Napoleon Hill

1883–1970 · American self-help author · “Think and Grow Rich” (1937)

Napoleon Hill built the modern success-literature industry out of two enormous books — The Law of Success (1928) and Think and Grow Rich (1937) — both framed as the distilled findings of a twenty-year study of great industrialists commissioned by Andrew Carnegie. Historians have found no evidence for that commission, or for most of Hill’s other biographical claims, and Wikipedia's article describes him as a con man as well as an author. What is not in doubt is the reach: his phrases were promoted relentlessly by his organisation, and they are still promoted daily by the Napoleon Hill Foundation — which is exactly why unsourced aphorisms attach to his name so easily.

Traced to source

9 quotes we’ve traced to Napoleon Hill

“Do not wait; the time will never be just right. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along”

Verified

“No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind”

Verified

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle”

Verified

“Strong, deeply rooted desire is the starting point of all achievement”

Verified

“Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit”

Attributed

“Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success”

Attributed

“The ladder of success is never crowded at the top”