Quotes & anectdotes from the wise, the foolish, the courageous & the drunk

failure

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. 7 more wisdom & wit from B. F. Skinner

Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory. 3 other sayings from Herbert Kaufman

If you're 40 years old and you've never had a failure, you've been deprived. 7 other quotes from Gloria Swanson

It's how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success. 3 sayings from Charlotte Whitton

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them. 6 quotes from Jack Kerouac

Show me a good and gracious loser and I'll show you a failure. 5 views from Knute Rockne

Success and failure are equally disastrous. 17 more sayings from Tennessee Williams

The dream is real, my friends. The failure to realize it is the only unreality. 2 wisdom & wit from Toni Cade Bambara

The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism. 6 other views from Earl Warren

There is no such thing as darkness only a failure to see. 8 other quotes from Malcolm Muggeridge

A life which does not go into action is a failure. 7 more views from Arnold J. Toynbee

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. 17 quotes from John Burroughs

A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying. 17 other quotes from John Burroughs

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself. 11 wisdom & wit from Charlie Chaplin

Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better. 4 quotes from Samuel Beckett

I will not be discouraged by failure I will not be elated by success. 7 sayings from Joseph Barber Lightfoot

Indecision and delays are the parents of failure. 3 wisdom & wit from George Canning

The success and the failure are not my concern, but His. 7 other sayings from Joseph Barber Lightfoot

We do not realise that we are children of eternity. If we did, then success would be no success, and failure would be no failure to us. 7 wisdom & wit from Joseph Barber Lightfoot

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. 3 wisdom & wit from Mary Pickford

A man who has never made a woman angry is a failure in life. 15 more wisdom & wit from Christopher Morley

A minute's success pays the failure of years. 22 quotes from Robert Browning

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure. 2 thoughts from George Edward Woodberry

Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success. 22 other thoughts from James Dyson

Failure has gone to his head. 10 quotes from Wilson Mizner

Failure is an enigma. You worry about it, and it teaches you something. 22 more quotes from James Dyson

Failure, it is thought, is what sells, and what people want to hear and read about. I am not so sure. 5 views from Alastair Campbell

I wasn't afraid to fail. Something good always comes out of failure. 3 quotes from Anne Baxter

In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure. 21 more wisdom & wit from Malcolm X

It's best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes. 3 other views from Anne Baxter

Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure. 13 other quotes from Fred Allen

My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States. 26 quotes from Harry S. Truman

The man who has done his level best... is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure. 10 wisdom & wit from B. C. Forbes

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure. 10 wisdom & wit from B. C. Forbes

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience. 59 quotes from Elbert Hubbard

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. 59 views from Elbert Hubbard

Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure. 2 sayings from Errol Flynn

Failure in the theater is more dramatic and uglier than any other form of writing. It costs so much, you feel so guilty. 7 quotes from Lillian Hellman

Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant - the digitalis of failure. 59 thoughts from Elbert Hubbard

Outward failure may be a manifested variant of inward success. 4 more wisdom & wit from Kenneth L. Pike

Success is a public affair. Failure is a private funeral. 4 quotes from Rosalind Russell

The main failure of education is that it has not prepared people to comprehend matters concerning human destiny. 15 quotes from Norman Cousins

There is no failure except in no longer trying. 59 quotes from Elbert Hubbard

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. 32 quotes from Henry Ford

It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression. 31 quotes from Eric Hoffer

It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. 3 wisdom & wit from Roger Babson

Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. 3 wisdom & wit from Roger Babson

Mass transportation is doomed to failure in North America because a person's car is the only place where he can be alone and think. 19 thoughts from Marshall McLuhan

My reputation grows with every failure. 115 views from George Bernard Shaw

Never fret for an only son, the idea of failure will never occur to him. 115 more quotes from George Bernard Shaw

There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house. 31 thoughts from Eric Hoffer

When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work. 115 more quotes from George Bernard Shaw

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure? 35 quotes from Ernest Hemingway

You gotta lose 'em some of the time. When you do, lose 'em right. 12 more thoughts from Casey Stengel

Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures. 12 other quotes from Bernard Baruch

Failure is success if we learn from it. 12 views from Malcolm Forbes

Failure sometimes enlarges the spirit. You have to fall back upon humanity and God. 5 more quotes from Charles Horton Cooley

He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being. 11 other wisdom & wit from Paul Tillich

Heaven knows that I have done all that a mortal could do, to save the people, and the failure was not my fault, but the fault of others. 5 other quotes from Davy Crockett

It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world. 11 other views from Charles Kettering

No man is a failure who is enjoying life. 22 quotes from William Feather

Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself. 10 other quotes from Luc de Clapiers

Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable. 16 views from Coco Chanel

Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities. 15 other views from Walter Scott

The failure of the Russian Socialist Republic will be the defeat of the proletariat of the whole world. 4 quotes from Karl Liebknecht

The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure. 24 other views from Lyndon B. Johnson

The success or failure of a life, as far as posterity goes, seems to lie in the more or less luck of seizing the right moment of escape. 2 other quotes from Alice James

There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than success. 10 sayings from Max Beerbohm

Crime and bad lives are the measure of a State's failure, all crime in the end is the crime of the community. 19 wisdom & wit from H. G. Wells

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. 4 quotes from Truman Capote

Failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done is a great weakness in any man. 4 quotes from William Howard Taft

The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure. 21 views from Laurence J. Peter

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. 100 more thoughts from Oscar Wilde

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit. 28 quotes from Napoleon Hill

Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes. 9 wisdom & wit from John Dewey

Failure too is a form of death. 11 other quotes from Graham Greene

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in failure. 24 other quotes from Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure. 28 thoughts from Napoleon Hill

Success is more dangerous than failure, the ripples break over a wider coastline. 11 other quotes from Graham Greene

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. 28 quotes from Napoleon Hill

The time I had waited probably made the difference between success and failure. 2 other wisdom & wit from Anna Neagle

There is not a fiercer hell than the failure in a great object. 19 sayings from John Keats

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another. 28 quotes from Napoleon Hill

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. 21 other quotes from Dale Carnegie

Don't be afraid of failure be afraid of petty success. 2 quotes from Maude Adams

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure. 52 other quotes from George Eliot

Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles. 11 thoughts from Jawaharlal Nehru

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement. 25 more quotes from C. S. Lewis

My life has been nothing but a failure. 5 views from Claude Monet

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. 74 more quotes from Winston Churchill

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. 74 quotes from Winston Churchill

Success is 99 percent failure. 2 quotes from Soichiro Honda

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. 74 quotes from Winston Churchill

Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure. 2 wisdom & wit from Soichiro Honda

The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best. 52 quotes from George Eliot

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows. 52 views from George Eliot

They who have conquered doubt and fear have conquered failure. 12 more quotes from James Allen

To begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment. 12 more sayings from James Allen

To begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment. 12 more sayings from James Allen

We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes. 13 other wisdom & wit from Amos Bronson Alcott

When I was about 15... I made my first attempt as a leading lady, and was, of course, a complete failure. 2 more sayings from Maude Adams

At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings. 3 more quotes from Hector Berlioz

Don't come home a failure. 3 other wisdom & wit from Ty Cobb

Failure is a word unknown to me. 5 other wisdom & wit from Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Failure is the key to success each mistake teaches us something. 4 thoughts from Morihei Ueshiba

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough. 10 other quotes from Og Mandino

Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something. 2 quotes from Frederick Smith

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. 2 other quotes from James Lane Allen

If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style. 8 quotes from Quentin Crisp

If Liberia has failed, then, it is no evidence of the failure of the Negro in government. It is merely evidence of the failure of slavery. 6 other thoughts from Carter G. Woodson

Students rarely disappoint teachers who assure them in advance that they are doomed to failure. 3 thoughts from Sidney Hook

There's no such thing as failure - just waiting for success. 2 quotes from John Osborne

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure. 75 wisdom & wit from Benjamin Disraeli

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. 12 other views from Rudyard Kipling

We may be personally defeated, but our principles never! 4 other wisdom & wit from William Lloyd Garrison

All human actions are equivalent... and all are on principle doomed to failure. 24 other quotes from Carl Sandburg

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. 10 other quotes from Edward Abbey

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. 96 thoughts from Benjamin Franklin

Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital. 12 other wisdom & wit from Daniel Webster

Failure is not our only punishment for laziness there is also the success of others. 6 views from Jules Renard

I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate. 21 wisdom & wit from George Burns

I'd rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate. 21 more quotes from George Burns

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. 4 thoughts from Abraham Joshua Heschel

No man can be a failure if he thinks he's a success If he thinks he is a winner, then he is. 2 wisdom & wit from Robert W. Service

The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success. 3 quotes from Paramahansa Yogananda

The world is divided into two categories: failures and unknowns. 3 views from Francis Picabia

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. 25 other quotes from Orison Swett Marden

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self. 40 views from William James

We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing. 11 more views from Robert E. Lee

A real failure does not need an excuse. It is an end in itself. 31 quotes from Gertrude Stein

Failure is impossible. 14 more sayings from Susan B. Anthony

Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime. Not failure, but low aim is crime. 24 sayings from James Russell Lowell

However things may seem, no evil thing is success and no good thing is failure. 26 views from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I have probably purchased fifty 'hot tips' in my career, maybe even more. When I put them all together, I know I am a net loser. 3 quotes from Charles M. Schwab

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. 23 quotes from Thomas A. Edison

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. 47 more wisdom & wit from Abraham Lincoln

Not failure, but low aim, is crime. 24 wisdom & wit from James Russell Lowell

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure. 23 more wisdom & wit from Thomas A. Edison

The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success. 3 quotes from David Sarnoff

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. 32 views from Michel de Montaigne

You have to risk failure to succeed. The important thing is not to make one single mistake that will jeopardize the future. 3 other quotes from An Wang