This is a compilation of thoughts and quotes that I have found or written recently, as well as many that I've collected throughout the years. Most thoughts are posted randomly, as I feel inspired. A listing of quotes can be found alphabetically (check the 2008 and 2009 archives listing), or by source.

Feel free to suggest additions!


“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7

Monday, December 15, 2008

Failure Quotes

1. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. - Bishop W.C. Magee

2. Act as though it were impossible to fail. - Unknown

3. The only time you cannot afford to fail is the last time you try. - Charles Kettering

4. The only people who never fail are those who never try. - Ilka Chase

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

6. The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what you want most for what you want at the moment. - Unknown

7. When you lose, don't lose the lesson. – Dalai Lama

8. The reason most people fail instead of succeed is that they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment. – Unknown

9. Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping. - Julius and Augustus Hare

10. You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don't win, at least you can be satisfied that you tried. If you don't accept failure as a possibility, you don't set high goals, you don't branch out, you don't try, you don't take the risk. - Rosalynn Carter

11. Failure is the only opportunity to begin again more intelligently. - Henry Ford

12. Many of life’s failures come to people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas Edison

13. You always pass failure on your way to success. - Mickey Rooney

14. Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm. - Sir Winston Churchill

15. 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

16. Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it. - Eliza Tabor

17. Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have. - Louis E. Boone

18. There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying. - Francis Bacon

19. Real success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill

20. It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded. - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

21. If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. - Henry David Thoreau

22. The problem is that most people focus on their failures rather than their successes. But the truth is that most people have many more successes than failures. -Jack Canfield

23. There is nothing final about a mistake, except its being taken as final. - Phyllis Bottome

24. Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand. - Emily Kimbrough

25. What is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better. - Wendell Phillips

26. I haven't failed. I've found 10,000 ways that won't work. - Benjamin Franklin

27. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something. - Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

29. We should not criticize those who trip by taking a more difficult than usual step. - Dick Hubbard

30. There is no shame in having fallen. Nor any shame in being born into a lowly estate. There is only shame in not struggling to rise. And also shame for not wishing to attain the better. Or not dreaming about it and praying for it. - Samuel Amalu

31. Most success springs from an obstacle or failure. I became a cartoonist largely because I failed in my goal of becoming a successful executive. - Scott Adams

32. The true winners are distinguished by the fact that they sometimes lose, but more importantly that they can rise up from defeat. You cannot succeed if you are not prepared to fail. - Benjamin Netanyahu

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

34. If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down. - Mary Pickford

35. What is defeat? Nothing but education. Nothing but the first step to something better. - Wendell Phillips

36. The failure wishes he could do things he could never do. He thinks little of what he can do. - Mark Caine

37. The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you don't learn anything from being perfect. - Adam Osborne

38. Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied. - Pearl S. Buck

39. He is only exempt from failures who makes no effort. - Richard Whately

40. We fail far more often by timidity than by over-daring. - David Grayson

41. Fall seven times, stand up eight. - Japanese Proverb

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

43. When we give ourselves permission to fail, we at the same time give ourselves permission to excel. - Eloise Ristad

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

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

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

47. Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave. - Mary Tyler Moore

48. If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down. - Mary Pickford

49. Being defeated is often only a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. - Marilyn vos Savant

50. We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. - Carlos Castaneda

51. Forget mistakes. Forget failure. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day. - Will Durant

52. My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. - Abraham Lincoln

53. We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t. Success often lies just on the other side of failure. - Leo F. Buscaglia

54. There is no failure for the man who realizes his power, who never knows when he is beaten; there is no failure for the determined endeavor; the unconquerable will. There is no failure for the man who gets up every time he falls, who rebounds like a rubber ball, who persists when everyone else gives up, who pushes on when everyone else turns back. - Orison Swett Marden

55. Like success, failure is many things to many people. With Positive Mental Attitude, failure is a learning experience, a rung on the ladder, a plateau at which to get your thoughts in order and prepare to try again. - W. Clement Stone

56. Failure is only postponed success as long as courage “coaches” ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory. - Herbert Kaufman

57. I feel that the most important requirement in success is learning to overcome failure. You must learn to tolerate it, but never accept it. - Reggie Jackson

58. Failure does not count. If you accept this, you’ll be successful. What causes most people to fail is that after one failure, they’ll stop trying. - Frank Burford

59. Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory. - Orison Swett Marden

60. Commit yourself to a dream. Nobody who tries to do something great, but fails, is a total failure. Why? Because he can always be assured that he succeeded in life's most important battle; he defeated the battle of not trying. - Robert H. Schuller

61. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come. - Og Mandino

62. Every time you get rejected, say: 'Next!' - Mark Victor Hansen

63. Most people fail in life not because they aim too high and miss, but because they aim too low and hit. - Les Brown

64. The only truly safe thing you can do is to try over and over again. To go for it, to get rejected, to repeat, to strive, to wish. Without rejection there is no frontier, there is no passion, and there is no magic. - James Altucher

65. 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

66. The only thing worse than starting something and failing...is not starting something. - Seth Godin

67. If you could avoid all your mistakes, you'd miss everything you learned from them. - Marie Forleo

68. The tiny cost of failure...is dwarfed by the huge cost of not trying. - Seth Godin

69. If failure is not an option, neither is success. Innovation is just repeated failure till you come up with something that works. - Seth Godin

70. Don't worry about failure; you only have to be right once. - Drew Houston

71. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. - F. Scott Fitzgerald

72. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. - Denis Waitley

73. Many men fail because they quit too soon. They lose faith when the signs are against them. They do not have the courage to hold on, to keep fighting in spite of that which seems insurmountable. If more of us would strike out and attempt the “impossible,” we very soon would find the truth of that old saying that nothing is impossible… abolish fear and you can accomplish anything you wish. - Dr. C.E. Welch

74. 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

75. Don’t worry about failure. Worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try. - Unknown

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

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

78. I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. And the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep trying! - Tom Hopkins 

79. I would rather fail in an attempt at something new and uncharted than safely succeed in a repeat of something I have done. - A.E. Hotchner

80. So many fail because they don’t get started – they don’t go. They don’t overcome inertia. They don’t begin. - W. Clement Stone

81We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn’t. Success often lies just on the other side of failure. - Leo F. Buscaqlia

82. Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer. - Denis Waitley

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