Act as if it were impossible to fail.
Dorothea Brande
Categories: failure

If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.
Anonymous often attributed to Dan Quayle
Categories: failure

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.
Beverly Sills
Categories: failure

If at first you don't succeed, find out if the loser gets anything.
Bill Lyon
Categories: failure

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.
Carl Jung
Categories: failure

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
Gore Vidal
Categories: failure

I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.
Herbert Bayard Swope
Categories: failure

Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. 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 afterwards carefully avoid.
John Keats
Categories: failure

You always pass failure on the way to success.
Mickey Rooney
Categories: failure

Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
Walt Whitman
Categories: failure

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

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Sir Winston Churchill
Categories: failure

We all have a few failures under our belt. It's what makes us ready for the successes.
Randy K. Milholland Midnight Macabre, 10-18-05
Categories: failure

If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style.
Quentin Crisp
Categories: failure

Success isn't permanent, and failure isn't fatal.
Mike Ditka
Categories: failure

Failures can be divided into those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought.
W. A. Nance Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure mediocrity

Men were born to succeed, not to fail.
Henry David Thoreau Light from Many Lamps
Categories: success failure

Failure is the line of least persistence.
W. A. Clarke Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure mistakes

I cannot give you a formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure -- which is: Try to please everybody.
Herbert Bayard Swope Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure compromise

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Power Quotes
Categories: fear afraid failure

To be human is to be fallible.
Dr. Arthur Freeman The 10 Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make and How to Avoid Them
Categories: perfectionism mistakes failure

The disease with which the human mind now labors is want of faith.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: faith character failure

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: success failure character

A fallible being will fail somewhere.
Samuel Johnson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: failure mistakes perfectionism

People waste a lot of time by not letting themselves fail. It's hard to let yourself fail -- to cut your losses and move on. But sometimes, that's the most expedient thing to do.
Timothy C. Draper "Unit of One" edited by Jill Rosenfeld, Fast Company, November 1999
Categories: failure mistakes success

When one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.
Kahlil Gibran Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: set an example mistakes errors failure

The greatest failure is the failure to try.
William A. Ward Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure fear mistakes

There is no failure except in no longer trying.
Elbert Hubbard The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: success failure action

The only people who never fail are those who never try.
Ilka Chase Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure mistakes action

A failure is a man who has blundered but is not able to cash in on the experience.
Elbert Hubbard The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: failure mistake experience

He who has never failed has never tried.
Emmett LeCompte Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure fear mistakes

A man would do nothing, if he waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with what he has done.
J. H. Newman The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations
Categories: perfectionism fear failure

If you truly feared failure, you'd be very successful.
Barbara Sher I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
Categories: failure success fear

My pride fell with my fortunes.
William Shakespeare (As You Like It) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: pride vanity conceit failure

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.
Henry David Thoreau The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: success friendship failure priorities

If I should fail you, do not sorrow;

Ogden Nash I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Ogden Nash
Categories: change personal growth failure

The world is moving so fast now-a-days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.
Elbert Hubbard The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: attitude belief success failure

An easy task becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.
Terence Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude mistake failure work

People do not inadvertantly stumble into failure. They think their way into it.
John B. Johnson Words for All Occasions
Categories: thoughts attitudes failure mistakes

If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you can't.
Mary Kay Ash Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Categories: attitude success failure determination

The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all -- doing nothing.
Benjamin Franklin Words for All Occasions
Categories: action failure mistakes inaction

The fear's as bad as falling.
William Shakespeare Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: fear failure mistake courage

Men are born to succeed--not to fail.
Henry David Thoreau The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: success failure destiny meaning

Hell is paved with good intentions.
Samuel Johnson Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: intention action word failure

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of absolute truth.
Samuel Butler The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: truth mistake failure fanaticism

The thing we fear we bring to pass.
Elbert Hubbard The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: fear destiny attitude failure

Optimism is a kind of heart stimulus--the digitalis of failure.
Elbert Hubbard The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: optimism failure success attitude

It doesn't matter how much milk you spill as long as you don't lose the cow.
Harvey Mackay Harvey Mackay's United Features syndicated column
Categories: mistakes failure success perseverance

...success and failure are like the two sides of the Mobius strip. They appear different, yet are fundamentally the same.
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: success failure growth learning

You don't have to get it right the first time.
Barbara Sher I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
Categories: failure mistakes action success

Real obstacles don't take you in circles. They can be overcome. Invented ones are like a maze.
Barbara Sher I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
Categories: obstacles success failure action

If you would not be known to do anything, never do it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: action reputation failure success

Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one's ideas, to take a calculated risk -- and to act.
Maxwell Maltz The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations
Categories: action courage success achievement failure

How many crimes committed merely because their authors could not endure being wrong!
Albert Camus The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: pride vanity perfectionism ego mistakes failure

A minute's success pays the failure of years.
Robert Browning The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: success goals vision mistakes failure

There is no Fate that plans men's lives. Whatever comes to us, good or bad, is usually the result of our own action or lack of action.
Herbert N. Casson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: action work effort success failure

Anxiety, fear that something bad may happen, is at the core of many of our self-defeating responses.
Jeanne Segal, Ph.D. Raising Your Emotional Intelligence: A Practical Guide
Categories: fear anxiety emotions bad habits failure

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure
Bill Cosby The 1911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
Categories: truth success failure principles character

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
Samuel Beckett The Penguin Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Quotations
Categories: mistakes failure failed errors learning

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.
Mary Pickford Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: failure mistakes errors perseverence determination

The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.
Lloyd Jones Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure success courage risk daring

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but a little want of knowledge is also a dangerous thing.
Samuel Butler The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: knowledge ignorance learning mistakes failure

One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.
Samuel Butler The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: judgement choice effort energy failure

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.
George Washington Carver The 13 Secrets of Power Performance
Categories: failure blame excuses personal responsibility

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the worst failure.
George Edward Woodberry Body, Mind and Spirit: Daily Inspiration for Healing and Wholeness
Categories: failure effort defeat mistakes perserverance

When you do nothing, you don't make mistakes; when you don't make mistakes, you do nothing.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: mistakes risk failure courage daring

It is no sin to attempt and fail. The only sin is not to make the attempt.
SueEllen Fried Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: success failure sin mistake action effort

Failure is not failure to meet your goal. Real failure is failure to reach as high as you possibly can. No man will ever truly know that he had succeeded until he experiences an apparent failure.
Robert Schuller Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure courage fear success achievement

The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
Bishop W. C. Magee Words for All Occasions
Categories: courage daring risk achievement failure

The happiness of most people is not ruined by great catastrophes or fatal errors, but by the repetition of slowly destructive little things.
Ernet Dimner The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: bad habits mistakes errors downfall failure

There's no real joy in emptiness, in doing nothing, in risk-free living: True success is always the last of a string of failed attempts to get it right.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: success failure mistakes risk courage

The life without men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?
Henry David Thoreau The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: success praise values priorities failure

I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process.
Thomas Edison "Trying Times Help to Build Real Character" by Harvey Mackay, Arizona Republic, October 31, 2001.
Categories: failure mistakes education success achievement

Oh how vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base, uncomely things it makes men do.
Samuel Johnson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: fear action emotion failure mistakes

Many of us grow up thinking of mistakes as bad, viewing errors as evidence of fundamental incapacity. This negative thinking pattern can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, which undermines the learning process. To maximize our learning it is essential to ask: "How can we get the most from every mistake we make?"
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: mistakes failure success attitude self-confidence learning

Great men rejoice in adversity, just as brave soldiers triumph in war.
Seneca The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: adversity difficulty challenges problems failure setbacks

Sometimes what a man escapes to is worse than what he escapes from.
Stan Lynde The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: planning goal decisions mistakes errors failure

To continue learning is to embrace the process of trial and error at higher and higher levels.
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: learning life growth mistakes failure success

He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.
Paul Tillich Thoughts on Leadership
Categories: risk daring courage strength mistakes failure

The path to accelerating and enjoying the learning process requires us to see success and failure as equally instructive and valuable.
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: learning life growth failure success mistakes

Many people dream of success. To me, success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.
Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda Motors Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: success vision failure introspection self-knowledge awareness

There are always risks when you chase after a dream because growth requires that you leave your comfort zone and enter
Stedman Graham You Can Make It Happen : A Nine-Step Plan for Success
Categories: risks dream growth failure success experience

Error moves with quick feet... and truth must never be lagging behind.
Alexander Crummell Power Quotes
Categories: mistakes apology error failure make it right correction

Hope is always available to us. When we feel defeated, we need only take a deep breath and say, "Yes," and hope will reappear.
Monroe Forester Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: hope faith defeat failure discouragement belief

We change constantly. Just as our cells die and are replenished every few months, new ideas present themselves continuously, opportunities bubble forth -- and our magnificent brains, all the while, keep processing millions of bits of information every day. If we're going to recognize and take advantage of the opportunities life affords us and at the same time worry well, we must accept this fundamental rule:

Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: change opportunities success worry fear failure

A man may fall many times but he won't be a failure until he says someone pushed him.
Elmer G. Letterman Body, Mind and Spirit
Categories: failure defeat blame dignity responsibility success

From failure can come valuable experience; from experience -- wisdom; from wisdom -- mutual trust; from mutual trust -- cooperation; from cooperation -- united effort; from united effort -- success.
William A. Ward Words for All Occasions
Categories: failure failing mistakes growth achievement success

Failures don't plan to fail; they fail to plan.
Harvey Mackay Harvey Mackay's United Features syndicated column
Categories: failure success vision mission planning priorities

If you are aware of your weaknesses and are constantly learning, your potential is virtually limitless. You can build something that will be a legacy.
Jay Sidhu 'A Leader's Journey' by Pamela Kruger, Fast Company Magazine, June 1999
Categories: growth change failure mistakes education potential

Our history is not our destiny.
Alan Cohen Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: past future growth mistakes success failure

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
Winston Churchill Power Quotes
Categories: defeat victory failure success problems consequences

Laziness is a secret ingredient that goes into failure. But it's only kept a secret from the person who fails.
Robert Half The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: lazy laziness success failure work effort

Our problem is not lack of knowing; it is the lack of doing.
Mark Hatfield Words for All Occasions
Categories: work effort action knowledge success failure

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.
Leonardo da Vinci The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation
Categories: action laziness failure success work effort

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
King Solomon Proverbs 16:18, Holy Bible
Categories: pride vanity vain conceited mistake failure

Success is never found. Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.
Winston Churchill The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: sucess victory failure defeat courage bravery

Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt.
William Shakespeare (Measure by Measure) Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Categories: doubt self-confidence fear opportunity success failure

The worst bankrupt is the man who has lost his enthusiasm. Let a man lose everything in the world but his enthusiasm and he will come through again to success.
H. W. Arnold Words for All Occasions
Categories: enthusiasm success failure difficulties problems challenges adversity

One mistake will never kill you. The same mistake over ``and over again will.
Harvey Mackay Harvey Mackay's column, "Fear of making mistakes is biggest mistake" in the 8/2/98 Arizona Republic.
Categories: mistakes errors failure self-defeating patterns forgiveness forgiving

Do not be too timid and squeamish...All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: life change growth mistakes failure success fear

If one has to submit, it is wasteful not to do so with the best grace possible.
Winston Churchill The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: character failure defeat compromise grace humility serve

If I'm going to fail, I want to fail big.
Walter Anderson The Confidence Course: Seven Steps to Self-Fulfillment
Categories: failure mistakes risk courage bravery daring success

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.
Helen Keller The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: self-pity depression sadness attitude success failure wisdom

What brings us out of comfort and fear is imagination -- creativity. Those who truly love danger aren't extreme athletes, triathaloners, or mountaineers. Creative people plunge into disaster every time they do something new. Because every time they try something new, they risk everything that's familiar to them. They have to confront their incompetence and stupidity, feelings that all of us carefully avoid. That's the journey of power and danger.
John Tarrant "How will you fail?" by Harriet Rubin, Fast Company, October 1999
Categories: imagination creativity courage strength failure risk power

One of the big differences between the nonachiever and the achiever is that the latter has mastered the art of applying the obvious.
Allan Cox Words for All Occasions
Categories: success failure procrastination action work effort ability

There is nothing wrong with making mistakes and not having all the answers, so long as we are willing to admit this and strive for personal betterment. Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out that they don't.
Leo Buscaglia Born for Love: Reflections on Loving
Categories: mistakes errors failure responsibility personal growth self-improvement

Hard work often leads to success. No work seldom does.
Harvey Mackay Harvey Mackay's United Features syndicated column
Categories: work effort determination success failure vision action

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.
Henry Ford Alexandra Stoddard's Book of Days
Categories: optimism pessimism self-confidence belief expectations success failure

Life isn't supposed to be an all or nothing battle between misery and bliss. Life isn't supposed to be a battle at all. And when it comes to happiness, well, sometimes life is just okay, sometimes it's comfortable, sometimes wonderful, sometimes boring, sometimes unpleasant. When your day's not perfect, it's not a failure or a terrible loss. It's just another day.
Barbara Sher I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was
Categories: life sorrow sadness joy happiness failure loss living

Success, in my view, is the willingness to strive for something you really want. The person not reaching the top is no less a success than the one who achieved it, if they both sweated blood, sweat and tears and overcame obstacles and fears. The failure to be perfect does not mean you're not a success.
Fran Tarkenton Like Klockwork: The Whimsy, Wit, and (sometime) Wisdom of a Key Largo Curmudgeon
Categories: perfectionism success willingness action obstacles fear failure

The greats often became great because they continued to believe in themselves despite apparent failures.
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: excellence success failure growth vision potential self-confidence

Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: success failure attitude mistakes victory defeat enthusiasm

Latent abilities are like clay. It can be mud on shoes, brick in a building or a statue that will inspire all who see it. The clay is the same. The result is dependent on how it is used.
James F. Lincoln The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: ability talent skill work effort success failure

There are two kinds of failures: The man who will do nothing he is told, and the man who will do nothing else.
Perle Thompson The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: failure initiative direction motivation goal vision leadership

Finish each day and be done with it...You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Light from Many Lamps
Categories: past mistakes failure peace serenity self-confidence opportunity

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don't!
If you want to win, but think you can't,
It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost;
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will;
It's all in the state of the mind.

Life's battles don't always go
To the stronger and faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.
Walter D. Wintle Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude optimism succes optimistic pessimism pessimistic failure

When you arrive at your future, will you blame your past?
Robert Half The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: future past present responsibility blame excuses failure

Action without thought is like shooting without aim.
American proverb The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation
Categories: action thought vision planning mission goal success failure

Life experience teaches that we generally get back what we put out. If we don't like what we are getting back, we should examine what we are putting out.
Eric Allenbaugh Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: happiness mood attitude reciprocation depression sadness success failure

If this is a blessing, it is certainly very well disguised.
Winston Churchill Power Quotes
Categories: blessing problem obstacle defeat failure attitude challenge difficulty

"I can't do it" never yet accomplished anything; "I will try" has performed wonders.
George P. Burnham The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: attitude determination success try negativity negative positivity positive failure

If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.
Thomas Watson, Sr., founder of IBM Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: failure success mistakes creativity challenges growth learning education

There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.
Clement Stone Words for All Occasions
Categories: attitude optimist optimism pessimist pessimism enthusiasm success failure

We seem to gain wisdom more readily through our failures than through our successes. We always think of failure as the antithesis of success, but it isn't. Success often lies just the other side of failure.
Leo Buscaglia Born for Love
Categories: failure success mistakes learning determination persevere growth on the job training

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing so futile.
Bertrand Russell Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations
Categories: commitment decision-making wishy-washy procrastination put off failure action

A common pitfall on the path of excellence is an overemphasis on comparing our progress with others. While competition can be a tremendous tool for stretching ourselves to new heights, too often it causes a lack of perspective. This loss of perspective can often be traced to the following cycle: losing becomes associated with failure, and failure with the loss of self-esteem.
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: excellence growth learning competition comparisons stretching perspective failure self-esteem

Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball.
Billie Jean King Treasury of Women's Quotations
Categories: mistakes failure courage bravery action effort daring dare boldness

I've never been afraid to admit when I've made a mistake. It nearly drives me nuts sometimes, making mistakes. I keep telling myself I should be perfect, but that isn't what we're here for. Perfection isn't an option for us; perfection is death, Micko. We're here to learn and change, and that means making mistakes.
spoken by William Pierce, a character in the novella Heads by Greg Bear Heads
Categories: mistakes errors failure learning growth education perfectionistic procrastination fear

Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly toward an object and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated?
Henry David Thoreau Light from Many Lamps
Categories: success work effort vision goal failure self-improvement growth mission

What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
Henry David Thoreau The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: give up giving up resignation quit quitting desperation depression sadness failure

It's to be expected that you make mistakes when you're breaking new ground.
Jerry Greenfield, cofounder of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Jump Start Your Brain
Categories: mistakes success failure leadership risk bravery strength courage vision

Love is not some complex, mystical abstraction. It is something accessible and human that we learn through our everyday experience, as often at times of failure as in moments of ecstasy.
Leo Buscaglia Born for Love
Categories: love learning failure experience actions relationships marriage friendships agape

It is better to do the wrong thing than to do nothing.
Winston Churchill The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: action inaction sympathy death condolences service ministry failure mistake

Most of us visualize on a daily basis, but we often do it unconsciously and in a negative fashion. It is called worrying. What happens to our bodies when we worry? We tense up, disrupt our normal breathing, and psycho-physically prepare ourselves for failure. Instead, learn to use positive visualization to prepare yourself for success. As you do you will transform the energy that supports your worrying into fuel for making your dreams come true.
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: visualization success failure worry stress wellness breathing energy dreams vision

Yes, there are times when something is legitimately not our fault. Blaming others, however, keeps us in a stuck state and is ultimately rough on our own self-esteem.
Eric Allenbaugh Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: blame responsibility accountability choice rut self-esteem mistakes failure problems growth learning

The only guide to man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.
Winston Churchill Power Quotes
Categories: conscience integrity character honor sincerity truth actions failure mistakes defeat

Genius is only the power of making continuous efforts. 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. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. As the tide goes out, so it comes clear in. In business, sometimes, prospects may seem darkest when really they are on the turn. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.
Elbert Hubbard Light from Many Lamps
Categories: genius effort action failure success patience achievement perseverance defeat purpose

How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.
Florence Nightingale The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: self-confidence self-assured strength bravery courage achievement success failure fear afraid

Don't take no for an answer, never submit to failure. Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes, but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed by youth.
Winston Churchill The Forbes Book of Business Quotations
Categories: no failure refusal defeat success mistakes character honesty sincerity virtue courage bravery

If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.
Albert Camus How to Want What You Have:
Categories: life sin mistake failure despair depression suicide appreciation gratitude meaning wishing focus

Knowing that no one avoids sorrow, humiliation, pain, or death creates a foundation for universal, unconditional compassion. If we know that these things cannot be avoided, then we might try to compete, wish, hope, and fear a little less frantically, which could make life more fun. In other words, when we really get it that life will be painful at times, we become more inclined to "stop and smell the roses."
Timothy Ray Miller How to Want What You Have
Categories: pain tragedy sorrow despair depression mistakes failure common groud leisure joy happiness

No matter how frustrated you may feel, there is always a way out. In every situation that arise, we choose to be powerful or powerless. It may not always feel like it, but it is a choice. And there are consequences for these choices in terms of the results we get, and the subsequent increase or decrease in our power and influence. If we choose powerlessness, it is often because we doubt there is any other option.
Blaine Lee The Power Principle: Influence with Honor
Categories: choices consequence power actions results failure victim mentality learned helplessness responsibility accountability

Many of us grow up with the idea that mistakes are bad, linking our self-esteem with continued success. We become afraid of making mistakes. So in order to achieve success, we tend to steer clear of areas that may lie outside the apparent realm of our natural talent. In this perverse equation, the secret of success becomes avoiding failure, leaving much of our potential untapped.
In order to reach our full potential to learn, we must accept and then transform anxiety and fear, relentlessly seeking accurate information on our performance. What used to be perceived as criticism now becomes a gift for constructive growth.
Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: mistakes self-esteem success confidence talent resistance failure potential learning performance criticism growth

...what I focus on in life is what I get. And if I concentrate on how bad I am or how wrong I am or how inadequate I am, if I concentrate on what I can't do and how there's not enough time in which to do it, isn't that what I get every time? And when I think about how powerful I am, and when I think about what I have left to contribute, and when I think about the difference I can make on this planet, then that's what I get. You see, I recognize that it's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it.
W. Mitchell Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: focus perspective mistakes balance success failure time power ability effectiveness action effort

You would be surprised how many people quit when faced with obstacles. As every good salesman knows, everything may not be possible today, but sooner or later, it is possible.
Earl Graves To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love: The Spiritual Dimension of Entrepreneuring
Categories: failure mistake giving up give up pessimism optimism vision goals success self-confidence possibility possibilities

One can never change the past, only the hold it has on you, and while nothing in your life is reversible, you can reverse it nevertheless.
Merle Shain Simple Abundance
Categories: past hindsight history focus choice letting go forgiveness mistakes errors failure start fresh

We don't always know what makes us happy. We know, instead, what we think should. We are baffled and confused when our attempts at happiness fail...We are mute when it comes to naming accurately our own preferences, delights, gifts, talents. The voice of our original self if often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people's expectations. The tongue of the original self is the language of the heart.
Julie Cameron The Vein of Gold : A Journey to Your Creative Heart
Categories: happiness happy joy failure gift talent authenticity judgementalism expectations opinions heart emotion spirituality

Failure is just part of the culture of innovation. Accept it and become stronger.
Albert Yu Fast Company magazine, December 1998, p. 132.
Categories: mistakes errors failure success personal growth self-improvement creativity innovate creation creative process

What factors are at play, for example, when people of high IQ flounder and those of modest IQ do surprisingly well? I would argue that the difference quite often lies in the abilities called here emotional intelligence, which include self-control, zeal and persistence, and the ability to motivate oneself.
Daniel P. Goleman Emotional Intelligence
Categories: success determination character personality self-control motivation self-starters wisdom knowledge work effort failure

...it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually...It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn.
M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled
Categories: problems obstacles challenges difficulties pain meaning life wisdom success failure courage growth spirituality

Things omitted are often more deadly than errors committed.
Leo Buscaglia Born for Love
Categories: mistakes errors failure sins of omission neglect indifference taking for granted relationships marriage love divorce

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.
Helen Keller The Book of Positive Quotations
Categories: attitude failure success vision persevere determination obstacles problems difficulties challenges overcoming effort beauty

Habits of pessimism lead to depression, wither achievement, and undermine physical health. The good news is that pessimism can be unlearned, and that with its removal depression, underachievement, and poor health can be alleviated.
Martin Seligman What You Can Change... and What You Can't
Categories: pessimism wellness sadness depression failure success achievement health attitude emotions feelings negative thinking optimism

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 up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself in a worth cause, who at best knows in the end the high achievement of triumph and who at worst, if he fails while daring greatly, knows his place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt Bits & Pieces magazine
Categories: criticism action effort success failure mistakes goal vision work advice strength bravery courage achievement

I've never been afraid to fail.
Michael Jordan, at the press conference where he announced he was leaving the NBA to pursue a career in baseball. Lessons from the Art of Juggling; How to Achieve Your Full Potential in Business, Learning and Life
Categories: success failure mistakes growth risk daring self-improvement dreams fear courage strength bravery stretching safety long-term vision

The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
Alfred Adler Wake-Up Calls : You Don't Have to Sleepwalk Through Your Life, Love, or Career!
Categories: risk courage strength bravery success failure mistake vision strength goals life living achievement

The best genius is that which absorbs and assimilates everything without doing the least violence to its fundamental destiny--that which we call character--but rather improving it and enhancing it as far as possible...Through training, instruction, contemplation, success, failure, advancement, hindrance, and ever more contemplation, the organs of man, in their instinctive, free activity, unite the acquired with the innate to produce a harmonious unity that astonished the world.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The Permanent Goethe Edited, Selected and with an Introduction by Thomas Mann
Categories: change introspection learning meditation personal growth failure mistakes success meditation achievement genius brilliance creativity

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.
Colin Powell You Can Make It Happen
Categories: success work effort learning education wisdom failure mistakes loyalty persistence persevere excellence leadership relationships persist persevere determination