A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.

The line defines “success” in deliberately modest, human terms: not wealth, status, or public acclaim, but the ability to live a day on one’s own terms. Its structure—morning to night—frames success as a daily practice rather than a lifetime verdict. The emphasis on doing “what he wants to do” suggests autonomy and self-direction as the core measure, aligning with a folk/bohemian suspicion of conventional achievement. Read critically, it also raises questions about privilege and constraint: the freedom to do what one wants is unevenly distributed, so the aphorism can function both as an inspiring redefinition and as an idealized standard.