Quotes about Failure

Here's the next section of quotes from my book 1000 Great Quotations for Business, Management & Training

If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.

Woody Allen, US film actor, director (b. 1935)



A man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone he can blame it on.



 



The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by my failures.

Humphry Davy, British chemist (1778-1829)

Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success.

John Keats, British poet (1795-1821)

All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.

William Faulkner, US author (1897-1962)

There could be no honour in sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.

T E Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, British soldier, author (1888-1935)

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.

Confucius, Chinese philosopher, teacher (551-479 BC)

Failures are like skinned knees – painful, but superficial.

Henry Ross Perot, US executive, Presidential candidate (b. 1930)

If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.

Mary Pickford, US actress (1893-1979)

There’s only one way you can fail, and that’s to quit.

Bertie Charles Forbes, British journalist, founder of Forbes Magazine (1880-1954)

If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.

Thomas John Watson, US businessman, founder of IBM (1874-1956)

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

Herman Hesse, German author, poet (1877-1962)

Failing is good, as long as it doesn’t become a habit.

Michael Eisner, US executive, Walt Disney Corporation (b. 1942)

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

Henry Ford, US automobile manufacturer, engineer (1863-1947)

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little coarse, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist, poet (1801-1882)

An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.

Charles F Kettering, US engineer, inventor (1876-1958)

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with some rain.

Dolly Parton, US singer, actress (b. 1946)

To err is human; to blame it on the other guy is even more human.

Bob Goddard, US physicist, rocketry pioneer (1882-1945)

Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, ‘I have failed three times,’ and what happens when he says, ‘I am a failure.’

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, Canadian-Japanese scholar, senator (1906-1992)

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

Quentin Crisp, British author (1908-1999)

Half the failures in life arise from pulling in one’s horse as it is leaping.

Julius Hare, British author (1795-1855)

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

George S Patton, US general (1885-1945)