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Failures and Mistakes Quotes and Quotations
 Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities such as More, Bacon, Grotius, Pascal, Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon, Pitt, etc. They would be an Encyclopedia of Errors.  Flops are a part of life's menu, and Eve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses. Every man's got to figure to get beat sometime. Who thinks it just to be judged by a single error? Man errs as long as he struggles. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. Mistakes are the usual bridge between inexperience and wisdom. Be aware that young people have to be able to make their own mistakes and that times change. The best brewer sometimes makes bad beer. We must somehow get comfortable with the reality of periodic failure. ... Like a trip to the dentist, the thought of occasional reverses may not make us tingle with joyful anticipation, but then again, it's not the end of the world. The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error. - Voltaire All men are liable to error; and most men are ... by passion or interest, under temptation to it. To err is human, to forgive divine. Show me a person who has never made a mistake and Ell show you somebody who has never achieved much. He only is exempt from failures who makes no effort. Only he who does nothing makes no mistakes. The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything. Life is not life unless you make mistakes. We all choke, and the man who says he doesn't choke is lying like hell. We all leak oil. He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great. He is always right who suspects that he makes mistakes. The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. A good marksman may miss. He that has much to do will do something wrong. For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again. - Bible To make no mistake is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future. - Plutarch All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. The fellow who never makes a mistake takes his orders from one who does. Accept that all of us can be hurt, that all of us can - and surely will at times - fail. Other vulnerabilities, like being embarrassed or risking love, can be terrifying, too. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk. The greatest general is he who makes the fewest mistakes. War is a series of catastrophes that results in victory. Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake. A man finds he has been wrong at every stage of his career, only to deduce the astonishing conclusion that he is at last entirely right. One loss is good for the soul. Too many losses are not good for the coach. In all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last. In the game of life it's a good idea to have a few early losses, which relieves you of the pressure of trying to maintain an undefeated season. Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. The only time you don't want to fail is the last time you try something.... One fails forward toward success. A clever man commits no minor blunders. Sometimes a noble failure serves the world as faithfully as a distinguished success. No man ever progressed to greatness and goodness but through great mistakes. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. The errors of great men are venerable because they are more fruitful than the truths of little men. There is something distinguished about even his failures; they sink not trivially, but with a certain air of majesty, like a great ship, its flags flying, full of holes. If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. In a great mistake. Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man. If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, there is always another chance for you. Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing another mistake. The great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and to continually make a new man of himself. It is only error in judgement to make a mistake, but it shows infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered. It is human to err, but it is devilish to remain willfully in error. Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good. Our mistakes won't irreparably damage our lives unless we let them. Peole do think that if they avoid the truth, it might change to something better before they have to hear it. We have not passed that subtle line between childhood and adulthood until... we have stopped saying "It got lost," and say, "I lost it." Ah, how steadily do they who are guilty shrink from reproof! I've arrived at this outermost edge of my life by my own actions. Where I am is thoroughly unacceptable. Therefore, I must stop doing what I have been doing. Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures. I believe we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime. A chief is a man who assumes responsibility. He does not say "My men were beaten," he says, "I was beaten." The most considerable difference I note among men is not in their readiness to fall into error, but in their readiness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses. It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes. It takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own. Whenever at an accusation blind rage burns up within us, the reason is that some arrow has pierced the joints of our harness. Behind our shining armour of righteous indignation lurks a convicted and only half-repentant sinner ... [and] we may be almost sure some sharp and bitter grain of truth lurks within it, and the wound is best probed. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. There's folks 'ud stand on their heads and then say the fault was i' their boots. Admitting error clears the score, and proves you wiser than before. Mistakes fail in their mission of helping the person who blames them on the other fellow. I have known men who could see through the motivations of others with the skill of a clairvoyant; only to prove blind to their own mistakes. I have been one of those men. I have made mistakes, but I have never made the mistake of claiming that I never made one. The man who can own up to his error is greater than he who merely knows how to avoid making it. A man may fall many times, but he won't be a failure until he says that someone pushed him. Do not be afraid of mistakes, providing you do not make the same one twice. To stumble twice against the same stone is a proverbial disgrace. - Cicero Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. There is no reason to repeat bad history. I try to extract something positive from [every] situation, even if it's just learning not to make the same mistake twice. He who is shipwrecked twice is foolish to blame the sea. He who is shipwrecked the second time cannot lay the blame on Neptune. He that's cheated twice by the same man is an accomplice with the cheater. If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches. You can beat the Bear once, but never the same way twice. Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error. - Cicero There is nothing wrong with making mistakes. Just don't respond with encores. The road to wisdom? Well, it's plain and simple to express: Err, and err, and err again. But less, and less, and less. I made a mistake today, I made a mistake yesterday. I think it's ... very important to ignore the negative. The biggest quality in successful people I think is an impatience with negative thinking. ... How many opportunities come along? If you wait for the right one, that's wrong, because it may never be right, and what have you got to lose? Even if it's a disaster, you've tried, you've learned something, you've had an adventure. And that doesn't mean you can't do it again. A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one. If you don't accept failure as a possibility, you don't set high goals, you don't branch out, you don't try - you don't take the risk. When we can begin to take our failures non-seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves. If I lose, I'll walk away and never feel bad.... Because I did all I could, there was nothing more to do. A man must learn to forgive himself. You must accept that you might fail; then, if you do your best and still don't win, at least you can be satisfied that you've tried. Who would not rather trust and be deceived? Forget mistakes. Forget failure. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day. There is a way to look at the past. Don't hide from it. It will not catch you if you don't repeat it. Forget your mistakes, but remember what they taught you. 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. Failure is a disappointment but not defeat. Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. Failure is delay, but not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end street. Finite to fail, but infinite to venture. When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap. Failure really isn't terrible if you can say to yourself, hey, I know I'm gonna be successful at what I want to do someday. Failure doesn't become a big hangup then because it's only temporary. If failure is absolute, then it would be a disaster, but as long as it's only temporary you can just go and achieve almost anything. Failure is an event, never a person. It is better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong than to agonize at length and be right too late. I've never met a person, I don't care what his condition, in whom I could not see possibilities. I don't care how much a man may consider himself a failure, I believe in him, for he can change the thing that is wrong in his life anytime he is prepared and ready to do it. Whenever he develops the desire, he can take away from his life the thing that is defeating it. The capacity for reformation and change lies within. I think and think for months, for years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right. Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave. Take risks. You can't fall off the bottom. When it goes wrong, you feel like cutting your throat, but you go on. You don't let anything get you down so much that it beats you or stops you. You must have long-range goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-range failures. Life is a series of relapses and recoveries. We learn courageous action by going forward whenever fear urges us back. A little boy was asked how he learned to skate. "By getting up every time I fell down," he answered. If I had to live my life over again, I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. Failure is only postponed success as long as courage 'coaches' ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory. Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence. There are a lot of people out there with good and marketable ideas, but pure entrepreneurial types almost never accept defeat. Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. I don't accept defeat as final. Only death is final - and even then I hope for a reprieve. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat. Men's best successes come after their disappointments. I've been failing for, like, ten or eleven years. When it turns, it'll turn. Right now I'm just tryin' to squeeze through a very tight financial period, get the movie out, and put my things in order. Don't let a kick in the ass stop you. It's how you cope that says what you are. What is to be got at to make the air sweet, the ground good under the feet, can only be got at by failure, trial, again and again and again failure. They say President Wilson has blundered. Perhaps he has, but I notice he usually blunders forward. Some of the biggest failures I ever had were successes. Not all who seem to fail have failed indeed. Not all who fail have therefore worked in vain. There is no failure for the good and brave. No honest work of man or woman "fails"; it feeds the sum of all human action. Defeat in doing right is nevertheless victory. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. Sometimes what you want to do has to fail so you won't. There are defeats more triumphant than victories. An error gracefully acknowledged is a victory won. Nothing succeeds like failure. Because a fellow has failed once or twice, or a dozen times, you don't want to set him down as a failure until he's dead or loses his courage - and that's the same thing. What we have most to fear is failure of the heart. No man is a failure who is enjoying life. You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that? Come up with a smiling face, it's nothing against you to fall down flat, but to lie there - that's disgrace. He alone fails who gives up and lies down. Never give a man up until he has failed at something he likes. Failure is not in losing, but in no longer believing that winning is worthwhile. He's no failure. He's not dead yet. Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong. It ain't no disgrace for a man to fall, but to lie there and grunt is. If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down. 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. Not failure, but low aim, is a crime. There is only one real failure in life that is possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows. Perhaps the only real failure is that implying waste, a conscious and flagrant non-use or misuse of ability. There are two kinds of failures: The man who will do nothing he is told, and the man who will do nothing else. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. There is no failure except in no longer trying. Men do not fail; they stop trying. Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try. It is a very dangerous thing to have an idea that you will not practice. If you risk nothing, then you risk everything. Men must try and try again. In the past, few women have tried and even fewer have succeeded. A mistake is not a failure, but evidence that someone tried to do something. Man must strive, and in striving, he must err. The person interested in success has to learn to view failure as a healthy, inevitable part of the process of getting to the top. Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure. The sight of a cage is only frightening to the bird that has once been caught. Your success depends on your ability to dream and follow through on those dreams. Keep trying. Take care of the small circle around you. When you have succeeded with them, then move outwards, one small step at a time. It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes. There might be false starts and do-overs. You are entitled to experiment before you find your calling. Life is the only real counselor. Wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissue. The only failure which lacks dignity is the failure to try. To know that one has never really tried - that is the only death. We have to keep trying things we're not sure we can pull off. If we just do the things we know we can do ... you don't grow as much. You gotta take those chances on making those big mistakes. If you're not failing, you're not trying anything. If you play it safe in life, you've decided that you don't want to grow anymore. Those who try and fail are much wiser than those who never try for fear of failure. 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. To avoid an occasion for our virtues is a worse degree of failure than to push forward pluckily and fall. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. Inaction, contrary to its reputation for being a refuge, is neither safe nor comfortable. They fail, and they alone, who have not striven. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. It takes as much courage to have tried and failed as it does to have tried and succeeded. Failure is something made only by those who fail to dare, not by those who dare to fail. You don't always win your battles, but it's good to know you fought. The man who has done his level best, and who is conscious that he has done his best, is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure. Many a man never fails because he never tries. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from poor judgment. Life is very interesting, if you make mistakes. When I have listened to my mistakes, I have grown. Mistakes and errors are the discipline through which we advance. A stumble may prevent a fall. A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible. Do not then be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause. Besides the practical knowledge which defeat offers, there are important personality profits to be taken. Defeat strips away false values and makes you realize what you really want. It stops you from chasing butterflies and puts you to work digging gold. No experiment is ever a complete failure. It can always be used as a bad example. Failure is the foundation of success, and the means by which it is achieved. - Lao-Tzu There is much to be said for failure. It is more interesting than success. Failure sometimes enlarges the spirit. You have to fall back upon humanity and God. It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression. Let us not be needlessly bitter; certain failures are sometimes fruitful. If I win several tournaments in a row, I get so confident I'm in a cloud. A loss gets me eager again. There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you. Failure is only an opportunity to begin again more intelligently. Disappointments are to the soul what the thunder-storm is to the air. The wisest person is not the one who has the fewest failures, but the one who turns failures to best account. One of the advantages of defeat in life - maybe the main advantage - is that it provides an excuse for change. Defeat... invariably leads to new adventures. Failure is God's own tool for carving some of the finest outlines in the character of his children. I quit being afraid when my first venture failed and the sky didn't fall down. What is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better. From their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future. - Plutarch Having harvested all the knowledge and wisdom we can from our mistakes and failures, we should put them behind us and go ahead. I think success has no rules, but you can learn a great deal from failure. Failure is just another way to learn how to do something right. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. We will be victorious if we have not forgotten how to learn. It is the true nature of mankind to learn from mistakes, not from example. The psychotherapist learns little or nothing from his successes. They mainly confirm him in his mistakes, while his failures, on the other hand, are priceless experiences in that they not only open up the way to a deeper truth, but force him to change his views and methods. Failure ... is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterward carefully avoid. We need to teach a highly educated person that it is not a disgrace to fail and that he must analyze every failure to find its cause. He must learn how to fail intelligently, for failing is one of the greatest arts of the world. When a man is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits; on his manhood; he has gained the facts; learned his ignorance; is cured of the insanity of conceit; has got moderation and real skill. There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go. Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes. Failure is a school in which the truth always grows strong. The important thing is to learn a lesson every time you lose. It's good to fail now and again - you learn a lot more out of failure than you do out of success. One of the reasons mature people stop learning is that they become less and less willing to risk failure. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is. - Bill W. A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience. Like success, failure is many things to many people. With Positive Mental Attitude, failure is a learning experience, a rung on the ladder, a plateau at which to get your thoughts in order and prepare to try again. Disappointment is the nurse of wisdom. When you make a mistake, don't look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind, and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. What can any of us do with his talent but try to develop his vision, so that through frequent failures we may learn better what we have missed in the past. Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely. From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own. Learn from the mistakes of others - you can't live long enough to make them all yourself. The entire history of science is a progression of exploded fallacies. - Ayn Rand Don't use the conduct of a fool as a precedent. - Talmud Wise men learn by other men's mistakes, fools by their own. Learn to see in another's calamity the ills which you should avoid. A man is fortunate if he encounters living examples of vice, as well as of virtue, to inspire him. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it; so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. A series of failures may culminate in the best possible result. Failure is that early morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of success. People fail forward to success. Apparent failure may hold in its rough shell the germs of a success that will blossom in time, and bear fruit throughout eternity. The causes of mistakes are "I didn't know"; "I didn't think"; and "I didn't care." Failures are divided into two classes: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough. Self-distrust is the cause of most of our failures. They are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers. Defeat is a thing of weariness, of incoherence, of boredom. Failure at a task may be the result of having tackled it at the wrong time. We fail more often by timidity than by over-daring. Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital. Losers have tons of variety. Champions take pride in just learning to hit the same old boring winners. Lack of will power has caused more failures than lack of intelligence or ability. The word fate ... is the refuge of every self-confessed failure. Half the things that people do not succeed in are through fear of making the attempt. The man who fails because he aims astray, or because he does not aim at all, is to be found everywhere. Half the failures in life come from pulling one's horse in when he is leaping. I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: try to please everybody. If your project doesn't work, look for the part that you didn't think was important. Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses. One who fears failure limits his activities. The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right and doing a thing exactly right. We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. How to succeed: Try hard enough. How to fail: Try too hard. Most men fail, not through lack of education, but from lack of dogged determination, from lack of dauntless will. Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objects and principles. An error is simply a failure to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality. We are less likely to fail if we measure with judgement our chances and our capabilities. Laziness is a secret ingredient that goes into failure. But it's only kept a secret from the person who fails. Failure is usually the line of least persistence. You can't expect to win unless you know why you lose. Most people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan. Failure is not sweet, but it need not be bitter. The ultimate umpire of all things in life is - fact. Losses are comparative, imagination only makes them of any moment. I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating. Disillusion is a natural stage that follows the holding of an illusion. If any good results to a man from believing a lie, it certainly comes from the honesty of his belief. And what if I did run my ship aground; oh, still it was splendid to sail it! Success is a public affair. Failure is a private funeral. It is not easy, but you have to be willing to make mistakes. And the earlier you make those mistakes, the better. If you're gonna be a failure, at least be one at something you enjoy. Who would not rather flounder in the fight than not have known the glory of the fray? Better a false belief than no belief at all. A mistake is simply another way of doing things. The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just. Three failures denotes uncommon strength. A weakling had not enough grit to fail thrice. 
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