Top 100 Preparation Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “If you don’t have a plan, you become part of somebody else’s plan.”

— Terence McKenna

52. “It is not often that a man can make opportunities for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the opportunities come he is ready.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

53. “Most people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.”

— John J. Beckley

54. “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”

— Malcolm Gladwell

55. “Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.”

— Earl Nightingale

56. “Not being tense but ready. Not thinking but not dreaming. Not being set but flexible. Liberation from the uneasy sense of confinement. It is being wholly and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come.”

— Bruce Lee

57. “Leave no stone unturned.”

— Euripides

58. “Above all, keep it simple.”

— Auguste Escoffier

59. “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”

— Pablo Picasso

60. “True warriors are fierce because their training is fierce.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

61. “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”

— Thomas A. Edison

62. “If you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want do when you want to do them.”

— John C. Maxwell

63. “A plan without action is not a plan. It’s a speech.”

— T. Boone Pickens

64. “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.”

— Henry Ford

65. “Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire.”

— Napoleon Hill

66. “If you want extraordinary results you must put in extraordinary effort.”

— Cory Booker

67. “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.”

— Ranulph Fiennes

68. “If you’re always ready, you don’t have to get ready.”

— Will Smith

69. “A place for everything, everything in its place.”

— Benjamin Franklin

70. “Success has to do with deliberate practice. Practice must be focused, determined, and in an environment where there’s feedback.”

— Malcolm Gladwell

71. “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”

— Howard Ruff

72. “Practice makes the master.”

— Patrick Rothfuss

73. “I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’re prepared for it.”

— Denzel Washington

74. “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

— Laozi

75. “If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail.”

— Mark Spitz

76. “The Noah rule: Predicting rain doesn’t count; building arks does.”

— Warren Buffett

77. “I believe that everyone chooses how to approach life. If you’re proactive, you focus on preparing. If you’re reactive, you end up focusing on repairing.”

— John C. Maxwell

78. “Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.”

— Alan Cohen

79. “Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.”

— Oprah Winfrey

80. “The only thing that endures over time is the ‘Law of the Farm.’ You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and water if you expect to reap the harvest.”

— Stephen R. Covey

81. “The early bird catches the worm.”

— William Camden

82. “It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.”

— Jackie Joyner-Kersee

83. “Face adversity head on in your training and you will conquer it smoothly in your fight.”

— Conor McGregor

84. “Focus on the process of what it takes to be successful.”

— Nick Saban

85. “Here’s how I’m going to beat you. I’m going to outwork you. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.”

— Pat Summitt

86. “A Fool with a Plan is better off than a Genius without a Plan!”

— T. Boone Pickens

87. “I’ve always considered myself to be just average talent and what I have is a ridiculous insane obsessiveness for practice and preparation.”

— Will Smith

88. “Wake up with a plan of action, go to bed with satisfaction.”

— Greg Plitt

89. “It usually takes me two or three days to prepare an impromptu speech.”

— Mark Twain

90. “Being anticipatory is to help make better decisions today in relation to tomorrow’s possible futures.”

— Roger Spitz

91. “Great speakers are not born, they’re trained.”

— Dale Carnegie

92. “You should be ready for any challenge. This readiness will make you happy.”

— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

93. “Don’t start your day until you have it finished on paper first.”

— Jim Rohn

94. “Excellence demands effort and planned, deliberate practice of increasing difficulty.”

— K. Anders Ericsson

95. “The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved.”

— Confucius

96. “So the principles of warfare are: Do not depend on the enemy not coming, but depend on our readiness against him. Do not depend on the enemy not attacking, but depend on our position that cannot be attacked.”

— Sun Tzu

97. “I run on the road long before I dance under the lights.”

— Muhammad Ali

98. “You've got to keep yourself in prime physical condition, because fatigue makes cowards of us all.”

— Vince Lombardi

99. “Preparation for life is so important. Luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity. Opportunity is all around us. Are you prepared?”

— Earl Nightingale

100. “We cannot stop natural disasters but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: so many lives wouldn’t have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.”

— Petra Nemcova