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Failure Quotes

    “Instead of feeling that you’ve blown the day and thinking, “I’ll get back on track tomorrow,” try thinking of each day as a set of four quarters: morning, midday, afternoon, evening. If you blow one quarter, you get back on track for the next quarter. Fail small, not big.”

    Gretchen Rubin, Better Than Before

      “Every creator who has engaged in the practice has a long, nearly infinite string of failures. All the ways not to start a novel, not to invent the light bulb, not to transform a relationship. Again and again, creative leaders fail. It is the foundation of our work. We fail and then we edit and then we do it again.”

      Seth Godin, The Practice (Page 164)

        “If you never fail, you’re only trying things that are too easy and playing far below your level… If you can’t remember any time in the last six months when you failed, you aren’t trying to do difficult enough things.”

        Eliezer Yudkowsky (Read Matt’s Blog On This Quote)

          “Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive.”

          Andy Grove | Read Matt’s Blog on this Quote ➜

            “Do you remember, in school or early in your life, being afraid to try something because you feared you might fail at it? Most teenagers choose to fool around rather than exert themselves. Halfhearted, lazy effort gives them a ready-made excuse: ‘It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t even trying.’ As we get older, failure is not so inconsequential anymore. What’s at stake is not some arbitrary grade or intramural sports trophy, but the quality of your life and your ability to deal with the world around you.”

            Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 25)

            Seth Godin Quote on Facing Failure So That You Can Keep Playing (and Win)

              “If I fail more than you do, I win.  Built into this notion is the ability to keep playing.  If you get to keep playing, sooner or later you’re gonna make it succeed.  The people who lose are the ones who don’t fail at all, or the ones who fail so big they don’t get to play again.”

              Seth Godin

              Beyond the Quote (121/365)

              If you try and you fail—and you quit—you lose. If you try and you fail—and you adjust and try again—you win. The ultimate failure in life isn’t the failures we inevitably stumble upon from our trials, it’s the failure to not try (or to stop trying) at all. Without trial in life, you defer to passivity. You choose to watch rather than play. And while it’s fun to watch sometimes, playing is where all of the magic happens. Playing is the active process of interacting with your surroundings in a way that allows you to learn. When you try, your whole being makes an incalculable number of adjustments and improvements so that you can better play moving forward. You just can’t do that from the sideline.

              Read More »Seth Godin Quote on Facing Failure So That You Can Keep Playing (and Win)

                “Most of us sweep our failures and evil secrets under the rug, but when we run into problems, that rug gets lifted up, and our darkness re-emerges, floods our soul, and influences the decisions which determine our character.” ~ David Goggins, Can’t Hurt Me

                  “Failure does not deserve to be addressed with recrimination or pity.  Rather, failure must be honored for the insight it provides.  Failure is the grist for learning; it is our teacher.” ~ Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

                    “Disappointment is inevitable when you are attempting to do anything of great scale.  Instead, let your disappointments drive you to find new answers; discipline your disappointments.  Learn from every failure, act on those learnings, and success becomes inevitable.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game

                      “Let things be.  You just go on moving, enjoying whatsoever becomes available.  If success is there, enjoy it.  If failure is there, enjoy it—because failure also brings a few enjoyments that no success can ever bring.  Success brings a few joys that no failure can ever bring.  And a person who has no idea of his own is capable of enjoying everything, whatever happens.  If he is healthy, he enjoys health; if he is ill, he rests on the bed and enjoys illness.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition

                        “You must see every setback, failure, or hardship as a trial along the way, as seeds that are being planted for further cultivation, if you know how to grow them.  No moment is wasted if you pay attention and learn the lessons contained in every experience.  By constantly applying yourself to the subject that suits your inclinations and attacking it from many different angles, you are simply enriching the ground for these seeds to take root.  You may not see this process in the present, but it is happening.  Never losing your connection to your Life’s Task, you will unconsciously hit upon the right choices in your life.  Over time, mastery will come to you.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery

                          “There are two kinds of failure.  The first comes from never trying out your ideas because you are afraid, or because you are waiting for the perfect time.  This kind of failure you can never learn from, and such timidity will destroy you.  The second kind comes from a bold venturesome spirit.  If you fail in this way, the hit that you take to your reputation is greatly outweighed by what you learn.  Repeated failure will toughen your spirit and show you with absolute clarity how things must be done.  In fact, it is a curse to have everything go right on your first attempt.  You will fail to question the element of luck, making you think that you have the golden touch.  When you do inevitably fail, it will confuse and demoralize you past the point of learning. You have everything to gain.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery

                            “Improvement at anything is based on thousands of tiny failures, and the magnitude of your success is based on how many times you’ve failed at something.  If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have.  If someone is worse than you, it’s likely because he hasn’t been through all of the painful learning experiences you have.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                              “Failure is not having the courage to try, nothing more and nothing less.  The only thing standing between most people and their dreams is the fear of failure.  Yet failure is essential to success in any endeavor.  Failure tests us and allows us to grow.  It offers us lessons and guides us along the path of enlightenment.  The teachers of the East say that every arrow that hits the bull’s eye is the result of one hundred misses.  It is a fundamental Law of Nature to profit through loss.  Never fear failure.  Failure is your friend.” ~ Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

                                “I will persist until I succeed.  I was not delivered into this world into defeat, nor does failure course in my veins.  I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd.  I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep.  The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destiny.  I will persist until I succeed.” ~ Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World