By Maxime Lagacé
Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page.
Here are 150 of the best failure quotes I could find. The goal? To give you the inspiration you need to be more daring today. You’ll discover quotes by Buddha, Thoreau, Einstein, and more. Enjoy!
Try again. Fail again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett
Success isn’t permanent and failure isn’t fatal. Mike Ditka
All my successes have been built on my failures. Benjamin Disraeli
Anyone who attempts is not a failure. Sarah Dessen
No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within. Eleanor Roosevelt
If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. Henry David Thoreau
I don’t believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process. Oprah Winfrey
A minute’s success pays the failure of years. Robert Browning
Make new mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Neil Gaiman
Mistakes are the portals of discovery. James Joyce
Failure is an attitude, not an outcome. Harvey MacKay
Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. Henry Ford
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. Robert F. Kennedy
There’s meaning in every failure. Find it. Maxime Lagacé
Related
- 100 Mistakes Quotes That Will Comfort (And Inspire You)
- 79 Suffering Quotes To Bring Some Relief In Your Life
- 100 Loneliness Quotes To Comfort And Inspire You
The Best Failure Quotes
Failure is success in progress. Albert Einstein
Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed. Robert T. Kiyosaki
There is no failure. Only feedback. Robert Allen
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. Theodore Roosevelt
We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies. Voltaire
Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try. Jack Canfield
First principle: never to let one’s self be beaten down by persons or by events. Marie Curie
In any case, you must not confuse a single failure with a final defeat. F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life. J.K. Rowling
You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you. Barack Obama
The only failures are those who fail to try. Lester B. Pearson (Nobel Peace Prize 1957)
Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure. Confucius
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying. Michael Jordan
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Ralph Ellison
There is no such thing as failure, only results. Tony Robbins
Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success. Robert Orben
Sport and life is about losing. It’s about understanding how to lose. Lynn Davies
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself. Charlie Chaplin
Part 2. Failure Quotes That Are…
The Most Famous Failure Quotes
Searching for a famous failure quote or famous author? Check out those sayings by Edison, Jordan, Einstein, Buddha, etc.
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Thomas A. Edison
Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. Winston Churchill
Success is usually the culmination of controlling failure. Sylvester Stallone
Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. Steve Jobs
When it’s tough, will you give up or will you be relentless? Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. Bill Gates
Failure is an important part of your growth. Don’t be afraid to fail. Michelle Obama
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. Michael Jordan
You have to be able to accept failure to get better. LeBron James
Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. Barack Obama
In a world that’s changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is to not taking risks. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success. James Cameron (Terminator, Avatar, Titanic)
If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. Steven Wright
I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. Benjamin Franklin
Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others. Amelia Earhart (First female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean)
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows. Buddha
You learn nothing from success. Nothing. You learn everything from the failures. Ed Sheeran (Source)
Victory has a hundred fathers, but failure is an orphan. John F. Kennedy
When you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail. John Wooden (More on that quote here)
Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. Oliver Goldsmith
Short Failure Quotes
One-liners, short failure quotes, thoughts, and captions for your bio, social status, self-talk, motto, mantra, signs, posters, wallpapers, and backgrounds.
Failure is success if we learn from it. Malcolm Forbes
The best way out is always through. Robert Frost
Without failure there is no achievement. John C. Maxwell
The cost of failure is…learning. Neil Strauss
You always pass failure on the way to success. Mickey Rooney
Apprentice yourself in failure. Robert Greene
Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success. Arianna Huffington
It’s not failure, it’s unfinished success. Unknown
Key to failure: Trying to please everyone. Unknown
The bigger the failure, the greater the lesson. Unknown
No man is a failure who is enjoying life. William Feather
My reputation grows with every failure. George Bernard Shaw
The phoenix must burn to emerge. Janet Finch
Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street. Zig Ziglar
Inspirational Failure Sayings
If you aren’t making mistakes, you aren’t taking enough risks. Debbie Millman
Failure either ruins you or turns you into the man you can become. Tucker Max
It doesn’t matter how many times you have failed, you only have to be right once. Mark Cuban
Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. Oprah Winfrey
It’s only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you’re not expressing the utmost of your human experience. Lupita Nyong’o
We need big failures in order to move the needle. If we don’t, we’re not swinging enough. You really should be swinging hard, and you will fail, but that’s okay. Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise. Kobe Bryant
If you fell down yesterday, stand up today. H. G. Wells
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. Thomas A. Edison
You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. Maya Angelou
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. Beverly Sills
Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each, is to succeed. Corita Kent
Not failure, but low aim, is a crime. James Russell Lowell
A hundred failures would not matter, when one single success could change the destiny of the world. Arthur C. Clarke
Failure doesn’t kill you… it increases your desire to make something happen. Kevin Costner
There is no failure unless one stops. Not to work is to cease, tighten up, become nervous and therefore destructive of the creative process. Ray Bradbury
Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed on an equal or greater benefit. Napoleon Hill
The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere. Barack Obama
No matter what one does, regardless of failure or success, the experience is a form of success in itself. Jack Ma (alibaba.com)
Embrace failure. Never never quit. Get very comfortable with that uneasy feeling of going against the grain and trying something new. Terry Crews
I think you have to try and fail, because failure gets you closer to what you’re good at. Louis C.K.
Your dream doesn’t have an expiration date. Take a deep breath and try again. Unknown
Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable. Coco Chanel
It is very important to embrace failure and to do a lot of stuff — as much stuff as possible — with as little fear as possible. Stefan Sagmeister
It’s much, much better to wind up with a lot of crap having tried it than to overthink in the beginning and not do it. Stefan Sagmeister
Failure changes for the better, success for the worse. Seneca
Deep Failure Sayings
Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. John Wooden
We are all failures – at least the best of us are. J.M. Barrie
Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. Jim Rohn
I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion. Yohji Yamamoto
Life is a Tetris. Do something good, it disappears immediately. But mistakes, they accumulate themselves. In the end everyone loses. Alexandra Melo (More on that quote here)
Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember. Anne Sullivan
Success or failure is caused more by mental attitude than by mental capacity. Walter Scott
What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do. Tim Ferriss
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
There are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. Laurence J. Peter
When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important. Ellen DeGeneres
Such a simple concept, yet so true: that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves. Garth Stein
Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle. James Russell Lowell
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default. J.K. Rowling
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure. But the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. J.K. Rowling
It’s not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention. Conan O’Brien
When failure is reversible, act quickly. When failure is irreversible, think carefully. James Clear (Source)
We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us. Rabindranath Tagore
Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. George Washington Carver
It is your own bad strategies, not the unfair opponent, that are to blame for your failures. You are responsible for the good and bad in your life. Robert Greene (The 33 Strategies of War)
You’re not afraid of failure. You’re afraid of other people thinking you’re a failure. Joey Justice (Source)
Keep your head up in failure, and your head down in success. Jerry Seinfeld
An action committed in anger, is an action doomed to failure. Genghis Khan
Related: 10 Lessons Learned From Failing (huffingtonpost.com)
Wise Failure Sayings
If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost. Zig Ziglar
Failures are amplified by denying that they are failures. Mark Manson
It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final. Roger Babson
If you experiment a lot you will fail often but at the same time your odds of success will also increase. Success and failure go hand in hand; they are not mutually exclusive. Learn to look at success and failure as gradations on a continuum, not as binary opposites. The Ancient Sage
People who have the ability to fail in public under their own names actually gain a lot of power. Naval Ravikant
Just because you failed doesn’t mean you can’t succeed. We all fail. Mentally resilient people realize that its not failure that defines your identity but how you respond. Shane Parrish
Blame is not for failure. It is for failing to help or ask for help. Jorgen Vig Knudstorp (Lego)
Failure is nothing more than learning how to win. Robin Sharma
I’ve come to realize that all my past failures and frustrations were actually laying the foundation for the understanding that have created the new level of living I now enjoy. Tony Robbins
You’ve got to experience failure to understand that you can survive it. Tina Fey
Always remember that failure is an event, not a person. Zig Ziglar
Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss. Ralph Waldo Emerson
With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die. Criss Jami
The trick is to take advantage of the particular details of the mess you’ve made, so that your next attempt will be informed by it and not just another blind stab in the dark. Daniel Dennett
Part 1. Happiness needs sadness. Success needs failure. Benevolence needs evil. Love needs hatred. Victory needs defeat. Pleasure needs pain. Philippos
Part 2. You must experience and accept the extremes because if the contrast is lost, you lose appreciation; and when you lose appreciation you lose the value of everything. Philippos
There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail. What is past is useful only as it suggests ways and means for progress. Henry Ford (More on this quote here)
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it. W. C. Fields
Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new (and, as such, should be seen as valuable; without them, we’d have no originality). Ed Catmull (Co-founder of Pixar and president of Walt Disney Animation Studios)
The attempt to avoid failure makes failure more likely. Ed Catmull
If you aren’t experiencing failure, it means you are failing. Lance Allred
Conclusion
Initially, the films we put together, they’re a mess. It’s like everything else in life — the first time you do it, it’s a mess. Sometimes it’s labeled “a failure” but that’s not even the right word to use. It’s just like, you get the first one out, you learn from it, and the only failure is if you don’t learn from it, if you don’t progress. Ed Catmull (Co-founder of Pixar and president of Walt Disney Animation Studios)
Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure. Napoleon Hill
Further Readings
- Topic: Sadness
- 73 Sad Quotes To Bring Relief
- 115 Regret Quotes To Help You Forget (And Move Forward)
- 79 Unhappy Quotes To Help You Stop Feeling Miserable
- 4 Steps To Overcoming Failure And Using It To Your Advantage (fastcompany.com)
- 90 Hope Quotes That Will Nourish Your Soul
- 79 Positive Quotes To Uplift Yourself
Hope you enjoyed these failure quotes. If you did, please share them with a friend today!
Do you fail often? What’s your favorite failure quote? And remember: words can transform your life, if you find the right ones.
Table Of Contents
Part 1
Top 14 Images
Best Quotes
Part 2
Failure Quotes That ARE
Famous
Short
Inspirational
Deep
Wise
Part 3
Conclusion
