Quotes on failure

Failure means a stripping away of the inessential.
J. K. Rowling

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did - which was to hide.
James A. Baldwin

No matter how vast, how total, the failure of man here on earth, the work of man will be resumed elsewhere. War leaders talk of resuming operations on this front and that, but man's front embraces the whole universe.
Henry Miller

There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than success.
Max Beerbohm

Failure is a great teacher, and I think when you make mistakes and you recover from them and you treat them as valuable learning experiences, then you've got something to share.
Steve Harvey

You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.
E. O. Wilson

If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way. The moral imperative of humanism is the endeavor alone, whether successful or not, provided the effort is honorable and failure memorable.
E. O. Wilson

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.
Edward Abbey

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Mary Pickford

If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Mary Pickford



Supposing you have tried and failed again and again. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.
Mary Pickford

I have a lack of fear, whereas in the past the fear of failure was a powerful motivator. Anyway, I have great expectations for the future, but I just don't know if I'm the monarch of all I survey.
Sylvester Stallone

Success is usually the culmination of controlling failure.
Sylvester Stallone

But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes.
Bodhidharma

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.
Jack Kerouac

A real failure does not need an excuse. It is an end in itself.
Gertrude Stein

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in failure.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Even as far back as when I started acting at 14, I know I've never considered failure.
Jennifer Lawrence

As soon as I did my first five minutes of stand-up I knew that I would rather be a failure at comedy than a success in marketing.
Jimmy Carr

Failure has gone to his head.
Wilson Mizner

I believe in trusting men, not only once but twice - in giving a failure another chance.
James Cash Penney

You have to be able to accept failure to get better.
LeBron James

The more control you have over your life, the more responsible you feel for your own success - or failure.
Arthur C. Brooks

One of the reasons people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure.
John W. Gardner


It has always seemed strange to me... the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
John Steinbeck

Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

You will be a failure, until you impress the subconscious with the conviction you are a success. This is done by making an affirmation which "clicks."
Florence Scovel Shinn

Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement.
Florence Scovel Shinn

Achievement is not always success, while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances.
Orison Swett Marden

There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a King.
Orison Swett Marden

Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.
Lily Tomlin

War is something Arafat sends others to do for him. That is, the poor souls who believe in him. This pompous incompetent caused the failure of the Camp David negotiations, Clinton's mediation.
Oriana Fallaci

I rise today to offer a formal and heartfelt apology to all the victims of lynching in our history, and for the failure of the United States Senate to take action when action was most needed.
George Allen

It's not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.
Jimmy Carter

Failure doesn't mean you are a failure it just means you haven't succeeded yet.
Robert H. Schuller

If there exists no possibility of failure, then victory is meaningless.
Robert H. Schuller

I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process, and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be, but we're losing a little bit of that right now.
Mike Krzyzewski

In high school, in sport, I had a coach who told me I was much better than I thought I was, and would make me do more in a positive sense. He was the first person who taught me not to be afraid of failure.
Mike Krzyzewski

I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.
Mike Krzyzewski

A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.
B. F. Skinner

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.
Mike Murdock

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.
Truman Capote

He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.
Paul Tillich

Quotes on Failure 3

Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts.
John Wooden

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.
Napoleon Hill

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.
Napoleon Hill

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.
Napoleon Hill

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.
Napoleon Hill


Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.
Coco Chanel

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.
Dale Carnegie

Remember that failure is an event, not a person.
Zig Ziglar

Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.
Zig Ziglar

You cannot climb the ladder of success dressed in the costume of failure.
Zig Ziglar

I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.
George Burns

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.
John Wooden

Not failure, but low aim, is crime.
James Russell Lowell

Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime. Not failure, but low aim is crime.
James Russell Lowell

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
Henry Ford

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
Colin Powell

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don't fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.
Jim Rohn


Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
Jim Rohn

I don't believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.
Oprah Winfrey

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.
Oprah Winfrey

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
Bill Gates

Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
Thomas A. Edison

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
Thomas A. Edison

My reputation grows with every failure.
George Bernard Shaw

Never fret for an only son, the idea of failure will never occur to him.
George Bernard Shaw

One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.
Thomas Sowell

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.
Thomas Sowell

All human actions are equivalent and all are on principle doomed to failure.
Jean-Paul Sartre

The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.
H. L. Mencken

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
George Edward Woodberry

Once you start a working on something, don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.
Chanakya

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.
Norman Vincent Peale

Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.
Arnold Schwarzenegger

If you're doing your best, you won't have any time to worry about failure.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

As kids we're not taught how to deal with success; we're taught how to deal with failure. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. If at first you succeed, then what?
Charlie Sheen

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
Colin Powell

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.
Colin Powell

They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?
Fidel Castro

All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.
William Faulkner

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.
William James

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.
William James

Don't think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success.
Robert Orben

I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure.
George W. Bush

There is no failure except in no longer trying.
Elbert Hubbard

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.
Elbert Hubbard



The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.
Elbert Hubbard

Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant - the digitalis of failure.
Elbert Hubbard

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.
Elbert Hubbard

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms agains himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.
Ambrose Bierce

Destiny: A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.
Ambrose Bierce

The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure.
Lyndon B. Johnson

I hate failure and that divorce was a Number One failure in my eyes. It was the worst period of my life. Neither Desi nor I have been the same since, physically or mentally.

Quotes on Failure 2

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.
Benjamin Franklin

People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.
Lao Tzu

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt

The Bush Administration's failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.
Barack Obama

In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world.
Barack Obama

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt.
Barack Obama

So while I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.
Barack Obama

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?
Ernest Hemingway

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit.
Napoleon Hill

Failure is not our only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others.
Jules Renard

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
Bill Cosby