Motivational Quotes

Failure

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.

- Skinner, B(urrhus) F(rederic)

Best Quotes about Failure

From time to time, life as a leader can look hopeless. To help you, consider a man who lived through this: Failed in business at age 31. Defeated for the legislature at 32. Again failed in business at 34. Sweetheart died at 35. Had a nervous breakdown at 36. Defeated in election at 38. Defeated for Congress at 43. Defeated for Congress at 46. Defeated for Congress at 48. Defeated for Senate at 55. Defeated for Vice President at 56. Defeated for Senate at 58. Elected President at age 60. This man was Abraham Lincoln.

I am often confronted by the necessity of standing by one of my empirical selves and relinquishing the rest. Not that I would not. If I could, be... a great athlete and make a million a year, be a wit, a born -- vivant and a lady killer,as well as a philosopher, a philanthropist ... and saint. But the thing is simply impossible. The millionaire's work would run counter to the saint s; the bon-vivant and the philanthropist would trip each other up; the philosopher and the lady killer could not well keep house in the same tenement of clay. Such different characters may conceivably, at the outset of life. Be alike possible for a man. But to make any one of them actual,the rest must more of less be suppressed. So the seeker of his truest, strongest, deepest self must review the list carefully and pick out on which to stake his salvation. All other selves thereupon become unreal, but the fortunes of this self are real. Its failure are real failures, its triumphs real triumphs carrying shame and gladness with them.

James, William

If you're willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly.

Edward Albee

Men do not fail; they give up trying.

Root, Elihu

Failure is the path of least persistence

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.

Winfrey, Oprah

The man who fails because he aims astray or because he does not aim at all is to be found everywhere.

Swinnerton, Frank

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

Carver, George Washington

I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.

Patton, George S.

10.

People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.

Lao-Tzu

11.

Failure is not the worst thing in the world -- the very worst is not to try

12.

Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways.

Samuel McChord Crothers

13.

The only true failure lies in failure to start.

Walker, Harold Blake

14.

To fail is a natural consequence of trying, To succeed takes time and prolonged effort in the face of unfriendly odds. To think it will be any other way, no matter what you do, is to invite yourself to be hurt and to limit your enthusiasm for trying again.

Viscott, David

15.

Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory.

16.

If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.

Bill Lyon

17.

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.

Clemenceau, Georges

18.

However things may seem, no evil thing is success and no good thing is failure.

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

19.

What is defeat? Nothing but education. Nothing but the first step to something better.

Phillips, Wendell

20.

If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.

21.

I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.

Sophocles

22.

The man who tries to do something and fails is infinitely better than he who tries to do nothing and succeeds.

Jones, Lloyd

23.

Failure is not an option.

Movie, Apollo 13

24.

We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee to fail intelligently... to experiment over and over again and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.

Kettering, Charles F.

25.

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.

Skinner, B(urrhus) F(rederic)

26.

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.

Kettering, Charles F.

27.

Failures to heroic minds are the stepping stones to success.

Haliburton, Thomas C.

28.

There is no such thing as failure. There are only results.

Robbins, Anthony

29.

I cannot give the formula for success, but I can give you the formula of failure -- which is try to please everybody.

Swope, Herbert B.

30.

You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

Disney, Walt

31.

There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.

Baldwin, James

32.

We are all failures -- at least, all the best of us are.

Barrie, Sir James M.

33.

Many a man never fails because he never tries.

Macewan, Norman

34.

Nobody cleared a path for themselves by giving up.

Alacia Bessette

35.

When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

Mansfield, Katherine

36.

Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.

Proverb, African

37.

No one ever won a chess game by betting on each move. Sometimes you have to move backward to get a step forward.

Bose, Amar Gopal

38.

If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style.

Quentin Crisp

39.

The world is divided into two categories: failures and unknowns.

Picabia, Francis

40.

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

Ruth, Babe

41.

The glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time you fall.

42.

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.

Welch, Dr. C. E.

43.

I never see failure as failure, but only as the game I must play and win.

Hopkins, Tom

44.

The greatest failure is a person who never admits that he can be a failure.

Weiskott, Gerald. N.

45.

The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.

Yogananda, Paramahansa

46.

Just because you've lost doesn't necessarily mean you've failed.

47.

The typical human life seems to be quite unplanned, undirected, unlived, and unsavored. Only those who consciously think about the adventure of living as a matter of making choices among options, which they have found for themselves, ever establish real self-control and live their lives fully.

Albrecht, Karl

48.

No matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back.

Proverb, Turkish

49.

I have always felt that although someone may defeat me, and I strike out in a ball game, the pitcher on the particular day was the best player. But I know when I see him again, I'm going to be ready for his curve ball. Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.

Aaron, Hank

50.

There is no such thing as accidental failure. All failure is at least half imposed.