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Success and failure

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“An understanding of the failure of capitalism, beginning in the twentieth century, requires a historical examination of the rise of neoliberalism, and how this has only served to increase the destructiveness of the system. Only then can we address the future of humanity in the twenty-first century.”
John Bellamy Foster (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“ID (intelligent design) is essentially a total failure of the imagination; just because you do not see how something could have evolved, doesn’t mean that it didn’t.”
Mordechai Ben-Ari (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fear is the hidden through-line in Trump’s life – fear of weakness, of inadequacy, of failure, of criticism and of insignificance. He has spent his life trying to outrun these fears by “winning” – as he puts it – and by redefining reality whenever the facts don’t serve the narrative he seeks to create. It hasn’t worked, but not for lack of effort.”
Tony Schwartz (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Put aside whatever suspicions you may have about whether Donald Trump will be directly implicated in the Russia investigation. Trump is right now, before our eyes and those of the world, committing an unbelievable and unforgivable crime against this country. It is his failure to defend.”
Charles M. Blow (born 1970) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trump, Treasonous Traitor (July 15, 2018), The New York Times.
“It is a collective failure, not just him, the left, including people like myself, no clear strategy.”
Owen Jones (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Given the failure of the two party establishments, it’s not entirely surprising that young people are looking elsewhere. Their votes are up for grabs, for those who are willing and able to offer something different. For the sake of the country, let’s hope those votes are won by people who are able to offer something different, and constructive, at the same time.”
Glenn Reynolds (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The archival record backs up the testimony of the survivors. Neither crop failure nor bad weather caused the famine in Ukraine.”
Anne Applebaum (born 1964) first seen 1917 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: as quoted at "Ukraine in the Flames of the 1917 Revolution" (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, September 13, 2017)
“One must forgive people their failure to understand. Good people are often guilty of faulty judgment.It is essential to be lenient with beginner’s mistakes. (414)”
Helena Roerich (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Jihad is the signature tune of Islamic history. If today’s Muslim rulers are reluctant to sound that note, it is often because they are concerned about the consequences of failure.”
M. J. Akbar (born 1951) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Akbar, M. J - The shade of swords_ Jihad and the conflict between Islam and christianity-Routledge (2008)
“Wil Morgan awoke from his regular anxiety dream, in which he had just finished second in a World’s Biggest Failure competition.”
Paul Jenkins (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The next morning, Wil Morgan awoke from a fitful night’s sleep and a rather disturbing variation of his anxiety dream in which he’d arrived too late to register for the World’s Biggest Failure competition and had been disqualified.”
Paul Jenkins (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In combat, attention to detail is the barrier between life and death. We generally don't like death, so we pay attention to details. We also don't like failure. We don't like failing in our mission and we don't like failing the people who are relying on us. Ignoring the small stuff leads to both of those unenviable failures.”
Dan Crenshaw (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If Jews persist in supporting communism directly or indirectly, that will be regrettable. By their failure to use the press, the radio and the banking house, where they stand so prominently, to fight communism as vigorously as they Nazism, the Jews invite the charge of being supporters of communism.”
Charles Coughlin (1891–1979) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Detroit News (November 28, 1938)
“I ain't no G, I'm just a regular failure; I ain't straight outta Compton, I'm straight out the trailer. Cuss like a sailor, drink like a Mick; my only words of wisdom are just <>.”
Kid Rock (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“NATO's failure to seriously examine its own role in what it euphemistically calls "uncertain times" should be more alarming to Americans and Europeans than its one-sided criticisms of Russia and China, whose contributions to the uncertainty of our times pale by comparison.”
Medea Benjamin (born 1952) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, What Planet Is NATO Living On? It's No Longer Useful to This One Salon, (24 February 2021)
“There's no question that this overall war on drugs has not only been a failure, it has created and exacerbated a number of other problems that continue to afflict people in this country...”
Tulsi Gabbard (born 1981) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in: For Tulsi Gabbard, Marijuana Sits At Nexus Of Good Policy And Smart Politics, Forbes, nu Tom Angell (March 7, 2019)
“Damage to residential buildings and civilian casualties are due to the failure of the Ukrainian air defense”
Vasily Nebenzya (born 1962) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Russia attributes its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure to Western arms supplies", MSN, 24 November 2022
“Englishmen look on death in quite a different light to what other nations do, and are not afraid of it. As I have mentioned elsewhere, most criminals may be seen going with wonderful courage and fortitude to the gallows. I have also remarked that the passions of this nation are extremely strong and violent; they cannot bear failure, and customs and example are, I think, a great incitement to them.”
César-François de Saussure (1705–1783) first seen 1727 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter VIII, Islington, near London, 29 May 1727, p. 198
“Ei! Eei! Eeei! Eeeei! Desgraça de televisão do Satanás! (quote he angrily shouts when he is told of a technical failure in the studio)”
Luiz Carlos Alborghetti (1945–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you wanna have that confident persona, the one that you guys taught me, you gotta forget the failure.”
Torrie Wilson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now I just want you guys to remember that not everything is as it seems and that fear is an enemy that affects all of us in some way but when you are willing to remember that permission is for pansies, to summon your swagger, and to forget the failure, you can win your match against fear anytime.”
Torrie Wilson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At the end of the day, nobody can tell you how to tackle failure or how to handle change. The world is very good at encouraging you to go along with the status quo and at basking in your successes.”
Viola Davis (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will not be a mystery to my daughter. She will know me and I will share my stories with her—the stories of failure, shame and accomplishment. She will know she's not alone in that wilderness.”
Viola Davis (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your ability to adapt to failure and navigate your way out of it, absolutely, one hundred percent, makes you who you are…”
Viola Davis (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fear of failure isn’t an easy thing to sit with, but it’s also what pushes you to try your hardest no matter the cost.”
Mark Holyoake (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have stressed that the cosmological constant (i.e. the dark energy) presents potentially the most striking failure of naturalness. One might hope to solve this problem by introducing new degrees of freedom. Supersymmetry helps to some extent.”
Michael Dine (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Faithfulness requires the courage to risk everything on Jesus, the willingness to keep growing, and the readiness to risk failure throughout our lives.”
Brennan Manning (1934–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any man who tries to do the right thing and continues to try, is not a failure in the sight of God.”
J. Golden Kimball (1853–1938) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conference Report, April 1907
“We are one and all God's children. He created us and he never created a failure, and he created you.”
J. Golden Kimball (1853–1938) first seen 1937 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conference Report, October 1937
“Do not view failure as the be all and end all. It does not define you. Instead, take what you have learned and apply it somewhere new.”
Bhanu Choudhrie (born 1978) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Bhanu Choudhrie - Founder of C&C Alpha Group", IdeaMensch (May 2019)
“If the government has any courage, it will punish those at the top of failed banks. Accountability is critical in every area of human endeavour – there has to be a penalty for failure otherwise it's only a matter of time before the economic pain our banks have caused to so many innocent businesses and home owners is forgotten.”
Andrea Leadsom (born 1963) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Written on her blog in 2009. Quoted by Buzzfeed News. 31 Things We Learned From Reading A Decade's Worth Of Blog Posts By Andrea Leadsom (9 July 2016)
“The more foolproof you think something is, the worse the failure when it happens.”
Charles Sheffield (1935–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The war on drugs has been a catastrophic failure... We criminalise thousands of people, blighting their careers ... When people buy cannabis from criminals, they have no idea what they are buying.”
Norman Lamb (born 1957) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lib Dems to back a 'regulated cannabis market' in UK BBC News (12 May 2017)
“Conquerors live by conquest; the first failure is a signal for the conquered to rise against them.”
Jack Williamson (1908–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reality and logic don’t matter to her. She needs this so badly, failure isn’t even in the realm of possibilities.”
Tomi Adeyemi (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I just keep my head down and try to accomplish what my parents set out for me: that there wasn't anything I couldn't do. But I also look up periodically and think, "Who else can I pull along?" Because it's a failure if I'm up here by myself.”
Gwen Ifill (1955–2016) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On being viewed as a breakthrough figure in “The Great Moderator: Gwen Ifill on Witnessing History” in O Magazine (2009)
“A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn't even know existed can render your own computer unusable.”
Leslie Lamport (born 1941) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Email of 28 May 1987 https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/distributed-system.txt
“In my view, there are many exciting possibilities for cooperation between social and cultural anthropologists on the one hand, and scholars with a biological perspective on the other, but they are often lost in aggressive academic turf wars and a failure to engage seriously with each other’s points of view.”
Thomas Hylland Eriksen (1962–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must see that all places, times and conscious organisms are equally "this one". For a failure to see this must distort our view by forcing us to accommodate in it what seems to be our own special objective status; and that awkward accommodation must then ruin any prospect of discovering the truly objective universal principles that govern the world.”
Arnold Zuboff (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The greatest challenge facing Nigeria today is not the absence of ideas but the failure of institutions.”
Olusegun Adeniyi (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Failure to live up to a truth doesn’t make it any less true, less worth striving for, or less worth defending.”
Shaun Chamberlin first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Confessions of a Hypocrite: Utopia in the Age of Ecocide" Kosmos (2016)
“Many of the ethnic and other parochial tensions that have tended to create insecurity and outright conflict, time and time again, are largely as a result of failure to deliberately undertake nation-building efforts.”
Yemi Osinbajo (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Was she a bit mad?" "Mad? Oh, no - unless you would call a failure to grow up a kind of madness - in which case there would be very few sane people.”
John Wyndham (1903–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our job is to restore the helix... because congestive heart failure is the major killer in the world today. ...[T]he thing that makes the heart very effective is the way the spiral of the ventricle is formed. ...The minute you ...stretch the ventricle... the tranverse part... in the basal loop, it doesn't contract as effectively.”
Gerald Buckberg (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In managing heart failure in dilated hearts, we must recognize its cause is flawed heart anatomy... normality is restored after rebuilding the natural cardiac form.”
Gerald Buckberg (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have a way of looking at things, because I discover failure and find solutions. ...I'm grateful that I've been able to implement medical care that's given, but realize there are major limitations, major failures... I have spent... fifty years finding solutions to many of those different problems.”
Gerald Buckberg (1935–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The COVID-19 outbreak is yet another demonstration of how the Indian poor are systematically excluded from the government’s policy-making. A case in point is the government’s failure to account for the 40 million poor and homeless children before declaring the lockdown.”
Armin Rosencranz (born 1937) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: COVID-19, the Government’s Response, and India’s Sustainable Development Goals (May 22, 2020), co-written with Surya Gupta, edited by Tim Zubizarreta,
“In order to handle failure, you need two machines. [...] You have to be interested in distributed programming. You have to be interesting in parallel computing. You have to be interested in concurrent programming.”
Joe Armstrong (programmer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have to analyze the consequences of a failure and that to the specification.”
Joe Armstrong (programmer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“and ... as leaders of [CREW]... describe Trump's conduct as a "flagrant abuse" of the Constitution for personal profit. ...Painter, the Bush ethics chief... is almost apoplectic at Trump's conduct and the failure of his fellow Republicans to speak up.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source