Quotes about failure
95 quotes from 79 people
Richard Nixon1913–1994Speech to the assembled White House staff before his final departure (August 9, 1974)A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.
Richard Nixon1913–19941969 note to self, as quoted in Nixon (1987) by Stephen E. Ambrose, p. 284
Norman Vincent Peale1898–1993Stay Alive All Your Life (1957)
Enoch Powell1912–1998Enoch Powell, Joseph Chamberlain (1977), p. 151The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
JPJohn Powell1645–1713The Secret of Staying in Love (1990), p. 85.
Condoleezza Riceborn 1954Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, January 11, 2007.The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.
Bob Ross1942–1995Bob Ross: Beauty Is Everywhere. Collection 1: Ep. 8 “Wintertime Blues”
Edmond Rostand1868–1918Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), Act V: Cyrano’s Gazette, Scene VI, spoken by CyranoIn context
J. K. Rowlingborn 1965Harvard address (2008)
Robert Falcon Scott1868–1912Journal, 17 January 1912, quoted in Scott’s Last Expedition (1913) vol.1, ch.18Oftentimes a reverse has but made room for more prosperous fortune.
Seneca the Younger5 BC–AD 65Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCI: On the Lesson to be Drawn From the Burning of Lyons
