Return
Home
The
Credits
The
Cast
Act
1
Act
2
Act
3
The
End
The
Reviews
Photos
     
 
FAILURE

.
.
.

[QUOTES FOLLOW LINKS]

ALIBI

BLAME

DEFEAT

ERROR

EXCUSES

FOOLISH, FOOLS

GIVING UP

IDLENESS, IGNORANCE

KNOW IT ALLS

LAZINESS

LOSING

PROCRASTINATION

QUITTING

SELF-DESTRUCTION

SELF-PITY

STUPIDITY

WEAK/WEAKNESS

---

The middle way is no way at all. If we finally
fail in this great and glorious contest, it
will be by bewildering ourselves in groping
for the middle way.
--John Adams (1735—1826)
First VP and second President of the United States.
Letter to Gen. Horatio Gates [1776].

They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.
--Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836—1907)
American poet, short-story writer, and editor.
"Enamoured Architect of Airy Rhyme"

People always get what they want. But there is a
price for everything. Failures are either those
who do not know what they want or are not prepared
to pay the price asked them. The price varies from
individual to individual. Some get things at bargain-
sale prices, others only at famine prices. But it is
no use grumbling. Whatever price you are asked,
you must pay.
--W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973)
English-born poet and man of letters.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try
again. Fail again. Fail better.
--Samuel Beckett (1906—1989)
Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet.
_Worstward Ho_ [1983]

How the mighty have fallen
in the midst of battle.
--Bible
"II Samuel" 1:25

Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to
try new things. The saddest summary of a life
contains three descriptions: could have, might
have, and should have.
--Louis Boone (1941— )
American academic author.

-

Better to have failed in the high aim, as I,
Than vulgarly in the low aim succeed, —
As God be thanked! I do not.
--Robert Browning (1812—1889)
English poet.
_The Inn Album_, Pt iv, l.450 [1875]


The aim, if reached or not, makes great the life;
Try to be Shakespeare, leave the rest to fate!
--Robert Browning (1812—1889)
English poet.
'Bishop Blougram's Apology',
_Men and Women_ [1855]

-

Be awful nice to 'em goin' up, because
you're gonna meet 'em all comin' down.
--Jimmy Durante [James Francis Durante] (1893—1980)
American comedian.
In Jonathan Gabay _Gabay's Copywriters' Compendium_ [2006].

I have not failed. I've just found
10,000 ways that won't work.
--Thomas Alva Edison (1847—1931)
American inventor.
In Marilyn Vos Savant
_Growing Up: A Classic American Childhood_, p. 122 [2002].

I don't think we have failed, we have just
found another way that doesn't work.
(On the ending of an attempted around-
the-world balloon flight.)
--Andy Elson
British balloon pilot.
Hamamatsu, Japan [7 March 1999].

Our greatest glory is not in never failing,
but in rising up every time we fail.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.

And nothing to look backward to with pride,
And nothing to look forward to with hope.
--Robert Frost (1874—1963)
American poet.
"The Death of the Hired Man"
_North of Boston_ [1914]

We don't discover what we can't achieve
until we make an effort not to try.
--Piet Hein (1905—1996)
Danish poet and mathematician.
"Making an Effort"

A failure is a man who has blundered, but
is not able to cash in on the experience.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who
died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."
_The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams_ [1923]

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
--Robert F. Kennedy (1925—1968)
American Democratic politician.
Speech to the National Union of South African students [7 June 1966].

He had delusions of adequacy.
--Walter Kerr (1913—1996)
American theater critic [husband of Jean Kerr].

Every great improvement has come after repeated
failures. Virtually nothing comes out right the
first time. Failures, repeated failures, are
fingerposts on the road to achievement.
--Charles F. Kettering (1876—1958)
American inventor.

-

The *probability* that we may fall in the struggle
*ought not* deter us from the support of a cause
we believe to be just; it *shall not* deter me.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
"The Sub-Treasury" speech in the House of
Representatives at Springfield, Illinois [26 December 1839].


My great concern is not whether you have
failed, but whether you are content with
your failure.
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
In _1000 Brilliant Achievement Quotes_
(comp. by David W DeFord), p. 69 [2004].

-

It takes as much courage to have tried and failed
as it does to have tried and succeeded.
--Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906—2001)
American writer and wife of Charles Lindbergh.

Because a fellow has failed once or
twice, or a dozen times, you don't
want to set him down as a failure
till he's dead or loses his courage —
and that's the same thing.
--George Lorimer (1869—1937)
American editor of "The Saturday Evening Post."

If you always do what you always did, you
will always get what you always got.
--Moms Mabley (1897—1975)
African-American vaudeville performer and comedian.

Supposing you have tried and failed again and again.
You may have a fresh start any moment you choose,
for this thing that we call "failure" is not the falling
down, but the staying down.
--Mary Pickford [Gladys Mary Smith] (1894—1979)
Canadian-born American motion-picture actress.

Being young is greatly overestimated. . . Any failure
seems so total. Later on you realize you can have
another go.
--Mary Quant (1934— )
English fashion designer.
In "Observer" [5 May 1996].

You may be disappointed if you fail,
but you are doomed if you don't try.
--Beverly Sills (1929—2007)
American opera singer.

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I
can give you the formula for failure, which is:
Try to please everybody.
--Herbert Bayard Swope (1882—1958)
American editor and journalist; the first recipient
of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting [1917].
Speech, St. Louis, Missouri [20 December 1950].

He slandered the world in revenge for his
complete lack of success in it.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
_Zadig_ [1747], tr. H.I. Woolf [1949]

If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent
and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns
somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won
a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know.
--Thomas Wolfe (1900—1938)
American novelist.
_The Web and the Rock_ [1939], ch. 30

-----

declivity (noun) [dκ-'kli-vκ-tee]
A downward slope.

feckless
1. Ineffective: unable or unwilling to do anything useful
2. Unlikely to be successful: lacking the thought or organization necessary to succeed

insuperable [in-SOO-pur-uh-bul], adjective:
Incapable of being passed over, surmounted, or overcome; insurmountable.

recidivism (noun):
A tendency to lapse into a previous condition or pattern of
behavior; especially, a falling back or relapse into prior
criminal habits.
Ex.: Mr. Atrens's basic argument is that it's physiologically
almost impossible for many people to lose weight, as
evidenced by a high recidivism rate and the unflagging
profitability of diet paraphernalia, from liquid
concoctions to surgeons' staples.
--Karen Stabiner, review of _Don't Diet_, by Dale M. Atrens,
_New York Times_, [27 March 1988]


end page





| FABLE - FAME | FAILURE | FAMILIARITY - FANTASY | FARMING - FATE | FATHERS - FEELINGS | FEMINISTS - FIFTIES (THE) | FIFTY - FLAG | FLATTERY - FOLLOWERS | FOOD & DRINK - PAGE 1 (A-O) | FOOD & DRINK - PAGE 2 (P-Z) | FOOLISH - FORESIGHT | FOREST - FRAUDS | FREE - FREE TRADE | FREEDOM | FREUD - (THE) - FRIENDS | FRUGAL - FUTURE |
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
| Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos |
 
     



Copyright © 2008, someworthwhilequotes.com. All rights reserved.