“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

— Johnny Cash

Variant: You build on failure. You use it as a stepping sone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

Last update Feb. 2, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes,…" by Johnny Cash?

Johnny Cash51

American singer-songwriter 1932–2003

Related quotes

“Don't let your failures define you.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

“Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is a a skeleton walking one step in front of you. Maybe you don't wear a watch, but your skeletons do, and they always know what time it is.”

Sherman Alexie book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Source: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

“You are the leader other people experience you to be. If you don't have insight into how other people experience any of your behavioral deficiencies then you are not ready to take that momentous first step of leadership.”

Kent Thiry (1956) Business; CEO of DaVita

University of Colorado Leeds School of Business Commencement Address (2013)

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone.”

Johnny Cash (1932–2003) American singer-songwriter

“If your wife locks you out of the house, you don't have a problem with your door.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“If you don't understand other people in their time and why they did what they did, then you don't understand your own past. And when you lose your past, you lose some potential for your own future.”

C. J. Cherryh (1942) United States science fiction and fantasy author

The Camelot Project interview (1996)
Context: When the legend is retold, it mirrors the reality of the time, and one can learn from studying how various authors have attempted to retell the story. I don't think we have an obligation to change it radically. I think that if we ever move too far from the basic story, we would lose something very precious. I don't, for instance, approve of fantasy that attempts to go back and rewrite the Middle Ages until it conforms to political correctness in the twentieth century. That removes all the benefit from reading the story. If you don't understand other people in their time and why they did what they did, then you don't understand your own past. And when you lose your past, you lose some potential for your own future.

We consider the quote as suspicious, we have no evidence supporting authorship