106 Opportunity Quotes

Opportunities are the doorways to growth, change, and unprecedented success. They have the power to steer our lives in new directions, often arriving in the most unexpected ways. Whether it's seizing a moment of chance or navigating through adversity to find a hidden path, opportunities shape our journey and define our legacy. In this blog, we’ve compiled a curated collection of the top 106 opportunity quotes to inspire and motivate you to recognize and grasp the possibilities that come your way. Let these profound words from visionaries, leaders, and thinkers ignite your drive and remind you that every opportunity, no matter how small, can lead to greatness.

1. “When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” - Alexander Graham Bell

2. “We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work” - Thomas A. Edison

3. “I will prepare and some day my chance will come.” - Abraham Lincoln

4. “For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress, And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

5. “Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared. a” - George S. Clason

6. “Salvation is more than a word, It is His Word. His word became flesh so we have the opportunity to live.” - Tabitha Robin

7. “I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” - Stephen Jay Gould

8. “We can be hindered in our development and our personal growth by political conditions. Outer circumstances can constrain us. Only when we are free to develop our innate abilities can we live as free beings. But we are just as much determined by inner potential and outer opportunities as the Stone Age boy on the Rhine, the lion in Africa, or the apple tree in the garden.” - Jostein Gaarder

9. “Every mistake committed is a learning opportunity.” - Santosh Kalwar

10. “Friendship is selfless love, care, respect, and honor not a profitable opportunity.” - Santosh Kalwar

11. “Youngsters want to change world. Elders want to enjoy their works.The entrepreneur sells anything needed by both to win their desires.” - Toba Beta

12. “Opportunity never knocks. It hangs thick in the air all around you. You breathe it unthinking, and dissipate it with your sighs.” - Roy H. Williams

13. “A leader must lead. Where others see obstacles, he must see opportunities. When others see problems, he must see possibilities ... Civilization is not built on a negation but on an affirmation- an affirmation of the bright and promising possibilities that the future holds for those who are enterprising enough to pursue them.” - David J Vaughan

14. “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

15. “Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.” - Doris Lessing

16. “The most twisted but perennial of American myths is that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. (p. 174)” - Robin R. Meyers

17. “Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability.... We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.” - Thomas A. Edison

18. “Not knowing when the dawn will comeI open every door.” - Emily Dickinson

19. “If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door” - Milton Berle

20. “It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.” - Eric Hoffer

21. “If you want good luck; you must go out there and search for that luck!! Because luck is waiting for you to look for it.” - Temitope Owosela

22. “He kept thinking about Mary. What a fool he'd been to let her go. To think, with the thoughtless assurance of youth, that the world was replete with endless possibilities. He'd thought it a mistake to choose so early in life and embrace the present good. He'd been a great one for looking for greener pastures. He'd kept looking until all his pastures were brown with time. ("Old Haunts")” - Richard Matheson

23. “My grandfather says that's what books are for," Ashoke said, using the opportunity to open the volume in his hands. "To travel without moving an inch.” - Jhumpa Lahiri

24. “If you have to ask if you’ve done enough, you haven’t. Each day brings with it the opportunity to do more than you did yesterday.” - Steve Maraboli

25. “If you were offered the chance to live your own life again, would you seize the opportunity? The only real philosophical answer is automatically self-contradictory: 'Only if I did not know that I was doing so.' To go through the entire experience once more would be banal and Sisyphean—even if it did build muscle—whereas to wish to be young again and to have the benefit of one's learned and acquired existence is not at all to wish for a repeat performance, or a Groundhog Day. And the mind ought to, but cannot, set some limits to wish-thinking. All right, same me but with more money, an even sturdier penis, slightly different parents, a briefer latency period… the thing is absurd. I seriously would like to know what it was to be a woman, but like blind Tiresias would also want the option of re-metamorphosing if I wished. How terrible it is that we have so many more desires than opportunities.” - Christopher Hitchens

26. “How often had she wondered what would have happened if she'd remained with Jonathan? Not often, but regularly over the years. It was impossible not to have imagined that rejected future, a life of many countries, of vast and enduring adventure, of tiny rooms and rental houses. It was the sense of missed opportunity that returned to her, frightening but real, overwhelmingly real.” - Michael Stein

27. “I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stunned by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say, "Hi." They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word.” - Augusten Burroughs

28. “Opportunists seek for a chance.Entrepreneurs make new chances.” - Toba Beta

29. “Learn to adapt. Things change, circumstances change. Adjust yourself and your efforts to what it is presented to you so you can respond accordingly. Never see change as a threat, because it can be an opportunity to learn, to grow, evolve and become a better person.” - Rodolfo Costa

30. “ Before I ever knew what the word Entrepeneur was, I realized in America and in the Western part of the world in general, you are given the opportunity to be whatever you want to be. And that is all anyone should ever expect from the Capitalist system. The rest is up to you.It's up to you to educate yourself.It's up to you to learn speaking skills and people skills.It's up to you to try (and usually fail, but to try again) all sorts of ventures.The rest is a combination of hard work, being at the right place ...at the right time...with the right thing...oh yes...and more (never ending) hard work.” - Gene Simmons

31. “Our most significant opportunities will be found in times of greatest difficulty.” - Thomas S. Monson

32. “By focusing on possibilities, you can see more than a potential light at the end of the tunnel. The light doesn't have to be at the end of the tunnel; it can illuminate an opportunity wherever you are.” - John B. Arden

33. “The excitement of opportunity and challenge inspires us to push for greatness.” - Lorii Myers

34. “Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.” - Sun Tzu

35. “Every day, you get the opportunity to change your life. Change what you do not want. Change what makes you unhappy.” - Rodolfo Costa

36. “But,instead of what our imagination makes us suppose and which we worthless try to discover,life gives us something that we could hardly imagine.” - Marcel Proust

37. “You have to believe in it to get it...” - Nora Roberts

38. “Today, you have the opportunity to transcend from a disempowered mindset of existence to an empowered reality of purpose-driven living. Today is a new day that has been handed to you for shaping. You have the tools, now get out there and create a masterpiece.” - Steve Maraboli

39. “Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.” - John Burroughs

40. “The faithful man perceives nothing less than opportunity in difficulties. Flowing through his spine, faith and courage work together: Such a man does not fear losing his life, thus he will risk losing it at times in order to empower it. By this he actually values his life more than the man who fears losing his life. It is much like leaping from a window in order to avoid a fire yet in that most crucial moment knowing that God will appear to catch you.” - Criss Jami

41. “Someday an opportunity will come. Think about Harry Potter. His life is terrible, but then a letter arrives, he gets on a train, and everything is different for him afterward. Better. Magical.""That's just a story.""So are we- we're stories too.” - Matthew Quick

42. “There comes a moment in every life when the Universe presents you with an opportunity to rise to your potential. An open door that only requires the heart to walk through, seize it and hang on.The choice is never simple. It’s never easy. It’s not supposed to be. But those who travel this path have always looked back and realizedthat the test was always about the heart. ...The rest is just practice.” - Jaime Buckley

43. “Give me but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth.” - Archimedes

44. “Every time your heart is broken, a doorway cracks open to a world full of new beginnings, new opportunities.” - Patti Roberts

45. “Success will be within your reach only when you start reaching out for it.” - Stephen Richards

46. “The true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure.” - Stephen Richards

47. “If you think you can then you can.” - Stephen Richards

48. “When you fail, that is when you get closer to success.” - Stephen Richards

49. “Happiness is something we reap from the seeds we sow. Plant misery seeds and that us what you reap.” - Stephen Richards

50. “Our way of thinking creates good or bad outcomes.” - Stephen Richards

51. “Before you can successfully make friends with others, first you have to become your own friend.” - Stephen Richards

52. “When you connect to the silence within you, that is when you can make sense of the disturbance going on around you.” - Stephen Richards

53. “Without enthusiasm then what we have surrounded ourselves with becomes worthless.” - Stephen Richards

54. “Happy people produce. Bored people consume.” - Stephen Richards

55. “You have been given a second chance to start your life over. You can't throw this opportunity away. If you do you will be a colossal fool. If you get the chance to do something and don't do it then you'll simply live with regret. That's a worse situation than trying something daring and maybe not succeeding. At least you tried. Isn't that what you want to show your kids?” - Lorena Bathey

56. “No matter how small you start, always dream big.” - Stephen Richards

57. “No matter how old you are now. You are never too young or too old for success or going after what you want. Here’s a short list of people who accomplished great things at different ages1) Helen Keller, at the age of 19 months, became deaf and blind. But that didn’t stop her. She was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.2) Mozart was already competent on keyboard and violin; he composed from the age of 5.3) Shirley Temple was 6 when she became a movie star on “Bright Eyes.”4) Anne Frank was 12 when she wrote the diary of Anne Frank.5) Magnus Carlsen became a chess Grandmaster at the age of 13.6) Nadia Comăneci was a gymnast from Romania that scored seven perfect 10.0 and won three gold medals at the Olympics at age 14.7) Tenzin Gyatso was formally recognized as the 14th Dalai Lama in November 1950, at the age of 15.8) Pele, a soccer superstar, was 17 years old when he won the world cup in 1958 with Brazil.9) Elvis was a superstar by age 19.10) John Lennon was 20 years and Paul Mcartney was 18 when the Beatles had their first concert in 1961.11) Jesse Owens was 22 when he won 4 gold medals in Berlin 1936.12) Beethoven was a piano virtuoso by age 2313) Issac Newton wrote Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica at age 2414) Roger Bannister was 25 when he broke the 4 minute mile record15) Albert Einstein was 26 when he wrote the theory of relativity16) Lance E. Armstrong was 27 when he won the tour de France 17) Michelangelo created two of the greatest sculptures “David” and “Pieta” by age 2818) Alexander the Great, by age 29, had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world19) J.K. Rowling was 30 years old when she finished the first manuscript of Harry Potter20) Amelia Earhart was 31 years old when she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean21) Oprah was 32 when she started her talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind22) Edmund Hillary was 33 when he became the first man to reach Mount Everest23) Martin Luther King Jr. was 34 when he wrote the speech “I Have a Dream."24) Marie Curie was 35 years old when she got nominated for a Nobel Prize in Physics 25) The Wright brothers, Orville (32) and Wilbur (36) invented and built the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight26) Vincent Van Gogh was 37 when he died virtually unknown, yet his paintings today are worth millions.27) Neil Armstrong was 38 when he became the first man to set foot on the moon.28) Mark Twain was 40 when he wrote "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", and 49 years old when he wrote "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"29) Christopher Columbus was 41 when he discovered the Americas30) Rosa Parks was 42 when she refused to obey the bus driver’s order to give up her seat to make room for a white passenger31) John F. Kennedy was 43 years old when he became President of the United States32) Henry Ford Was 45 when the Ford T came out.33) Suzanne Collins was 46 when she wrote "The Hunger Games"34) Charles Darwin was 50 years old when his book On the Origin of Species came out.35) Leonardo Da Vinci was 51 years old when he painted the Mona Lisa.36) Abraham Lincoln was 52 when he became president.37) Ray Kroc Was 53 when he bought the McDonalds Franchise and took it to unprecedented levels.38) Dr. Seuss was 54 when he wrote "The Cat in the Hat".40) Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III was 57 years old when he successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in 2009. All of the 155 passengers aboard the aircraft survived41) Colonel Harland Sanders was 61 when he started the KFC Franchise42) J.R.R Tolkien was 62 when the Lord of the Ring books came out43) Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became President of the US44) Jack Lalane at age 70 handcuffed, shackled, towed 70 rowboats45) Nelson Mandela was 76 when he became President” - Pablo

58. “I wanted to throw myself into an experience that was too big for me and learn in a way that cost me something” - Jamie Zeppa

59. “We were the ones on scene when everything went down. We weren't better. We weren't worse. We were just the ones standing in the blast radius.” - Mira Grant

60. “Believe and achieve with Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

61. “Some people only dream of success… while others wake up and use Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

62. “Cosmic Ordering success sticks to you like mud to a blanket.” - Stephen Richards

63. “On the road to success some will always expect tragedy ... ditch your doubts and experience success with Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

64. “Whatever your desire, use Cosmic Ordering to get what you require!” - Stephen Richards

65. “A clever person solves a problem; a wise person uses Cosmic Ordering!” - Stephen Richards

66. “The only secret of wealth creation is knowing how to use Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

67. “Twenty years from now you will be disappointed you never used Cosmic Ordering today.” - Stephen Richards

68. “Everybody talks about being rich, Cosmic Ordering does something about it.” - Stephen Richards

69. “A man may fail many times, and then he turns to Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

70. “Often the only difference between success and failure is not using Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

71. “To fail is nothing, unless you continue to ignore Cosmic Ordering.” - Stephen Richards

72. “What do you mean I have to wait for someone's approval?  I'm someone.  I approve.  So I give myself permission to move forward with my full support!” - Richelle E. Goodrich

73. “America’s education system has become less a ladder of opportunity than a structure to transmit inequity from one generation to the next.” - Nicholas Kristof

74. “In the ashes of adversity, lies opportunity.” - S.L. Coelho

75. “Do not wait for an opportunity to be all that you want to be.” - Wallace Wattles

76. “The opportunities for using our financial resources to spread the gospel and strengthen the church all over the world are greater than they've ever been. As God raised up Esther for just such a time as hers, I'm convinced he's raise us up, with all our wealth, to help fulfill the great commission. The question is, what are we doing with that money? Our job is to make sure it gets to his intended recipients.” - Randy Alcorn

77. “.. becoming attached to a country involves pressing, uncomfortable questions about justice and opportunity for its least powerful citizens.” - Katherine Boo

78. “There's a war on. We don't know how anything's going to end. We just have to grasp each fleeting moment of joy as it whizzes by.” - Rosamunde Pilcher

79. “Opportunity...it often comes disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat.” - Napoleon Hill

80. “A man is deficient in understanding until he perceives that there is a whole cycle of evolution possible within himself: repeating endlessly, offering opportunities for personal development.” - Idries Shah

81. “It is not 'Have I got a chance?' It is more often: 'Have I seen my chance?” - Idries Shah

82. “Life really is a most whimsical thing. While we consistently try and chart its route, it goes ahead and takes its own turn. Just follow the paths it lays out before you. And you may find, at some sudden turn, a miracle waiting just for you.” - Jyoti Arora

83. “It is not very often that an opportunity comes knocking. But when it does, you better be bathed and dressed and ready to answer its call.” - Jyoti Arora

84. “Willful blindness sees no end of damage done.” - Stephen Richards

85. “Do you know the opportunity you get when you fail? It is starting again - an opportunity to perform better.” - Ogwo David Emenike

86. “The beginning [of a journey] is a terrible time to plan. It's the moment of greatest ignorance. In self-directed education, a lot of the value comes from exploiting opportunities that arise well out to sea, once I've seen some things and begun the learning process.” - James Marcus Bach

87. “Let me tell ya. You gotta pay attention to signs. When life reaches out with a moment like this it's a sin if you don't reach back... I'm telling you.” - Matthew Quick

88. “I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.” - Oprah Winfrey

89. “Possible is more a matter of attitude, A matter of decision, to choose Among the impossible possibilities, When one sound opportunity Becomes a possible solution.” - Dejan Stojanovic

90. “Inbetween yesterday's regret and tomorrow's dream is today's opportunity. Seize the chance!” - Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

91. “For Time calls only once, and that determines all.” - Sophocles

92. “You just don’t get it. The point I’m trying to make—the point you’re deliberately ignoring—is that tomorrow it might all go away. You have to do what you want and take what you want now.” - Steph Bowe

93. “To control your life, control your mind. To control your mind, control your breath.” - Stephen Richards

94. “You can have it all, just not all at the same time.” - Betty Friedan

95. “..the best strategy for giving is a two-fold approach: a basic plan combined with a willingness to consider spontaneous giving when unique opportunities arise.” - Andy Stanley

96. “‎Every opportunity missed is an opportunity for regret” - Karl Kloppenborg

97. “Change. Adapt. Bend so as not to be broken. Let opportunity guide your actions.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

98. “That's your opportunity--to approach your work in a way that generates unique learning and interactions that are worth sharing.” - Seth Godin

99. “Difficult situations create exploitable opportunities for those strong enough to persevere.” - Chad Bowen

100. “Never sit under a tree waiting for the apple to fall. Climb the tree, grab that apple!When it comes, never be inert and take your time, TIME TO MOVE!” - Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

101. “Each day brings a fresh opportunity for you to set the standard of how dedicated and committed you are to your needs, wants, goals, and relationships.” - Steve Maraboli

102. “Become your own success story, not someone else's.” - Stephen Richards

103. “God does not ask your abilityOr your inability.He asks only your availability.” - Mary Kay Ash

104. “Most of all, differences of opinion are opportunities for learning.” - Terry Tempest Williams

105. “Sometimes in this life, only one or two opportunities are put before us and we must seize them no matter the risk.” - Andre Dubus III

106. “Run and hide or rise and shine ...” - Stephen Richards