45 Motivational Quotes on Failure

Last updated on Apr 27th, 2023

45 Motivational Quotes on Failure

Nobody likes failure, but unfortunately, it is an inevitable part of life. When it happens, you have two choices: to give up or to keep going.

Here you can find a collection of quotes that will inspire you to embrace failure as an opportunity to learn, grow and improve.

Key Takeaways

  • Thomas Edison failed thousands of times before successfully inventing the light bulb.
  • The founder of KFC, Colonel Sanders, was rejected 1,009 times before he succeeded.
  • Walt Disney got fired from a newspaper for “not being creative enough.”
Table of Contents
  1. Quotes about Learning and Failure
  2. Failure Quotes to Success
  3. Encouraging Failure Quotes
  4. Fear of Failure Quotes
  5. Funny Failure Quotes
  6. Unsourced Failure Quotes

Quotes about Learning and Failure

Failure teaches us that life is but a draft, a long rehearsal for a show that will never play. - Hipolito (Amélie Quotes)
1

Failure teaches us that life is but a draft, a long rehearsal for a show that will never play.Hipolito, Amélie (2001)

The greatest teacher, failure is. - Yoda (Star Wars: The Last Jedi Quotes)
2

The greatest teacher, failure is.Yoda, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

There are always lessons in failures. - Jaime Lannister (Game of Thrones Quotes)
3

There are always lessons in failures.Jaime Lannister, Game of Thrones, S7.Ep3: The Queen's Justice

Learning requires failure. - Darius (Atlanta Quotes)
4

Learning requires failure.Darius, Atlanta, S2.Ep11: Crabs in a Barrel

We learn from failure, not from success! - Bram Stoker (Dracula Quotes)
5

We learn from failure, not from success!Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)

There is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping after failure and moving on. Yet most people are stricken with fear. They fear failure so much that they fail. They are too conditioned, too used to being told what to do. It begins with the family, runs through school and goes into the business world. - Charles Bukowski (The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors have taken over the Ship Quotes)
6

There is nothing that teaches you more than regrouping after failure and moving on. Yet most people are stricken with fear. They fear failure so much that they fail. They are too conditioned, too used to being told what to do. It begins with the family, runs through school and goes into the business world.Charles Bukowski, The Captain is Out to Lunch and the Sailors have taken over the Ship (1998)

Restlessness is discontent - and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man - and I will show you a failure. - Thomas A. Edison Quotes
7

Restlessness is discontent – and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man – and I will show you a failure.Thomas A. Edison, The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948)

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. - Rudyard Kipling (The Lesson Quotes)
8

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.Rudyard Kipling, The Lesson (1901)

Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. - Henry Ford (My Life and Work Quotes)
9

Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.Henry Ford, My Life and Work (1922)

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. - Theodore Roosevelt (The Strenuous Life Quotes)
10

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort.Theodore Roosevelt, The Strenuous Life (1902), Page 2

The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves that they don't give a damn. - Agatha Christie (Sparkling Cyanide Quotes)
11

The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves that they don’t give a damn.Agatha Christie, Sparkling Cyanide (1944)

Failure Quotes to Success

Failure is the fog through which we glimpse triumph. - Aldrich Killian (Iron Man 3 Quotes)
12

Failure is the fog through which we glimpse triumph.Aldrich Killian, Iron Man 3 (2013)

Great success is built on failure. - John Smith (The Man in the High Castle Quotes)
13

Great success is built on failure.John Smith, The Man in the High Castle, S3.Ep10: Jahr Null

You can either be too strong to fail or too weak to try. - Yennefer of Vengerberg (The Witcher Netflix Quotes)
14

You can either be too strong to fail or too weak to try.Yennefer of Vengerberg, (to Ciri), The Witcher, S2.Ep7: Voleth Meir

I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me. - Charles Dickens (Great Expectations Quotes)
15

I must be taken as I have been made. The success is not mine, the failure is not mine, but the two together make me.Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (1860)

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure. - Napoleon Hill (The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons Quotes)
16

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.Napoleon Hill, The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons (1928)

The freedom to succeed goes hand in hand with the freedom to fail. - Terry Pratchett (Going Postal Quotes)
17

The freedom to succeed goes hand in hand with the freedom to fail.Terry Pratchett, Going Postal (2004)

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. - Thomas A. Edison Quotes
18

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.Thomas A. Edison, As quoted in an ad for GPU Nuclear Corporation, in Black Enterprise Vol. 16, No. 11 (June 1986), p. 79

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas A. Edison Quotes
19

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.Thomas A. Edison, This is presented as a statement of 1877.

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. - Michael Jordan Quotes
20

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.Michael Jordan, As quoted in Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh by Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson (1998), Page 49

One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake. - Anton Chekhov Quotes
21

One must be a god to be able to tell successes from failures without making a mistake.Anton Chekhov, Letter to Aleksei Sergeyevich Suvorin (November 3, 1888)

Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits. - Robert Louis Stevenson Quotes
22

Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits.Robert Louis Stevenson, Letters and Miscellanies of Robert Louis Stevenson (1902)

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: Try to please everybody. - Herbert Bayard Swope Quotes
23

I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: Try to please everybody.Herbert Bayard Swope, The world of Swope by Ely Jacques Kahn (1965), Page 429

Find more about Failure on Amazon

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. - Truman Capote Quotes
24

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.Truman Capote, Truman Capote: Conversations by M. Thomas Inge (1987), Page 189

Encouraging Failure Quotes

We must never stop failing, because the minute we do, we've failed. - Edgin Darvis (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Quotes)
25

We must never stop failing, because the minute we do, we’ve failed.Edgin Darvis, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

To fail is only to change the way. - Alejandro Jodorowsky (Jodorowsky's Dune Quotes)
26

To fail is only to change the way.Alejandro Jodorowsky, Jodorowsky's Dune (2013)

You learn. You fail. Learn more. Fail more. And don't let anyone outwork you. Ever. - Beth Dutton (Yellowstone TV Series Quotes)
27

You learn. You fail. Learn more. Fail more. And don’t let anyone outwork you. Ever.Beth Dutton, (to Carter), Yellowstone, S4.Ep3: All I See Is You

Never stop, no matter how many failures. When you know you're doing what you're meant to do, you have to try. - The Van Gogh Docent (Ted Lasso Quotes)
28

Never stop, no matter how many failures. When you know you’re doing what you’re meant to do, you have to try.The Van Gogh Docent, Ted Lasso, S3.Ep6: Sunflowers

You mustn't confuse a single failure with a final defeat. - F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tender is the Night Quotes)
29

You mustn’t confuse a single failure with a final defeat.F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night (1934)

It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness. - Herman Melville (Hawthorne and His Mosses Quotes)
30

It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great. Failure is the true test of greatness.Herman Melville, Hawthorne and His Mosses (1850)

In all failures, the beginning is certainly the half of the whole. - George Eliot (Middlemarch Quotes)
31

In all failures, the beginning is certainly the half of the whole.George Eliot, Middlemarch (1872)

You fail, you get up and try again. - Maya Angelou (The Heart of a Woman Quotes)
32

You fail, you get up and try again.Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman (1981)

That this awareness of my own fallibility will prevent me from making many mistakes doesn't alter the fact that I'm bound to make a great many mistakes anyway. But if we fall, we get up again! - Vincent Van Gogh Quotes
33

That this awareness of my own fallibility will prevent me from making many mistakes doesn’t alter the fact that I’m bound to make a great many mistakes anyway. But if we fall, we get up again!Vincent Van Gogh, Letter to Anthon van Rappard (Etten, November 2, 1881)

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. - Samuel Beckett Quotes
34

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho (1983)

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. - Robert F. Kennedy (To seek a newer world Quotes)
35

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.Robert F. Kennedy, To seek a newer world (1967), Page 232

Failure is not the falling down, but the staying down. - Mary Pickford Quotes
36

Failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.Mary Pickford, Why Not Try God?, appeared in St. Petersburg Times (January 25, 1936)

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 Quotes
37

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, The Paris Review interview with Jean Stein (1956)

Fear of Failure Quotes

The only people who aren't afraid of failure are madmen. - Tyrion Lannister (Game of Thrones Quotes)
38

The only people who aren’t afraid of failure are madmen.Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones, S6.Ep10: The Winds of Winter

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. - Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist Quotes)
39

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist (1988)

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. - George Eliot (Felix Holt, the Radical Quotes)
40

The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.George Eliot, Felix Holt, the Radical (1866)

If you put your energy into thinking about how much the fall would hurt, you're already halfway down. - Tana French (Broken Harbour Quotes)
41

If you put your energy into thinking about how much the fall would hurt, you’re already halfway down.Tana French, Broken Harbour (Dublin Murder Squad) (2012)

A real loser is somebody that's so afraid of not winning, they don't even try. - Edwin Hoover (Little Miss Sunshine Quotes)
42

A real loser is somebody that’s so afraid of not winning, they don’t even try.Edwin Hoover, Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default. - J.K. Rowling Quotes
43

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.J.K. Rowling, Harvard University Commencement Address (June 5, 2008)

Funny Failure Quotes

Failure is how we grow. Actually, it's how men grow. It's how women shrink. - Miriam 'Midge' Maisel (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Quotes)
44

Failure is how we grow. Actually, it’s how men grow. It’s how women shrink.Miriam 'Midge' Maisel, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, S3.Ep3: Panty Pose

If you are gonna fail, you're gonna fail with an audience and you are gonna fail spectacularly. - Susie Myerson (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Quotes)
45

If you are gonna fail, you’re gonna fail with an audience and you are gonna fail spectacularly.Susie Myerson, (to Alfie), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, S4.Ep6: Maisel vs. Lennon: The Cut Contest

Unsourced Failure Quotes

1

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

2

Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.Coco Chanel

3

If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.Thomas J. Watson

4

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.Denis Waitley

5

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.Jack Kerouac