SUCCESS

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

~ Bessie Anderson Stanley

>> Source: Bessie Anderson Stanley was best known for her poem “Success” (also referred to as “What is Success?” or “What Constitutes Success?”). The poem is often mistakenly attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson or Robert Louis Stevenson.

Stanley was born in Newton, Iowa, and married Arthur Jehu Stanley in 1900, after which the couple resided in Lincoln, Kansas. In 1904, she wrote her famous piece for a contest hosted by Brown Book Magazine under the sponsorship of George Livingston Richards Co. of Boston, Massachusetts. Rather than submitting her entry as a poem, she presented it as an essay in response to the prompt, “What is success?” (with a limit of 100 words). Stanley’s entry won the first prize, earning her $250.

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