The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Failure
The axiom that you learn more from your failures than your successes is trite but absolutely true.
Bill Gates Source Code · 2025

Quotes

“A life which does not go into action is a failure.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · A Study of History, 1934-1961 · Primary source

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. 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, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who 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.”

Theodore Roosevelt · Citizenship in a Republic, 1910 · Primary source

“There’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.”

John F. Kennedy · Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs News Conference, 1961 · Primary source

“I am the responsible officer of the government [regarding the failed invasion of Cuba].”

John F. Kennedy · Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs News Conference, 1961 · Primary source

“We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.”

John F. Kennedy · Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort, 1962 · Primary source

“Failure cuts deepter memories than success.”

Arnold J. Toynbee · The Western Question in Greece and Turkey, 1922 · Primary source

“Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt · The Strenuous Life, 1900 · Primary source

“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 · No reliable source

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.”

Winston Churchill · No reliable source

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Winston Churchill · No reliable source

Works

Steve Jobs · 2005
Stanford Commencement Address

A personal reflection on education, work, failure, mortality and the importance of following one’s own path.

Read summary·Explore 6 quotes

Related Tags

Purpose 31 Experience 30 Resilience 30 Mortality 30 Risk 29 Perseverance 29 Responsibility 27 Courage 25 Action 23 Learning 19 Effort 18 Accountability 18 Commitment 17 Achievement 15 Agency 10 Reflection 10 Criticism 10 Leadership 9 Success 7 Continuous improvement 6 Space Race 3 Technological competition 3 Defeat 2 Enthusiasm 2 Credit and blame 2 Bay of Pigs 2 Executive leadership 2 Transparency 2 Public accountability 2 Stanford University 2 Personal purpose 2 Women’s equality 1 Example to others 1 Collective memory 1 National memory 1 Historical rivalry 1 Learning from experience 1 Presidential responsibility 1 Career choices 1