Quotes about fail
page 5

“Once you permit yourself to compromise, you fail yourself.”

Dean Karnazes (1962) American distance runner

Run! 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss

“… when everything else fails, we communicate in the language of the stars”

Isabel Allende book Eva Luna

Source: Eva Luna

Star, Communication

“Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgement, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is PRIDE, the never-failing vice of fools.”

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) eighteenth century English poet

Fools

“To simply think about the people, as the dominators do, without any self-giving in that thought, to fail to think with the people, is a sure way to cease being revolutionary leaders.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

People, Way, Thinking

“We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes—one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximum freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way.”

Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist

Way, History, Freedom, Suffering

“A rule of thumb with humor; if you worry that you might be going too far, you have already not gone far enough. If everybody laughs, you have failed.”

Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian

Source: Letters to a Young Contrarian

“I think the main reason my marriages failed is that I always loved too well but never wisely.”

Ava Gardner (1922–1990) American actress

Love, Marriage, Thinking

“I've always thought tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986), Chapter 15 (p. 235)
Source: Shards of Honour

“I failed to communicate, that's why I chose to leave”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Communication

“Change almost never fails because it's too early. It almost always fails because it's too late.”

Seth Godin (1960) American entrepreneur, author and public speaker

Change

“Act as if it were impossible to fail.”

Dorothea Brande (1893–1948) American writer and editor

Courageous, Graduation

“In his wolf-skin he was as strong as any of them, but he was a gentle person in many ways. He'd feel so bad about failing he'd probably step aside for someone else without a fight.”

Annette Curtis Klause Blood and Chocolate

Source: Blood and Chocolate

Way, Feeling, Strong, Wolf

“Look, you didn't fail me. Because you can't fail at the impossible."

-Zsadist to Phury”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Enshrined

“Anyhow, the older I get, the less impressed I become with originality. These days, I’m far more moved by authenticity. Attempts at originality can often feel forced and precious, but authenticity has quiet resonance that never fails to stir me.”

Elizabeth Gilbert Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Feeling

“In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.”

Robert E. Lee (1807–1870) Confederate general in the Civil War

Light

“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 (1897–1962) American writer

On himself and his contemporaries.
Paris Review interview (1958)

Dreams, Failure, Perfection

“To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern: our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views are listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to. And under such care, we flourish.”

Alain de Botton book Status Anxiety

Source: Status Anxiety

Love, Feeling

“Simple, genuine goodness is the best capital to found the business of this life upon. It lasts when fame and money fail, and is the only riches we can take out of this world with us.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Men

Source: Little Men

Life, Money, World, Business

“So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Books, Nature

“Design cannot rescue failed content.”

Edward R. Tufte (1942) American statistician (b.1942) noted for his writings on information design

“If you haven't failed, you're not trying hard enough.”

Jennifer Crusie (1949) American writer

Source: Trust Me on This

“That is ridiculous," she said.
The king agreed. "Like falling in love with a landslide. Only you could fail to notice.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Love

“She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Understanding

“In the long run men only hit what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Men

“Good writing does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head.”

Malcolm Gladwell (1963) journalist and science writer

Source: What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures

Thinking

“It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out
of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a
short cut that way, but it has been known to fail.”

Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd

Source: Far from the Madding Crowd

Love, Marriage, People, Way

“Giving up is the only sure way to fail.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

For Team, Way

“It's as if every conversation with a woman was a test, and men always failed it, because they always lacked the key to the code and so they never quite understood what the conversation was really about.”

Orson Scott Card Enchantment

Source: Enchantment

Men

“You cannot fail, you can only produce results.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

“At the end of a miserable day, instead of grieving my virtual nothing, I can always look at my loaded wastepaper basket and tell myself that if I failed, at least I took a few trees down with me.”

David Sedaris book Me Talk Pretty One Day

Source: Me Talk Pretty One Day

Tree

“I was created to fulfill a function and I failed in it. I negated my own existence.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“If all else fails, we will simply have to drug our attendants, overpower the guards, raise the oppressed peasants to arms, and take over the government.”

Elizabeth Peters The Last Camel Died at Noon

Source: The Last Camel Died at Noon

“If only you could really use a fail-proof system to know who was worth keeping and who needed to be thrown away. It would make it so much easier to move through the world, picking and choosing what connections to make, or whether to make any at all.”

Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye

Source: What Happened to Goodbye

World

“I failed to make the chess team because of my height.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

“One cannot expect positive results from an educational or political action program which fails to respect the particular view of the world held by the people. Such a program constitutes cultural invasion, good intentions notwithstanding.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

People, World, Education

“His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Variant: He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.
Source: The Great Gatsby

Dreams

“Even when you self-destruct, you want to fail more, lose more, die more than others, stink more than others.”

Don DeLillo book Cosmopolis

Source: Cosmopolis

“A man who lifts his chin in pride will fail to see the chasm at his feet.”

Alison Goodman (1966) Australian science-fiction writer

Source: Eona: The Last Dragoneye

“Most people fail to realize that in life, it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Money, People, Life

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

D. H. Lawrence : An Unprofessional Study (1932); also quoted in The Mirror and the Garden : Realism and Reality in the Writings of Anais Nin (1971) by Evelyn J. Hinz, p. 40

Life, Death, People

“it istrue that good can follow only from good and evil only from evil, but that often the opposite is true. Anyone who fails to see this is, indeed, a political infant.”

Max Weber (1864–1920) German sociologist, philosopher, and political economist

Source: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology
Source: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (1946), p. 124; Essay "Politics as a vocation"
Context: The problem — the experience of the irrationality of the world — has been the driving force of all religious evolution. The Indian doctrine of karma, Persian dualism, the doctrine of original sin, predestination and the deus absconditus, all these have grown out of this experience. Also the early Christians knew full well the world is governed by demons and that he who lets himself in for politics, that is, for power and force as means, contracts with diabolical powers and for his action it is not true that good can follow only from good and evil only from evil, but that often the opposite is true. Anyone who fails to see this is, indeed, a political infant.

Evil

“I failed eating, failed drinking, failed not cutting myself into shreds. Failed friendship. Failed sisterhood and daughterhood. Failed mirrors and scales and phone calls. Good thing I'm stable.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

Friendship, Drink

“I could never kill myself. What if it doesn't work. Then I'll have failed at the only thing that could save me from my failures. Where do you go from there?”

Tucker Max book Assholes Finish First

Source: Assholes Finish First

Failure

“The only way you would have failed," she said, "is if you had.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Way

“Never question the truth of what you fail to understand, for the world is filled with wonders.”

L. Frank Baum book Rinkitink in Oz

Source: Rinkitink in Oz

Truth, World, Understanding, Question

“We are not of what we feel or believe to do, we are of what we do or fail to do.”

Judith McNaught (1944) American writer

Feeling

“I was never a man of great ambition
I cried too easily
I didn't have a head for science
Words often failed me
While others prayed I only moved my lips”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Science

“My books are friends that never fail me."

(; 17 March 1817)”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Books

“Working inspires inspiration. Keep working. If you succeed, keep working. If you fail, keep working. If you are interested, keep working. If you are bored, keep working.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. The Talmud tells us that by saving a single human being, man can save the world.”

Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)

World, Time

“If all else fails immortality can always be assured by adequate error.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

Source: Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went (1975), Chapter XIII, The Self Inflicted Wounds, p. 176

Error

“Remember that the best and greatest among mankind are those who do themselves no worldly good. Every successful man is more or less a selfish man. The devoted fail…”

Thomas Hardy book Jude the Obscure

Source: Jude the Obscure

Success, Selfishness

“Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”

Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017) American actress, television producer

Courageous, Pain, Courage, Chance

“It's probably not going to lead to anything. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. If everyone who thought they might fail didn't even try, where would we be today?”

Nicholas Sparks book Message in a Bottle

Source: Message in a Bottle

“It is when those who are not strong enough have made some moderate amount of progress that they fail and give up…”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Source: The Wisdom Of Confucius

Strong

“Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
Context: The second danger is that of expediency: of those who say that hopes and beliefs must bend before immediate necessities. Of course, if we must act effectively we must deal with the world as it is. We must get things done. But if there was one thing that President Kennedy stood for that touched the most profound feeling of young people around the world, it was the belief that idealism, high aspirations, and deep convictions are not incompatible with the most practical and efficient of programs — that there is no basic inconsistency between ideals and realistic possibilities, no separation between the deepest desires of heart and of mind and the rational application of human effort to human problems. It is not realistic or hardheaded to solve problems and take action unguided by ultimate moral aims and values, although we all know some who claim that it is so. In my judgment, it is thoughtless folly. For it ignores the realities of human faith and of passion and of belief — forces ultimately more powerful than all of the calculations of our economists or of our generals. Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.

Confidence, Courage, Self-confidence

“If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

p. 219 http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2162/2162-h/2162-h.htm#emancipation <br class="br">The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation (1906)

Love

“Here was a boy who liked flaws, who saw them not as failings but as strengths. Who knew such a person could exist, or what would have happened if we'd found each other under different circumstances? Maybe in a perfect world. But not in this one.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

World, Boy, Personality, Perfection

“In time we often become one with those we once failed to understand.”

Patti Smith M Train

Source: M Train

Understanding, Time

“I have failed at many things, but I have never been afraid.”

Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South african Nobel-winning writer

“The bondage of the Negro brought captive from Africa is one of the greatest dramas in history, and the writer who merely sees in that ordeal something to approve or condemn fails to understand the evolution of the human race.”

Carter G. Woodson book The Mis-Education of the Negro

Source: The Mis-Education of the Negro

History, Understanding

“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 (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding

Powerful, Graduation, Learning, Time

“There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail”

Henry Ford book My Life and Work

Source: My Life and Work (1922), pp. 19–20. Quoted in Samuel Crowther, "Henry Ford's Problem," The Magazine of Business, vol. 52 (1927), p. 182
Source: My Life And Work
Context: Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail.

Fear, Failure

“If you try to be anyone but yourself, you will fail; if you are not true to your own heart, you will fail. Then again, there's no success like failure”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Failure, Success, Heart

“People who fail focus on what they will have to go through; people who succeed focus on what it will feel like at the end.”

Anthony Robbins (1960) Author, actor, professional speaker

People, Feeling

“For one moment we are not failed tests and broken condoms and cheating on essays; we are crayons and lunch boxes and swinging so high our sneakers punch holes in the clouds.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

Cheating, Box

“When we fail we are merely joining the great parade of humanity that has walked ahead of us and will follow after us.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Source: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

“A hermit is simply a person to whom civilization has failed to adjust itself.”

Will Cuppy (1884–1949) American writer

Personality

“So now what? What happens when words fail us?”

Nick Hornby book How to Be Good

Source: How to Be Good

“If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”

Harvey Mackay (1932) American businessman and journalist

“Bad people succeed and good people fail, but that's not the end of the story. Miracles happen that nobody sees, and among us walk heroes who are never recognized, and people live in loneliness because they cannot believe they are loved.”

Dean Koontz book The Darkest Evening of the Year

Source: The Darkest Evening of the Year

Love, People, Loneliness

“Failing to fetch me at first, keep encouraged. Missing me one place, search another. I stop somewhere waiting for you.”

Walt Whitman Song of Myself

Source: Song of Myself

Search, Waiting

“it's good to have things done with
when they don't work
it's also good not to hate
or even forget
the person you've failed with.”

Charles Bukowski book Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit

Source: Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the Fingers Begin to Bleed a Bit

Hate, Personality, Forgetting

“What is the soul? What color is it? I suspected my soul, being mischievous, might slip away while I was dreaming and fail to return. I did my best not to fall asleep, to keep it inside of me where it belonged.”

Patti Smith Just Kids

Source: Just Kids

Dreams, Color, Soul

“The romantics were prompted to seek exotic subjects and to travel to far off places. They failed to realize that, though the transcendental must involve the strange and unfamiliar, not everything strange or unfamiliar is transcendental. The unfriendliness of society to his activity is difficult for the artists to accept. Yet this very hostility can act as a lever for true liberation... Both the sense of community and of security depend on the familiar. Free of them, transcendental experiences become possible.”

Mark Rothko (1903–1970) American painter

Source: after 1970, posthumous, Abstract Expressionism, Creators and Critics', 1990, p. 167

Hostility, Travel, Communication, Sense

“The only reason people do not know much is because they do not care to know. They are incurious. Incuriousity is the oddest and most foolish failing there is.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

Source: The Fry Chronicles

People

“Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn't work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.”

Roger von Oech (1948) Creativity theorist and inventor

Failure, Learning

“I’m not going to die because I failed as someone else. I’m going to succeed as myself.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

And I'm gonna stay here and rock the mike until the next Korean-American, fag hag, shit starter, girl comic, trash talker comes up and takes my place!
From Her Tours and CDs, I'm The One That I Want Tour

“Failed relationships can be described as so much wasted make-up.”

Marian Keyes (1963) Irish writer

Source: Watermelon

“Using a fetching face to make men do as you wish is no different from a man using muscle to force a woman to his will. Both are base, and both will fail a person as they age.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Men, Age, Personality

“Hey, you’re lucky. My cabin is closest to the stables. I can hear her yelling all night: FIRST PLACE OR DEATH! AN A MINUS IS A FAILING GRADE! Leo really needs to design a gag that’s better than my old sock.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Death, Night

“When we fail to set boundaries and hold people accountable, we feel used and mistreated. This is why we sometimes attack who they are, which is far more hurtful than addressing a behavior or a choice.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

People, Behavior, Feeling, Hurt

“I’ve learned to value failed conversations, missed connections, confusions. What remains is what’s unsaid, what’s underneath. Understanding on another level of being.”

Anna Kamieńska (1920–1986) Poet, writer and translator

Understanding, Learning

“A vocation is not something you slap on, like a coat of paint, and change whenever you want. A vocation is built into you. You have no choice. If you try to do something else, you fail.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Demon King

Change, Painting

“We are so busy constantly checking our own temperatures, we fail to notice the burning fevers of others.”

Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) Mormon leader

Business

“War is what happens when language fails.”

Margaret Atwood book The Robber Bride

The Robber Bride (1993), Ch. 6

War

“Remind yourself that you cannot fail at being yourself.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

“We all fail to appreciate each day just how much we already possess. Light, air, freedom, the companionship of friends.”

Sophie Kinsella book The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic

Source: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Freedom, Light

“I'm done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Moving On, People

“The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions. The door that slams shut, the plan that got sidetracked, the marriage that failed. Or that lovely poem that didn't get written because someone knocked on the door.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Love, Life, Marriage, Problem

“If it rusts, it can never be trusted
If its owner fails to control it, it will cut him
Yes, pride is like a blade”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 08

“Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.”

James Baldwin book The Fire Next Time

Source: The Fire Next Time

Hate, Law

“Nearly every night before I go to bed I ask myself, "Have I vibrated in tune with the Infinite today, or have I failed?”

Don Marquis (1878–1937) American writer

Source: Hermione and Her Little Group of Serious Thinkers

Night

“These lights, this brightness, these clusters of human hope, of wild desire—I shall take these lights in my fingers. I shall make them bright, and whether they shine or not, it is in these fingers that they shall succeed or fail.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Love of the Last Tycoon

Source: The Love of the Last Tycoon

Hope, Light

“For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him.”

Emma Donoghue (1969) Irish novelist, playwright, short-story writer and historian

Source: Slammerkin

People, Books, Reading

“I enjoy the fun of failure. It's fun to fail, I kept repeating. It's part of being ambitious; it's part of being creative. If something is worth doing, it's worth doing badly”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Failure, Parting