley
12. “The truth is, you don’t break a bad habit; you replace it with a good one.”
— Denis Waitley
13. “The most important three words you can say to yourself: Yes I can!”
— Denis Waitley
14. “Motivation is motive in action.”
— Denis Waitley
15. “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
— Denis Waitley
16. “No one is born with self-confidence. Self-confidence is learned and earned with experience.”
— Denis Waitley
17. “Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable.”
— Denis Waitley
18. “When you visualize, then you materialize.”
— Denis Waitley
19. “Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results.”
— Denis Waitley
20. “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.”
— Denis Waitley
21. “Time And health are two precious assets that we don’t recognize and appreciate until they have been depleted.”
— Denis Waitley
22. “View life as a continuous learning experience.”
— Denis Waitley
23. “The greatest communication skill is paying value to others.”
— Denis Waitley
24. “When you visualize, then you materialize. If you’ve been there in the mind you’ll go there in the body.”
— Denis Waitley
25. “Commitment is that turning point in your life when you seize the moment to alter your destiny.”
— Denis Waitley
26. “It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit.”
— Denis Waitley
27. “The most splendid achievement of all is the constant striving to surpass yourself and to be worthy of your own approval.”
— Denis Waitley
28. “Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.”
— Denis Waitley
29. “Don’t wait for an employer, friend, or mentor to show appreciation for your work. Take pride in your own efforts on a daily basis.”
— Denis Waitley
30. “The greatest achievement is to outperform yourself.”
— Denis Waitley
31. “A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside.”
— Denis Waitley
32. “Chase your passion, not your pension.”
— Denis Waitley
33. “Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.”
— Denis Waitley
34. “Opportunities are problems in search of solutions.”
— Denis Waitley
35. “A sign of wisdom and maturity is when you come to terms with the realization that your decisions cause your rewards and consequences. You are responsible for your life, and your ultimate success depends on the choices you make.”
— Denis Waitley
36. “The less you try to impress, the more impressive you are.”
— Denis Waitley
37. “Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.”
— Denis Waitley
38. “Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a collection of mistakes is what is called experience.”
— Denis Waitley
39. “Pessimists see a problem behind every opportunity. Optimists see an opportunity behind every problem.”
— Denis Waitley
40. “A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future.”
— Denis Waitley
41. “Happiness, wealth, and success are by-products of goal setting, they cannot be the goal themselves.”
— Denis Waitley
42. “Listening without bias or distraction is the greatest value you can pay another person.”
— Denis Waitley
43. “Accept yourself as you are right now; an imperfect, changing, growing, and worthy person.”
— Denis Waitley
44. “If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won’t, you most assuredly won’t. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.”
— Denis Waitley
45. “Most people spend their entire lives on a fantasy island called ‘Someday I’ll.’”
— Denis Waitley
46. “I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.”
— Denis Waitley
47. “We learn by observation, imitation, and repetition.”
— Denis Waitley
48. “To establish true self-esteem we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.”
— Denis Waitley
49. “Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.”
— Denis Waitley
50. “Doubters don’t win, winners don’t doubt.”
— Denis Waitley
51. “Real power comes by empowering others.”
— Denis Waitley
52. “Your attitude is a choice you make.”
— Denis Waitley
53. “Live each day as if was your last, not in the future, not in the past. You may not get what you want, but, in the long run, you will get what you expect.”
— Denis Waitley
54. “Self-esteem is that deep-down inside the skin feeling you have of your own self-worth.”
— Denis Waitley
55. “Imagination plus innovation equals realization.”
— Denis Waitley
56. “The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”
— Denis Waitley
57. “All of the top achievers I know are life-long learners. Looking for new skills, insights, and ideas. If they’re not learning, they’re not growing and not moving toward excellence.”
— Denis Waitley
58. “No man or woman is an island. To exist just for yourself is meaningless. You can achieve the most satisfaction when you feel related to some greater purpose in life, something greater than yourself.”
— Denis Waitley
59. “I would rather fail trying than succeed at doing nothing.”
— Denis Waitley
60. “The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am.”
— Denis Waitley
61. “Habits are like comfortable beds. They are easy to get into, but difficult to get out of.”
— Denis Waitley
62. “God’s Law of Cause and Effect: Your rewards in life will always be equal to the amount and quality of service rendered, in the long run.”
— Denis Waitley
63. “Losers make promises they often break. Winners make commitments they always keep.”
— Denis Waitley
64. “Everything that is past is either a learning experience to grow on, a beautiful memory to reflect on, or a motivating factor to act upon.”
— Denis Waitley
65. “Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience.”
— Denis Waitley
66. “Your attitude is either the lock on or the key to the door of your success.”
— Denis Waitley
67. “You must learn from your past mistakes, but not lean on your past successes.”
— Denis Waitley
68. “There is a direct relationship between joy and effort. The joy of success is in ratio to the amount of effort expended to achieve it.”
— Denis Waitley
69. “Touch is the magic wand of intimacy. Love is keeping in touch.”
— Denis Waitley
70. “Relentless, repetitive self-talk is what changes our self-image.”
— Denis Waitley
71. “Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
— Denis Waitley
72. “Choose a career you love and you will never have to go to work.”
— Denis Waitley
73. “A dream is a vision, a goal is a promise. You can keep your promises to yourself by remaining flexible, focused, and committed.”
— Denis Waitley
74. “Motivation is an inner force that compels behavior.”
— Denis Waitley
75. “Habits are like submarines; they run silent and deep.”
— Denis Waitley
76. “Success is not the destination; it’s a way to travel.”
— Denis Waitley
77. “The only limits on human achievement are self-imposed.”
— Denis Waitley
78. “If you’re not networking, you’re not networking.”
— Denis Waitley
79. “You must welcome change as the rule but not as your ruler.”
— Denis Waitley
80. “Achievers can almost literally taste success because they imagine their goals in such vivid detail. Setbacks only seem to add spice and favor to the final taste of victory.”
— Denis Waitley
81. “Champions never brag, never shout, never have to go to extremes to build themselves up for others or put others down. They let their actions, deeds, and results speak for them.”
— Denis Waitley
82. “We don’t get what we want, we get what we expect.”
— Denis Waitley
83. “Darren Hardy proves with The Compound Effect that common sense-when applied-yields amazingly uncommon results. Follow these simple steps and become who you were meant to be!”
— Denis Waitley
84. “Get excited and enthusiastic about your own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire – you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away.”
— Denis Waitley
85. “You have all the reason in the world to achieve your grandest dreams. Imagination plus innovation equals realization.”
— Denis Waitley
86. “Positive self-direction is the action plan that all winners in life use to turn imagination into reality, fantasy into fact, and dreams into actual goals.”
— Denis Waitley
87. “Goals are like stepping stones to the stars. They should never be used to put a ceiling or a limit on achievement.”
— Denis Waitley
88. “The world is a mirror and reflects back your expectations. What you get is what you see.”
— Denis Waitley
89. “You must continue to gain expertise, but avoid thinking like an expert.”
— Denis Waitley
90. “A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.”
— Denis Waitley
91. “Perseverance does not always mean sticking to the same thing forever. It means giving full concentration and effort to whatever you are doing right now.”
— Denis Waitley
92. “You can only do good if you feel good.”
— Denis Waitley
93. “Your habits will determine your quality of life.”
— Denis Waitley
94. “The greatest choice we have is to think before we act and then take action toward our life goals every day. Our problems result not only from our lack of action but from our action without thought.”
— Denis Waitley
95. “Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.”
— Denis Waitley
96. “The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do.”
— Denis Waitley
97. “Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time.”
— Denis Waitley
98. “By thinking and acting affirmatively in this minute, you will influence the hour, the day, and in time, your entire life.”
— Denis Waitley
99. “What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. Your answers lie inside of you.”
— Denis Waitley
100. “A failure is like fertilizer; it stinks to be sure, but it makes things grow faster in the future.”
— Denis Waitley
101. “Time changes everything, but with patience, we can keep our desires relatively constant. If we can just hang on long enough, time will eventually create for us the conditions in which we can succeed.”
— Denis Waitley
102. “Put up the dream. Put in the knowledge. Put out the effort.”
— Denis Waitley
103. “Highly motivated achievers are looking not to receive but to contribute. They are looking for problems that are personally satisfying to solve.”
— Denis Waitley
104. “You are an uncut gemstone of priceless value. Cut and polish your potential with knowledge, skills, and service and you will be in great demand throughout your life.”
— Denis Waitley
105. “Failures do what is tension relieving, while winners do what is goal achieving.”
— Denis Waitley
106. “The truly successful person inspires others to do more than they have thought possible for themselves.”
— Denis Waitley
107. “Never follow the crowd in what you do; the crowd has never produced anything of lasting quality, value, or beauty.”
— Denis Waitley
108. “The primary success factor is knowing how to learn from others and rely on yourself.”
— Denis Waitley
109. “The winner’s edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner’s edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success.”
— Denis Waitley
110. “Winning is all in the attitude!”
— Denis Waitley
111. “No gift can ever replace the value of being there in person.”
— Denis Waitley
112. “SMILE! In every language, in every culture – it is the light in your window that tells people there’s a caring, sharing individual inside and it’s the universal code for “I’m O. K. – You’re O. K., too!””
— Denis Waitley
113. “Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes in a day.”
— Denis Waitley
114. “Virtually nothing on earth can stop a person with a positive attitude who has his goals clearly in sight.”
— Denis Waitley
115. “When you kill time, you kill your opportunities for success.”
— Denis Waitley
116. “The two greatest fear busters are knowledge and action.”
— Denis Waitley
117. “Real motivation is that drive from within: You know where you are going because you have a compelling image inside, not a travel poster on the wall.”
— Denis Waitley
118. “Always give more in service, than you receive in payment, and customers will beat a path to your door.”
— Denis Waitley
119. “What you leave in your children, is more important than what you leave to them.”
— Denis Waitley
120. “The season for enjoying the fullness of life – partaking of the harvest, sharing the harvest with others, and reinvesting and saving portions of the harvest for yet another season of growth.”
— Denis Waitley
121. “As long as we persist in our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow.”
— Denis Waitley
122. “By staying focused and flexible, you will meet and exceed your major life-forming goals. Success is not a resting place – it is a launching pad.”
— Denis Waitley
123. “Self-respect and a clear conscience are powerful components of integrity and are the basis for enriching your relationships with others.”
— Denis Waitley
124. “Real success comes in small portions day by day. You need to take pleasure in life’s daily little treasures. It is the most important thing in measuring success.”
— Denis Waitley
125. “People who seek attention, need all the help they can get.”
— Denis Waitley
126. “The greatest limitations you will ever face will be those you place on yourself.”
— Denis Waitley
127. “The most important key to the permanent enhancement of self-esteem is the practice of positive inner-talk.”
— Denis Waitley
128. “Love is a daily, mutual exchange of value.”
— Denis Waitley
129. “The real champions in life are so humble and gracious. They just continue doing what they do without all the posturing. If you’ve got the real thing, you don’t have to flaunt a loud imitation.”
— Denis Waitley
130. “How you spend your time is far more important than all the material possessions you may own or positions you may attain.”
— Denis Waitley
131. “Courage means to keep working a relationship, to continue seeking solutions to difficult problems, and to stay focused during stressful periods.”
— Denis Waitley
132. “Identify with excellence, put your name on your work, and both your work and name will stand the test of time.”
— Denis Waitley
133. “Instead of just letting life happen, I’m going to make it happen for me.”
— Denis Waitley
134. “By focusing on positive, healthy motivations and letting the more negative ones pass, you can purify the source of you imaginative power.”
— Denis Waitley
135. “The essence of life is finding something you really love and then making the daily experience worthwhile.”
— Denis Waitley
136. “Personal satisfaction is the most important ingredient of success.”
— Denis Waitley
137. “The seeds of greatness are ideas you learn from people who’ve been great in their service to others.”
— Denis Waitley
138. “Don’t tell people how to live, demonstrate by example.”
— Denis Waitley
139. “When you are in the valley, keep your goal firmly in view and you will get the renewed energy to continue the climb.”
— Denis Waitley
140. “If you have real, internal value, you don’t need a loud, expensive imitation.”
— Denis Waitley
141. “Face up to those areas that are weak in your life and seek to make them strong.”
— Denis Waitley
142. “As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time.”
— Denis Waitley
143. “Out of need springs desire, and out of desire springs the energy and the will to win.”
— Denis Waitley
144. “Don’t let negative people determine your self-worth.”
— Denis Waitley
145. “Success is a process that continues, not a status that you reach. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.”
— Denis Waitley
146. “Life is a do-it-for-others, do-it-yourself project.”
— Denis Waitley
147. “Integrity, a standard of personal morality and ethics, is not relative to the situation you happen to find yourself in and doesn’t sell out to expediency. Its short supply is getting shorter – but without it, leadership is a facade.”
— Denis Waitley
148. “Life is based on growth and finding new challenges to face and overcome, new contributions to make to society, and constantly coming to a better understanding of yourself and the universe in which you live.”
— Denis Waitley
149. “Don’t be a time manager, be a priority manager. Cut your major goals into bite-sized pieces. Each small priority or requirement on the way to the ultimate goal becomes a mini goal in itself.”
— Denis Waitley
150. “You become that to which you are most exposed.”
— Denis Waitley
