Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

failure

At least I have the modesty to admit that lack of modesty is one of my failings.

Don't come home a failure.

Failure is a word unknown to me.

Failure is the key to success each mistake teaches us something.

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

Fear of failure must never be a reason not to try something.

He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure.

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

If Liberia has failed, then, it is no evidence of the failure of the Negro in government. It is merely evidence of the failure of slavery.

Students rarely disappoint teachers who assure them in advance that they are doomed to failure.

There's no such thing as failure - just waiting for success.

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.

We may be personally defeated, but our principles never!

All human actions are equivalent... and all are on principle doomed to failure.

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital.

Failure is not our only punishment for laziness there is also the success of others.

I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.

I'd rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.

Man's sin is in his failure to live what he is. Being the master of the earth, man forgets that he is the servant of God.

No man can be a failure if he thinks he's a success If he thinks he is a winner, then he is.

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

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

There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a King.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true Self.

We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.

A real failure does not need an excuse. It is an end in itself.

Failure is impossible.

Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime. Not failure, but low aim is crime.

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

I have probably purchased fifty 'hot tips' in my career, maybe even more. When I put them all together, I know I am a net loser.

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

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

Not failure, but low aim, is crime.

Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.

The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success.

There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

You have to risk failure to succeed. The important thing is not to make one single mistake that will jeopardize the future.

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.

Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory.

If you're 40 years old and you've never had a failure, you've been deprived.

It's how you deal with failure that determines how you achieve success.

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.

Show me a good and gracious loser and I'll show you a failure.

Success and failure are equally disastrous.

The dream is real, my friends. The failure to realize it is the only unreality.

The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.

There is no such thing as darkness only a failure to see.

A life which does not go into action is a failure.

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying.

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

Go on failing. Go on. Only next time, try to fail better.

I will not be discouraged by failure I will not be elated by success.

Indecision and delays are the parents of failure.

The success and the failure are not my concern, but His.

We do not realise that we are children of eternity. If we did, then success would be no success, and failure would be no failure to us.

You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.

A man who has never made a woman angry is a failure in life.

A minute's success pays the failure of years.

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.

Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success.

Failure has gone to his head.

Failure is an enigma. You worry about it, and it teaches you something.

Failure, it is thought, is what sells, and what people want to hear and read about. I am not so sure.

I wasn't afraid to fail. Something good always comes out of failure.

In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure.

It's best to have failure happen early in life. It wakes up the Phoenix bird in you so you rise from the ashes.

Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.

My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.

The man who has done his level best... is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure.

Failure in the theater is more dramatic and uglier than any other form of writing. It costs so much, you feel so guilty.

Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant - the digitalis of failure.

Outward failure may be a manifested variant of inward success.

Success is a public affair. Failure is a private funeral.

The main failure of education is that it has not prepared people to comprehend matters concerning human destiny.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.

It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.

Keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.

Mass transportation is doomed to failure in North America because a person's car is the only place where he can be alone and think.

My reputation grows with every failure.

Never fret for an only son, the idea of failure will never occur to him.

There is no loneliness greater than the loneliness of a failure. The failure is a stranger in his own house.

When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

You gotta lose 'em some of the time. When you do, lose 'em right.

Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures.

Failure is success if we learn from it.

Failure sometimes enlarges the spirit. You have to fall back upon humanity and God.

He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.

Heaven knows that I have done all that a mortal could do, to save the people, and the failure was not my fault, but the fault of others.

It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.

No man is a failure who is enjoying life.

Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.

Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.

Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.

The failure of the Russian Socialist Republic will be the defeat of the proletariat of the whole world.

The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure.

The success or failure of a life, as far as posterity goes, seems to lie in the more or less luck of seizing the right moment of escape.

There is much to be said for failure. It is much more interesting than success.

Crime and bad lives are the measure of a State's failure, all crime in the end is the crime of the community.

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.

Failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done is a great weakness in any man.

The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

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

Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.

Failure too is a form of death.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in failure.

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.

Success is more dangerous than failure, the ripples break over a wider coastline.

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.

The time I had waited probably made the difference between success and failure.

There is not a fiercer hell than the failure in a great object.

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

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

Don't be afraid of failure be afraid of petty success.

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

My life has been nothing but a failure.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Success is 99 percent failure.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Success represents the 1% of your work which results from the 99% that is called failure.

The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

They who have conquered doubt and fear have conquered failure.

To begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.

To begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.

We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes.

When I was about 15... I made my first attempt as a leading lady, and was, of course, a complete failure.