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Success and failure

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“Take the happiest man, the one most envied by the world, and in nine cases out of ten his inmost consciousness is one of failure. Either his ideals in the line of his achievements are pitched far higher than the achievements themselves, or else he has secret ideals of which the world knows nothing, and in regard to which he inwardly knows himself to be found wanting.”
William James (1842–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are only two forces in the world that simplify organizations: one is failure, the other is leadership.”
Greg McKeown (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was our fault, and our very great fault—and now we must turn it to use. We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Lesson, Stanza 8 (1899-1902).
“Philosophers' Syndrome: mistaking a failure of the imagination for an insight into necessity.”
Daniel Dennett (1942–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A prosthetically enhanced imagination is still liable to failure, especially if it is not used with sufficient rigor.”
Daniel Dennett (1942–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The economics establishment (universities, regulators, central bankers, government officials, various organisations staffed with economists) lost its legitimacy with the failure of the system. It is irresponsible and foolish to put our trust in the ability of such experts to get us out of this mess. Instead, find the smart people whose hands are clean.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The “shocking and totally unexpected” loss by the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what is happening to the our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden. Many of our players were openly hostile to America - No other country behaved in such a manner, or even close. WOKE EQUALS FAILURE. Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!”
Donald Trump (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders”
Donald Trump (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“MSNBC IS DOING SO POORLY IN THE RATINGS THAT THEY ARE LOOKING TO CHANGE THEIR NAME IN ORDER TO GET AWAY FROM THE STENCH OF THEIR FAKE NEWS PRODUCT. SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH THEIR WEAK AND INEFFECTIVE OWNER, ‘CONCAST,’ HEADED BY DOPEY BRIAN ROBERTS, HOPELESSLY AND AIMLESSLY FLAILING IN THE WIND IN AN ATTEMPT TO DISASSOCIATE ITSELF FROM THE GARBAGE THAT THEY CREATED! MSNBC IS A FAILURE BY ANY NAME!!!”
Donald Trump (born 1946) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trump Rants Against MSNBC After Lawrence O’Donnell Mocks His ‘Cankle’ Issue" TV Insider (August 21, 2025)
“To understand why George fell for this story, one must remember his stifled romanticism, his sense of personal failure, his deep need to believe. The thing came to him like, or rather instead of, a religious conversion.”
Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Time Fighter” (p. 67); originally published in Fantastic Universe, March 1957
“If you're going to create, create a lot. Creativity is not like playing the slot machines, where failure to win means you go home broke. With creativity, if you don't win, you're usually no worse off than if you hadn't played.”
Scott Adams (1957–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no such thing as “safe” Socialism. If it's safe, it's not Socialism. And if it's Socialism, it's not safe. The signposts of Socialism point downhill to less freedom, less prosperity, downhill to more muddle, more failure. If we follow them to their destination, they will lead this nation into bankruptcy.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Conservative Central Council ("The Historic Choice") (20 March 1976)
“Destiny could not bring him this far only to deal him failure!”
Jack Vance (1916–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To the president the Democrats should be saying, Double or Nothing is Not a Foreign Policy.The great bulk of the public doesn't believe this president any more when he tries to gin up a phony crisis. They don't believe he'd have much of an idea of how to deal with a real one. Enough of the lies. Enough of the incompetence and failure.No buying into another of the president's phony crises.”
Josh Marshall (born 1969) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Talking Points Memo (2006-04-10)
“But wow! This goofy child president we have on our hands now. He is demonstrably a fool and a failure, and this is only the summer of '03. The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse. . . The Bush family must be very proud of themselves today, but I am not. Big Darkness, soon come. Take my word for it.”
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Big Darkness" (22 July 2003)
“But wow! This goofy child president we have on our hands now. He is demonstrably a fool and a failure, and this is only the summer of '03. By the summer of 2004, he might not even be living in the White House. Gone, gone, like the snows of yesteryear.”
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I knew a Buddhist once, and I've hated myself ever since. The whole thing was a failure.”
Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The failure of the many attempts to measure terrestrially any effects of the earth’s motion...”
Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) first seen 1958 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Theory of Relativity, 1958, p. 4
“Men would bless you or curse you; The curse, a protest against failure, The blessing, a hymn of the hunter Who comes back from the hills With provision for his mate.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most of us are good "starters" but poor "finishers" of everything we begin. Moreover, people are prone to give up at the first signs of defeat. There is no substitute for persistence. Failure cannot cope with Persistance. p. 86”
Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...But when it comes to the subject of the arts, Spinoza is oddly reticent. His failure to consider the aesthetic response—surely a profound facet of human experience—is all the stranger when one compares him, again, to Plato who directs as much conflicted pondering to the arts, particularly to poetry, as to erotic love.”
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rebecca Goldstein, in her article 'Literary Spinoza,'. In: The Oxford Handbook of Spinoza, edited by Michael Della Rocca (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)
“To acknowledge the presence of fear is to give birth to failure.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) first seen 1905 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Journal entry, "Reading Notes" (1905-1907), quoted in Ruth Elvish Mantz and John Middleton Murry, The Life of Katherine Mansfield (1933), p. 212
“Through its support of mass immigration, its paralysis in power to prevent 12-20 million illegal aliens from entering and staying, its failure to address the “anchor-baby” issue, the Republican Party has birthed a new electorate that will send it the way of the Whigs.”
Pat Buchanan (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On this showing, the nature of the breakdowns of civilizations can be summed up in three points: a failure of creative power in the minority, an answering withdrawal of mimesis on the part of the majority, and a consequent loss of social unity in the society as a whole.”
Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vol. 4 (1955 [1939]), part B, p. 6
“A life which does not go into action is a failure.”
Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Vol. 10 (1954)
“I guess my biggest failure was not getting reelected. [The loss taught me] not to ever let American hostages be held for 444 days in a foreign country without extracting them. I did the best I could, but I failed.”
Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Big Think, in reference to the 1980 presidential election, and the Iran hostage crisis (December 14, 2010).
“At the end of what is called the "sexual life" the only love which has lasted is the love which has everything, every disappointment, every failure and every betrayal, which has accepted even the sad fact that in the end there is no desire so deep as the simple desire for companionship.”
Graham Greene (1904–1991) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May We Borrow Your Husband? (1967)
“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 Edison (1847–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Diary and Sundry Observations of Thomas Alva Edison (1948), p. 110
“But there is still a considerable difference between a failure to do enough that is right and a determination to do much that is wrong.”
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Language is a finite instrument crudely applied to an infinity of ideas, and one consequence of the failure to take account of this is that modern philosophy has made itself ridiculous by analysing such statements as, "This is a good bacon sandwich," or, "Bedser had a good wicket.”
Tom Stoppard (1937–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Save me from that! To pour your life into sons for eighteen or twenty years, and then have the government take them away and waste them cleaning up after some failure of politics—no thanks.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Power is safety.” “Let me give you a hint,” said Miles. “There is no safety. Only varying states of risk. And failure.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And what goes on in the head of a walking dead man? Miles wondered. What personal failure could he possibly fear more than death itself?”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not all readers are prepared, at all times, to make independent judgments. But the failure of modern education to equip them to do so even when they have the inclination creates a serious gap in modern culture.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The failure of women to produce great works of art and all that can be explained in terms of this statement. Insofar as she escapes or rejects her conditioning, the little girl may excel in those kinds of intellectual activity that are called creative, but eventually she either capitulates to her conditioning, or the conflicts become so pressing that her efficiency is hampered.”
Germaine Greer (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We live in an essential and unresolvable tension between our unity with nature and our dangerous uniqueness. Systems that attempt to place and make sense of us by focusing exclusively either on the uniqueness or the unity are doomed to failure. But we must not stop asking and questing because the answers are complex and ambiguous.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.”
Jane Wagner (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Lily Tomlin
“More important than his record as a debater is Mr. Bush's record as a president. And therein lies the true opportunity for John Kerry — notwithstanding the president's political skills, his performance in office amounts to a catastrophic failure.”
Al Gore (born 1948) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How to Debate George Bush" in The New York Times (29 September 2004).
“One of the clearest indications of the impending loss of intimacy with one's soul is the failure to recognize the existence of a soul in those over whom power is exercised, especially if the helpless come to be treated as animals, and degraded.”
Al Gore (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All war represents a failure of diplomacy.”
Tony Benn (1925–2014) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (28 February 1991)
“Failure is a state of mind. It’s like one of those sand traps an ant lion digs. You keep sliding back. Takes one hell of a jump to get out of it.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The failure of a free press in most countries is usually blamed on the readers. Every nation gets the government—and the press—it deserves. This is too facile a remark. The people deserve better in most governments and press. Readers, in millions of cases, have no way of finding out whether their newspapers are fair or not, honest or distorted, truthful or colored....”
George Seldes (1890–1995) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lords of the Press (1938)
“But as precedents survive like the clavicle in the cat, long after the use they once served is at an end, and the reason for them has been forgotten, the result of following them must often be failure and confusion from the merely logical point of view.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) first seen 1879 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Common Carriers and the Common Law," 13 Am. Law Rev. 608, 630 (1879).
“I hope I never need to believe in God. It would be an awful confession of failure.”
Kenneth Tynan (1927–1980) first seen 1966 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Critic Kenneth Tynan Has Mellowed But Is Still England's Stingingest Gadfly" by Godfrey Smith in The New York Times (9 January 1966)
“A real failure does not need an excuse. It is an end in itself.”
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us.”
Paul Keating (born 1944) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1992 The Redfern Speech, launching International Year of Indigenous Peoples
“The worst of all of this is the lie that condoms really protect against AIDS. The condom failure rate can be as high as 20 percent. Would you get on a plane — or put your children on a plane — if one of five passengers would be killed on the flight? Well, the statistic holds for condoms, folks.”
Rush Limbaugh (1951–2021) said by 2021 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hejira was an obscure word, but it said exactly what I wanted. Running away, honorably. It dealt with the leaving of a relationship, but without the sense of failure that accompanied the breakup of my previous relationships. I felt that it was not necessarily anybody’s fault. It was a new attitude.”
Joni Mitchell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This president is a miserable failure on foreign policy and on the economy and he's got to be replaced.”
Dick Gephardt (born 1941) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a presidential debate on September 4, 2003