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Quotes about failure

95 quotes from 79 people

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In archery we have something like the way of the superior man. When the archer misses the center of the target, he turns round and seeks for the cause of his failure in himself.
Confucius551–479 BCThe Doctrine of the Mean
- Responsibility
If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.
Calvin Coolidge1872–1933
I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
George Eliot1819–1880Felix Holt, the Radical (1866)
In all failures, the beginning is certainly the half of the whole.
George Eliot1819–1880Middlemarch (1871–1872), Book III: Waiting for Death, Chapter XXXIIn context
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 Faulkner1897–1962Interview with Jean Stein, The Paris Review, No. 12 (Spring 1956)
I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.
William Faulkner1897–1962The Sound and the Fury (1929), June Second, 1910 (1 of 4)In context
- Time
Failure is success if we learn from it.
Malcolm Forbes1919–1990
I once told you that I am not a saint, and I hope never to see the day that I cannot admit having made a mistake.
Gerald Ford1913–2006Address to Congress (12 August 1974)
Failure is the only opportunity to begin again more intelligently.
Henry Ford1863–1947
What you have lost will not be returned to you. It will always be lost. You’re left with only your scars to mark the void. All you can choose to do is go on or not. But if you go on, it’s knowing you carry your scars with you.
CFCharles Frazierborn 1950
If I ran a school, I’d give the average grade to the ones who gave me all the right answers, for being good parrots. I’d give the top grades to those who made a lot of mistakes and told me about them, and then told me what they learned from them.
Buckminster Fuller1895–1983
- Education
Creativity comes from the freedom to fail. And freedom to fail comes from experimentation, and that’s what gives something its individuality.
Peter Gabrielborn 1950The Kate Bush Story (2014), On Kate Bush
- Art
While Man’s desires and aspirations stir,
He cannot choose but err.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe1749–1832Faust (1808), Prologue in Heaven, spoken by The LordIn context
- Motivation & Goals
No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.
Al Goreborn 1948Concession speech (2000)
Self-discipline without talent can often achieve astounding results, whereas talent without self-discipline inevitably dooms itself to failure.
SHSydney J. Harris1917–1986Pieces of Eight (1982)
- Success