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

“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

Women’s equality 1 Risk 27 Courage 23 Example to others 1 Collective memory 1 National memory 1 Historical rivalry 1 Defeat 2 Action 21 Purpose 30 Commitment 15 Agency 9 Learning 18 Experience 28 Reflection 10 Continuous improvement 6 Perseverance 26 Enthusiasm 2 Resilience 28 Learning from experience 1 Success 7 Effort 16 Criticism 9 Accountability 15 Responsibility 27 Credit and blame 1 Leadership 6 Presidential responsibility 1 Bay of Pigs 2 Executive leadership 2 Space Race 3 Transparency 2 Technological competition 3 Public accountability 2 Stanford University 1 Career choices 1 Mortality 30 Personal purpose 2