It’s not a field, I think, for people who need to have success every day: if you can’t live with a nightly sort of disaster, you should get out. I wouldn’t describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that the ghosts you chase you never catch.

About Michael Korda

Michael Kordais an English-born writer and novelist who was editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster in New York City.

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More quotes from Michael Korda

Your chances of success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you desire from what you do. If you are in a job you hate, face the fact squarely and get out.

Michael Korda

British writer

If you don’t believe in yourself, then who will believe in you? The next man’s way of getting there might not necessarily work for me, so I have to create my own ways of getting there.

Michael Korda

British writer

Success has always been easy to measure. It is the distance between one’s origins and one’s final achievement.

Michael Korda

British writer

The biggest fool in the world is he who merely does his work supremely well, without attending to appearance.

Michael Korda

British writer

One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.

Michael Korda

British writer

Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility… in the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have… is the ability to take on responsibility.

Michael Korda

British writer

It’s not a field, I think, for people who need to have success every day: if you can’t live with a nightly sort of disaster, you should get out. I wouldn’t describe myself as lacking in confidence, but I would just say that the ghosts you chase you never catch.

Michael Korda

British writer

To succeed it is necessary to accept the world as it is and rise above it.

Michael Korda

British writer

Luck can often mean simply taking advantage of a situation at the right moment. It is possible to make your luck by being always prepared.

Michael Korda

British writer

Never reveal all of yourself to other people; hold back something in reserve so that people are never quite sure if they really know you.

Michael Korda

British writer

Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action for all eternity.

Michael Korda

British writer

The more you can dream, the more you can do.

Michael Korda

British writer

The purely agitation attitude is not good enough for a detailed consideration of a subject.

Michael Korda

British writer

Men naturally resent it when women take greater liberties in dress than men are allowed.

Michael Korda

British writer

Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life.

Michael Korda

British writer

The freedom to fail is vital if you’re going to succeed. Most successful people fail from time to time, and it is a measure of their strength that failure merely propels them into some new attempt at success.

Michael Korda

British writer

What you hear repeatedly you will eventually believe.

Michael Korda

British writer

One of the first rules of playing the power game is that all bad news must be accepted calmly, as if one already knew and didn’t care.

Michael Korda

British writer

An once of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.

Michael Korda

British writer

The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you’re playing by somebody else’s rules, while quietly playing by your own.

Michael Korda

British writer

Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully and imaginatively for its hidden assets.

Michael Korda

British writer

An ounce of hypocracy is worth a pound of ambition.

Michael Korda

British writer

This is true enough, but success is the next best thing to happiness, and if you can’t be happy as a success, it’s very unlikely that you would find a deeper, truer happiness in failure.

Michael Korda

British writer