If you get down about the state of American culture, just remember there are still more public libraries in this country than there are McDonalds.
David McculloughRead
There is only one person who can measure your success. That person is you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success is a personal journey, and only you can define it.
David McCullough emphasizes that success is subjective and individualistic. Rather than relying on external validation or societal standards, it's essential to measure one's achievements with self-reflection and personal benchmarks, acknowledging that the individual's perspective is the ultimate measure of success.
Themes
SuccessPersonalMeasureAchievementsIndividual
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in motivational speeches to encourage individuals to define their own path to success.
More from David Mccullough
All quotes →I just thank my father and mother, my lucky stars, that I had the advantage of an education in the humanities.
David McculloughRead
Napoleon could never imagine that some people loved their country as much as he loved his own.
David McculloughRead
When the founders wrote about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they didn't mean longer vacations and more comfortable hammocks. They meant the pursuit of learning. The pursuit of improvement and excellence. In hard work is happiness.
David McculloughRead
Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free," Jefferson said, "expects what never was and never will be." And if the gap between the educated and the uneducated in America continues to grow as it is in our time, as fast as or faster than the gap between the rich and the poor, the gap between the educated and the uneducated is going to be of greater consequence and the more serious threat to our way of life. We must not, by any means, misunderstand that.
David McculloughRead
Read. Read every chance you get. Read to keep growing. Read history. Read poetry. Read for pure enjoyment. Read a book called Life on a Little Known Planet. It's about insects. It will make you feel better.
David McculloughRead
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Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung...We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play—and by “we” I mean society—in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.
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I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.
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