quotations about failure
Neither failure nor success has the power to change your inner state of Being.
ECKHART TOLLE
The Power of Now
A failure usually establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
High failure is better than low success.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.
HENRY FORD
My Life and Work
Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.
HOMER SIMPSON
The Simpsons
To many men, moderate success is only another aspect of failure.
CHARLES TOMLINSON
Essays Old and New
Failure means that you would not, or could not, pay for success. Success is a matter of sale. It can (most often) be bought by a large outlay--of hard forethought--of pains--of steadiness--of the golden wisdom coined from experience. But the figure is too high for most of us. We are too poor, or too slothful, to bring the price.
CHARLES BUXTON
Notes of Thought
Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one's horse while he is leaping.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
In all pursuits men complain of failure when they have not attained the measure of success they proposed to themselves. A broker who took a picture to a gentleman, and thought he would ask five pounds for it, on seeing what a magnificent house his customer lived in, doubled the price. Being kept waiting, he again doubled the price, and received a cheque for twenty pounds. The broker was greatly put out for the rest of the day. The sense of failure was strong upon him. He felt that he might have got fifty pounds for that picture, so that he was a clear loser of thirty pounds.
CHARLES TOMLINSON
"On Failure", Essays Old and New
They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
"Enamored Architect of Airy Rhyme"
Now it generally happens that men fail from want of capacity, or from an equally disastrous defect, want of training. I put these two together, because a man with considerable mental power may fail for want of that skill which can only be acquired by diligent study or training; while, on the other hand, an industrious man with very limited capacity may, under a proper system of education or training, not only become successful in the practice of his profession, but even carry off some of its honors.
CHARLES TOMLINSON
"On Failure", Essays Old and New
His air of failure had nothing desperate about it; rather, it seemed to stem from an unresented realisation that he was not cut out for success, and his duty was therefore to ensure only that he failed in the correct and acceptable fashion.
JULIAN BARNES
Flaubert's Parrot
You must expect failure after failure after failure before you succeed.
EDWIN H. LAND
attributed, Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land
I'd figured out the gift of failure, which is that it breaks through all that held breath and isometric tension about needing to look good: it's the gift of feeling floppier.
ANNE LAMOTT
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
I don't believe in failure, because simply by saying you've failed, you've admitted you attempted. And anyone who attempts is not a failure. Those who truly fail in my eyes are the ones who never try at all. The ones who sit on the couch and whine and moan and wait for the world to change for them.
SARAH DESSEN
Keeping the Moon
What people call success is only preparation for the next failure.
AUGUST STRINDBERG
A Dream Play
It would be much better for your own mental culture, if instead of contesting the matter and trying to deceive yourself and others, you were to inquire diligently into the causes of your failure, and the sources of consolation still left open to you. These last would be much more accessible if you would only picture to yourself that failure does not necessarily imply disgrace, and that frankly to acknowledge failure is as honourable to you as to your opponent.
CHARLES TOMLINSON
"On Failure", Essays Old and New
Better than succeeding little by little is failing at one go.
JOSÉ BERGAMÍN
attributed, goodreads
The failures of the past prepare the triumphs of the future.
MAX MULLER
Lectures on the Science of Language
There is nothing more depressing than the sense of failure. It puts one's whole being into a state of unstable equilibrium. It disturbs sleep and digestion. It produces a general sensitive uneasiness. It makes a man a coward, for he reads his failure in the look of everyone he meets, and he turns everything that is said into a personal taunt.
CHARLES TOMLINSON
"On Failure", Essays Old and New