best quotations about
Success & Failure |
| 127 quotes | Visits: 6,177 |
Quotations
 | Greatly he failed, but he had greatly dared. — Ovid, 43 BC-17 AD, Roman poet 17 likes |
 | If A is success in life, then A = x + y + z. Work is x, play is y and z is keeping your mouth shut. — Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German-Jewish physicist 16 likes |
 | The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 13 likes |
 | Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time. — George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish writer, Nobel 1925 11 likes |
 | It's better to have tried and failed than to live life wondering what would've happened if I had tried. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet 11 likes |
 | Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get. — H. Jackson Brown, Jr., 1940-2021, American self-help writer 10 likes |
 | 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 self-help speker 10 likes |
 | I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise. — Montesquieu, 1689-1755, French thinker 10 likes |
 | Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Nobel 1953 10 likes |
 | To be normal is the ultimate aim of the unsuccessful. — Karl Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss psychiatrist 9 likes |
 | Nothing succeeds so well as success. — Talleyrand, 1754-1838, French statesman & diplomat 8 likes |
| Judge your success by the degree that you're enjoying peace, health, and love. — H. Jackson Brown, Jr., 1940-2021, American self-help writer 8 likes |
 | Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book. — Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004, American President [1981-1989] 8 likes |
 | Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly. — John Kennedy, 1917-1963, American President [1961-1963] 8 likes |
 | To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well. — Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992, American Sci-Fi writer 7 likes |
 | The advice I would give the younger me—or any young person—would be “Keep your head up in failure and your head down in success.” — Jerry Seinfeld, 1954-, American comedian 7 likes |
 | The best revenge is massive success. — Frank Sinatra, 1915-1998, American singer 7 likes |
 | Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. — Henry Ford, 1863-1947, American industrialist, founder of FORD 6 likes |
| Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts. — Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister, Nobel 1953 6 likes |
 | Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. — Samuel Beckett, 1906-1989, Irish writer, Nobel 1969 6 likes |
 | Nothing succeeds like success. — Alexandre Dumas, 1802-1870, French writer 6 likes |
 | Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. — Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955, American self-help writer 6 likes |
| If I had succeeded, I would have been the greatest man known to history. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 6 likes |
 | Failure is not the only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others. — Jules Renard, 1864-1910, French writer 5 likes |
 | There is no failure except in no longer trying. — Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American writer 5 likes |
 | Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. — John Wooden, 1910-2010, American basketball coach 5 likes |
 | Never was anything great achieved without danger. — Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469-1527, Italian political philosopher 5 likes |
 | That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much. — Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894, Scottish writer 5 likes |
| Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits. — Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894, Scottish writer 5 likes |
 | Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose. — Bill Gates, 1955-, American businessman 5 likes |
 | Failure is the foundation of success, and the means by which it is achieved. Success is the lurking-place of failure; but who can tell when the turning-point will come? — Lao-Tzu, 6th cent. BC, Chinese philosopher 4 likes |
 | I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. — Bill Cosby, 1937-, American comedian 4 likes |
 | In all things success depends on previous preparation, and without such previous preparation there is sure to be failure. — Confucius, 551-479 BC, Chinese teacher & philosopher 4 likes |
 | The ladder of success doesn't care who climbs it. — Frank Tyger, 1929-2011, American cartoonist 4 likes |
 | It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. — Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919, American President [1901-1909] 4 likes |
 | Success has killed more men than bullets. — Texas Guinan, 1884-1933, American actress 4 likes |
| To do more for the world than the world does for you – that is success. — Henry Ford, 1863-1947, American industrialist, founder of FORD 4 likes |
 | It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail. — Gore Vidal, 1925-2012, American writer 3 likes |
 | I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. — Thomas Edison, 1847-1934, American inventor 3 likes |
 | It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts. — Oscar Levant, 1906-1972, American pianist 3 likes |
| In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. — Bill Cosby, 1937-, American comedian 3 likes |
 | The gent who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn't been asleep. — Wilson Mizner, 1876-1913, American playwright 3 likes |
 | 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 Prime Minister 3 likes |
 | To be successful you have to act big, think big, and talk big. — Aristotle Onassis, 1900-1975, Greek tycoon 3 likes |
 | Failure is in a sense the highway to success, as each discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true. — John Keats, 1795-1821, English poet 3 likes |
| I owe my success to the fact that I never had a clock in my workroom. Seventy-five of us worked twenty hours every day and slept only four hours — and thrived on it. — Thomas Edison, 1847-1934, American inventor 3 likes |
| As you climb the ladder of success, be sure it's leaning against the right building. — H. Jackson Brown, Jr., 1940-2021, American self-help writer 3 likes |
| Success won't just come to you. It has to be met at least half way. — Frank Tyger, 1929-2011, American cartoonist 3 likes |
 | I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate. — George Burns, 1896-1996, American comedian 3 likes |
 | Most people only do what they are asked to do; success comes to those who do a little more. — Karl Kraus, 1874-1936, Austrian writer 3 likes |
 | A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do. — Bob Dylan, 1941-, American singer [Nobel 2016] 3 likes |
 | To achieve success, whatever the job we have, we must pay a price. — Vince Lombardi, 1913-1970, American football coach 3 likes |
| Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts. — John Wooden, 1910-2010, American basketball coach 3 likes |
 | In failure, all men end up being alike. Success is the revealer of natures, and what it reveals is not always nice. — Maurice Chapelan, 1906-1992, French author of maxims & journalist 3 likes |
 | To succeed in life, succeed at being yourself. — Napoleon Hill, 1883-1970, American self-help writer 3 likes |
 | Power, praise, fame, success are things that make good people better and bad people worse. — Manolis Doukides, Greek writer 3 likes |
| When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work. — George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish writer, Nobel 1925 3 likes |
 | Failure doesn't mean you are a failure... it just means you haven't succeeded yet. Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street. — Zig Ziglar, 1926-2012, American self-help writer 3 likes |
| Failure is often the line of least persistence. — Zig Ziglar, 1926-2012, American self-help writer 2 likes |
 | Success comprises in itself the seeds of its own decline and sport is not spared by this law. — Pierre de Coubertin, 1863-1937, French, father of the Olympic Games 2 likes |
 | Physicians have this advantage: the sun lights their success and the earth covers their failures. — Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592, French thinker 2 likes |
 | It is a very rare thing for a man of talent to succeed by his talent. — Joseph Roux, 1834-1905, French clergyman & poet 2 likes |
| Success is the most convincing talker in the world. — Napoleon, 1769-1821, French Emperor 2 likes |
 | Success, n. The one unpardonable sin against one's fellows. — Ambrose Bierce, 1842–1914, American writer 2 likes |
| To the eye of failure success is an accident. — Ambrose Bierce, 1842–1914, American writer 2 likes |
| Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. — Thomas Edison, 1847-1934, American inventor 2 likes |
| To be successful, you've got to be willing to fail. — Frank Tyger, 1929-2011, American cartoonist 2 likes |
| Success is often just an idea away. — Frank Tyger, 1929-2011, American cartoonist 2 likes |
 | Success always obsoletes the very behavior that achieved it. — Peter Drucker, 1909–2005, Austrian management guru 2 likes |
| A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. — Elbert Hubbard, 1856-1915, American writer 2 likes |
| There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs. — Zig Ziglar, 1926-2012, American self-help writer 2 likes |
| Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker. — Zig Ziglar, 1926-2012, American self-help writer 2 likes |
| Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price. — Vince Lombardi, 1913-1970, American football coach 2 likes |
 | Success is not in what you have, but who you are. — Bo Bennett, 1972-, American self-help guru 2 likes |
 | The secret of my success is that I always managed to live to fly another day. — Chuck Yeager, 1923-2020, American pioneer pilot 2 likes |
 | Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches. — Italo Calvino, 1923-1985, Italian writer 2 likes |
 | The test of success is not what you do when you are on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom. — George S. Patton, 1885-1945, American general 2 likes |
 | Film-making is like spermatozoa: only one in a million makes it. — Claude Lelouch, 1937-, French film director 1 likes |
 | Men judge us by the success of our efforts. God looks at the efforts themselves. — Charlotte Brontë, 1816-1855, English novelist & poet 1 likes |
 | Success didn't spoil me, I've always been insufferable. |
 | He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. |
| It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. |
 | Success is a ladder that cannot be climbed with your hands in your pocket. |
 | Success is to be measured not by wealth, power, or fame, but by the ratio between what a man is and what he might be. |
 | There’s nothing in the world that breeds success like success. |
 | If someone aims too high, most people will not understand when he succeeds. |
 | There's no secret about success. Did you ever know a successful man who didn't tell you about it? |
 | Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in. |
 | Why be a man when you can be a success? |
 | We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. |
 | Success is more dangerous than failure, the ripples break over a wider coastline. |
 | Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable. |
 | I always turn to the sports section first. The sports section records people's accomplishments; the front page nothing but man's failures. |
 | Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk –and to act. |
 | It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done. |
 | The secret to success is only known to those who have not succeeded. |
 | Care not for time and success. Act out thy part, whether it be to fail or to prosper. — Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher |
 | A great career today is measured by the number of failures. |
 | Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem. |
 | The jealousy of other painters has always been the thermometer of my success. |
 | We are all failures- at least the best of us are. |
| Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure. |
| It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed. |
 | An energetic man will succeed where an indolent one would vegetate and inevitably perish. |
| You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing. |
| Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. |
 | It is better to try something and fail than to try nothing and succeed. The result may be the same, but you won't be. We always grow more through defeats than victories. |
 | Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off. |
 | The first rule of survival is clear: Nothing is more dangerous than yesterday’s success. |
 | Failure is part of the natural cycle of business. Companies are born, companies die, capitalism moves forward. |
 | I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me. |
Personal Stories
| I failed my way to success. — Thomas Edison, 1847-1934, American inventor 2 likes |
Funny Quotes
 | If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. — Anonymous 5 likes |
| If at first you don't succeed then skydiving definitely isn't for you. — Anonymous 5 likes |
| If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success? — Jerry Seinfeld, 1954-, American comedian 3 likes |
 | Eighty percent of success is showing up. — Woody Allen, 1935-, American actor & film director 2 likes |
 | I've learned so much from my failures that I'm thinking of having some more. — Ashleigh Brilliant, 1933-, British cartoonist & epigrammatist |
Stupid Quotes
 | If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure. — George W. Bush, 1946-, American President 3 likes |
Ancient Greek
 | Even a good captain could be shipwrecked. And a great man can fail. Και κυβερνήτης αγαθός ενίοτε ναυαγεί· και ανήρ σπουδαίος ατυχεί. — Plutarch, 47-120 AD, Ancient Greek historian 4 likes |
 | Those who succeed don’t know how to behave correctly. Ευτυχούντες ουκ επίστανται φέρειν. — Euripides, 480-406 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ The Suppliants 4 likes |
 | You will not be tolerated if you are successful. Ουκ αν φορητός είης, ει πράσσοις καλώς. — Aeschylus, 525-456 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Prometheus Bound 3 likes |
 | What is the most pleasant thing? To succeed. Τι ήδιστον; το επιτυγχάνειν. — Thales of Miletus, 643-548 BC, Ancient Greek philosopher 3 likes |
 | It is acceptable to fail, it is not acceptable to be negligent. Ατυχείν έξεστιν, αμελείν ουκ έξεστιν. 3 likes |
| The credit we get for wisdom is measured by our success. Προς τας τύχας γαρ τας φρένας κεκτήμεθα. — Euripides, 480-406 BC, Ancient Greek tragedian ‐ Hippolytus 2 likes |
Proverbs
 | Failure is the mother of success. 3 likes |
Movie Quotes
 | Failure is not an option. — from the film Apollo 13 (1995) 3 likes |
