Those who take bold chances don’t think failure is the opposite of success. They believe complacency is.
—Unknown
Success requires persistence, the ability to not give up in the face of failure. I believe that optimistic explanatory style is the key to persistence.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
In the long run, avoiding activity that might hurt causes more agony than acting, failing, and dealing with the pain.
—Unknown
It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
If you haven’t failed, you’re not trying hard enough.
—Unknown
The single biggest difference between financial success and financial failure is how well you manage your money. It’s simple: to master money, you must manage money.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need”. It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment—not discouragement—you will find the strength there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege!! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures, followed by wreckage, were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
—Robert F. Kennedy (1925–68) American Politician, Civil Rights Activist
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something…almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
—Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
Failure’s pain subsides faster than the ache of regret.
—Unknown
Get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding, you will be yourself. Relaxed. You wouldn’t be driving with your brakes on. That’s what would happen.
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
Creative minds have already embraced the symbolic nature of success and failure…failure, they say, is a “step on the road to success.”..
—Unknown
We more frequently fail to face the right problem than fail to solve the problem we face.
—Unknown
For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.
—Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true self.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Even if you be otherwise perfect, you fail without humility.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot…And I missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is precisely…Why I succeed.
—Michael Jordan (b.1963) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
Would you like me to give you a formula for … success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure… You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all… You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive
Every human being who reaches the age of understanding of the purpose of money wishes for it. Wishing will not bring riches. But desiring riches with a state of mind that becomes an obsessions, then planning definite ways and means to acquire riches, and backing those plans with persistence which does not recognize failure, will bring riches.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.
—Buddhist Teaching
Too many of those with unrealized aspirations have set them aside due to fear of failure. The bigger the dream, the greater the fear. Doing less than our best allays this fear. I could have done better if I’d tried, we assure ourselves. Among the least appreciated reasons for doing superficial, second-rate work of any kind is the comfort of knowing it’s not our best that’s on the line. By not trying too hard, we avoid learning what our true potential is, and having to fulfill it. Doing our best can be deeply threatening. It forces us to consider what we’re actually capable of accomplishing. Once we learn that lesson, we can’t unlearn it. Our true potential becomes both a shining light we can follow and an oppressive burden of expectation that might, or might not, be met.
—Unknown
The shadow disguises itself in our projections, when we react intensely to a trait in others that we fail to see in ourselves.
—Connie Zweig (b.1949) American Minister, Columnist, Psychotherapist
All of us have failed to reach our dream of perfection, so I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
If a person weren’t failing in some way, shape or form, would he or she need to blame, justify, or complain? The obvious answer is no.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
A man’s life is interesting primarily when he has failed — I well know. For it’s a sign that he tried to surpass himself.
—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) French Head of State, Physician, Publisher, Political leader
Why don’t I see goodness and beauty everywhere? Because you cannot see outside of you what you fail to see inside.
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
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