Top 140 David J. Schwartz Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Belief, strong belief, triggers the mind to figure ways and means and how-to.”

— David J. Schwartz

52. “Look at things as they can be, not as they are.”

— David J. Schwartz

53. “Believe in yourself, and good things do start happening.”

— David J. Schwartz

54. “Treating someone as second-class never gets you first-class results.”

— David J. Schwartz

55. “Luck take a second look at what appears to be someone’s good luck. You’ll find not luck but preparation, planning, and success-producing thinking.”

— David J. Schwartz

56. “You win when you refuse to fight petty people. Fighting little people reduces you to their size.”

— David J. Schwartz

57. “Think you are weak, think you lack what it takes, think you will lose, think you are second class – think this way and you are doomed to mediocrity.”

— David J. Schwartz

58. “Get the big view of your job. Think, really think your present job is important. That next promotion depends mostly on how you think toward your present job.”

— David J. Schwartz

59. “Persons who reach the higher rungs in business management, selling, engineering, religious work, writing, acting, and in every other pursuit get there by following conscientiously and continuously a plan for self-development and growth.”

— David J. Schwartz

60. “It’s clear. We do not make one big jump to success. We get there one step at a time. An excellent plan is to set monthly quotas for accomplishment.”

— David J. Schwartz

61. “Do this: Start marching toward your ultimate goal by making the next task you perform, regardless of how unimportant it may seem, a step in the right direction. Commit this question to memory and use it to evaluate everything you do: “Will this help take me where I want to go?” If the answer is no, back off; if yes, press ahead.”

— David J. Schwartz

62. “A person who thinks his job is important Receives mental signals on how to do his job better; And a better job means More promotions, more money, more prestige, more happiness.”

— David J. Schwartz

63. “Ideas in themselves are not enough. That idea for getting more business, for simplifying work procedures, is of value only when it is acted upon.”

— David J. Schwartz

64. “Your mind will create a way if you let it.”

— David J. Schwartz

65. “With a pencil and paper you can tie your mind to a problem.”

— David J. Schwartz

66. “Concentrate on your assets. You’re better than you think you are.”

— David J. Schwartz

67. “When you boil it all down, the big cause of stress is negative feelings toward other people.”

— David J. Schwartz

68. “And when you put life in your talk, you automatically put more life in you.”

— David J. Schwartz

69. “Think Big about Everything.”

— David J. Schwartz

70. “Be a front seater. Make eye contact. Walk 25 percent faster. Speak up. Smile big.”

— David J. Schwartz

71. “Put service first, and money takes care of itself – always.”

— David J. Schwartz

72. “The point is clear. People who get things done in this world don’t wait for the spirit to move them; they move the spirit.”

— David J. Schwartz

73. “Nothing – absolutely nothing – in this life gives you more satisfaction than knowing you’re on the road to success and achievement. And nothing stands as a bigger challenge than making the most of yourself.”

— David J. Schwartz

74. “And the seed of money is service. That.”

— David J. Schwartz

75. “The “Okay-I’ll-give-it-a-try-but-I-don’t-think-it-will-work” attitude produces failures.”

— David J. Schwartz

76. “Most of us make two basic errors with respect to intelligence: 1. We underestimate our own brainpower. 2. We overestimate the other fellow’s brainpower.”

— David J. Schwartz

77. “The story is told that the great scientist Einstein was once asked how many feet are in a mile. Einstein’s reply was “I don’t know. Why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?”

— David J. Schwartz

78. “Be an experimental person. Break up fixed routines. Expose yourself to new restaurants, new books, new theaters, new friends; take a different route to work someday, take a different vacation this year, do something new and different this weekend.”

— David J. Schwartz

79. “Whoever is under a man’s power is under his protection, too. We never should have hired this man in the first place because he’s not cut out for this kind of work. But since we did, the least I could do was help him to relocate.”

— David J. Schwartz

80. “Initiative is a special kind of action. It’s doing something worthwhile without being told to do it. The person with initiative has a standing invitation to join the high income brackets in every business and profession.”

— David J. Schwartz

81. “In the words of Publilius Syrus: A wise man will be master of his mind, A fool will be its slave.”

— David J. Schwartz

82. “Look important. It helps you think important. How you look on the outside has a lot to do with how you feel on the inside.”

— David J. Schwartz

83. “As you approach your job each day, ask yourself, “Am I worthy in every respect of being imitated? Are all my habits such that I would be glad to see them in my subordinates?”

— David J. Schwartz

84. “Reminding yourself, you never gain anything from an argument but you always lose something.”

— David J. Schwartz

85. “Put these two thoughts deep in your mind. First, give your ideas value by acting on them.”

— David J. Schwartz

86. “If employees are doing something wrong or are making a mistake, I am doubly careful not to hurt their feelings and make them feel small or embarrassed. I just use four simple steps: “First, I talk to them privately. “Second, I praise them for what they are doing well. “Third, I point out the one thing at the moment that they could do better and I help them find the way. “Fourth, I praise them again on their good points.”

— David J. Schwartz

87. “Go out of your way to meet people. And don’t be timid. Don’t be afraid to be unusual. Find out who the other person is, and be sure he knows who you are.”

— David J. Schwartz

88. “The only real basis other people have for judging your abilities is your actions. And your actions are controlled by your thoughts.”

— David J. Schwartz

89. “Here is a psychological principle that is worth reading over twenty-five times. Read it until it absolutely saturates you: To think confidently, act confidently.”

— David J. Schwartz

90. “Instead view your mistakes as “Here’s another way to make me a bigger winner.”

— David J. Schwartz

91. “Make everything about you say, “I’m confident, really confident.”

— David J. Schwartz

92. “Pay twice as much and buy half as many.”

— David J. Schwartz

93. “Big thinkers train themselves to see not just what is but what can be.”

— David J. Schwartz

94. “But on the positive side, the more you speak up, the more you add to your confidence, and the easier it is to speak up the next time. Speak up. It’s a confidence-building vitamin.”

— David J. Schwartz

95. “But Mr. Success reacted differently when he got knocked down. He bounced up, learned a lesson, forgot the beating, and moved upward.”

— David J. Schwartz

96. “Einstein taught us a big lesson. He felt it was more important to use your mind to think than to use it as a warehouse for facts.”

— David J. Schwartz

97. “Successful people are just ordinary folks who have developed belief in themselves and what they do. Never – yes, never – sell yourself short.”

— David J. Schwartz

98. “Be extra, extra cautious about this: don’t let negative-thinking people – “negators” – destroy your plan to think yourself to success. Negators are everywhere, and they seem to delight in sabotaging the positive progress of others.”

— David J. Schwartz

99. “Remember: People who tell you it cannot be done almost always are unsuccessful people, are strictly average or mediocre at best in terms of accomplishment.”

— David J. Schwartz

100. “Taking an ax and chopping your neighbor’s furniture to pieces won’t make your furniture look one bit better; and using verbal axes and grenades on another person doesn’t do one thing to make you a better you or me a better me.”

— David J. Schwartz