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Quotes about failure

95 quotes from 79 people

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To do that would mean, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat⁠—and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going.
Upton Sinclair1878–1968The Jungle (1906), Chapter IIn context
- Motivation & Goals
To err is common
To all men, but the man who having erred
Hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks
The cure, is not a wastrel nor unwise.
Sophocles496–406 BCAntigone (c. 441 BC), spoken by TeiresiasIn context
- Wisdom
Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition, there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.
George Sorosborn 1930Soros on Soros (1995)
It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated…it is finished when it surrenders.
Ben Steinborn 1944
Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894Complete Works, vol. 26, Reflections and Remarks on Human Life, section 4.
- Success
We learn from failure, not from success!
Bram Stoker1847–1912Dracula (1897), Chapter XIn context
- Success
Errors are inevitable. The mark of character is not refusing to recognize them, but acknowledging them and taking responsibility.
Andrew Sullivanborn 1963
- Responsibility
For the robust, an error is information.
Nassim Nicholas Talebborn 1960The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010), p. 72
It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.
Nassim Nicholas Talebborn 1960Fooled by Randomness (2001)
- Risk
I don’t think there’s anything to be afraid of. Failure brings great rewards⁠—in the life of an artist.
Quentin Tarantinoborn 1963
- Art
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862
Men are born to succeed, not fail.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862
- Success
In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.
?UnattributedOften credited to Albert Einstein
We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.
Queen Victoria1819–1901Said to Arthur Balfour at Windsor during “Black Week” (December 1899), as recorded in Lady Gwendolen Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, vol. 3 (1931)
- War & Peace
I have tried hard⁠—but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else.
Edith Wharton1862–1937The House of Mirth (1905), Book Two, Chapter 12In context
- Life & Death