Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Success and failure
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“Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
Karl Popper (misattributed) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Colin Powell in My American Journey (1995)
“My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.”
Jack Kerouac (misattributed) first seen 1947 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Not a Kerouac quote, but by Allen Ginsberg in his journal of 30 July 1947. Published in The Book of Martyrdom and Artifice, page 199.
“A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure.”
Margaret Thatcher (misattributed) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to her in Commons debates, 2003-07-02, column 407 and Commons debates, 2004-06-15 column 697. According to a letter to the Daily Telegraph by Alistair Cooke on 2 November 2006, this sentiment originated with …
“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.”
Kin Hubbard (misattributed) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Elbert Hubbard, part of a larger comment quoted from Electrical Review without further attribution in The Search for the North Pole (1896) by Evelyn Briggs Baldwin, p. 520, this was later published as part of various wo…
“Show me a good and gracious loser, and I'll show you a failure.”
Knute Rockne (disputed) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attribution to Rockne sometime in the 1920s mentioned in Safire's Political Dictionary (2008) by William Safire, p. 401, but there is no definite mention of this yet located prior to the 1980s; in The Yale Book of Quota…
“[President Bush should] quit hiding behind the Secret Service, come out and face the nation and explain his failure to protect the country.”
Peter Jennings (misattributed) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed as an on-air remark (11 September 2001), but fabricated by Lt. Gen. Billy M. Thomas (ret). Discussed and later denied by radio host Rush Limbaugh.
“I'm not used to winning nothing – it's the first time it's happened to me. I'm disappointed. It's a failure.”
Zlatan Ibrahimović (attributed) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After AC Milan lose the Scudetto to Juventus in 2012 .
“Failure is not an option.”
Eugene F. Kranz (misattributed) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement attributed to him in the film Apollo 13 (1995), which he had not actually used in that crisis. He later used the phrase as the title of his autobiography.
“Nixon has the audacity to tell me to do nothing in the interest of my country until he dictactes where that interest lies. At the same time he threatens me that failure to follow his so-called advice will be to jeopardize the special relations between our two countries. I say to hell with such special relations.”
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (attributed) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Asadollah Alam (1991), The Shah and I: The Confidential Diary of Iran's Royal Court, 1968-77, page 278
“The fear of losing money is real. Everyone has it. Even the rich. But it’s not fear that is the problem. It’s how you handle fear. It’s how you handle losing. It’s how you handle failure that makes the difference in one’s life. That goes for anything in life, not just money. The primary difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they handle that fear.”
Robert Kiyosaki (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s a Texan’s attitude toward risk, reward and failure I’m talking about. It’s how they handle life. They live it big.”
Robert Kiyosaki (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Texans don’t bury their failures. They get inspired by them. They take their failures and turn them into rallying cries. Failure inspires Texans to become winners. But that formula is not just the formula for Texans. It is the formula for all winners.”
Robert Kiyosaki (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Failure inspires winners.”
Robert Kiyosaki (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The greatest secret of winners is that failure inspires winning.”
Robert Kiyosaki (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had seen firsthand that we were wasting unimaginable amounts of our tax dollars, increasing crime and despair, and severely and unnecessarily harming people’s lives, particularly our children’s, by our failed drug policy. In short, I had seen that our drug laws were a failure, and I simply could not keep quiet about it any longer.”
James P. Gray (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls”
Sam Bankman-Fried (born 1992) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John Jay Ray III, Sam Bankman-Fried Is Going Down Posting (By Will Gottsegen November 19, 2022)
“I am a Levantine because I see war as the total failure of common sense, an execrable last resort. And because I am a Levantine, all fundamentalists on all sides, from Khomeini to Kahane, will always want to destroy me and all Levantines like me, here and in the neighboring countries. ("On Being a Levantine")”
Shulamith Hareven (1930–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The politicians are producing the same strategies that until now have only led to failure.”
Yosra Frawes (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must move beyond punishment alone. What is needed is transformation. FGM is not solely a woman's issue; it is a societal failure.”
Fatou Baldeh (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The secret of my success is longevity.”
Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Herbert F. Vetter, "Not The Average Philosopher", Harvard Magazine, May/June 1997, Volume 99, Number 5. On his selection to the Library of Living Philosophers
“Football … is a ballet of wondrous beauty choreographed by highly skilled performers, dramatising the conflict between good and evil that takes place in every heart. And, at the same time it reflects the impatient immediacy of modern society in that success breeds immortality, while the procurement of second place begets anonymity.”
Damien Richardson (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If God has made the world a perfect mechanism, He has at least conceded so much to our imperfect intellect that in order to predict little parts of it, we need not solve innumerable differential equations, but can use dice with fair success.”
Max Born (1882–1970) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Einstein's Statistical Theories" in Albert Einstein : Philosopher-Scientist (1951) edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, p. 176
“While thinking when sober, our success at reaching our goals by using the First Baltic Front troops, the Memel operation, it can't be disregarded, that they [the troops] not only honorably accomplished their powerful strategic operation, but also an infusion of victory for the Soviet armed forces and an entrance into the final stages of the war.”
Hovhannes Bagramyan (1897–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "I. C. Bagramyan: A Photo Album About A Soviet Marshal" - Yerevan - 1987
“It is the conscious man or woman who finds the secret of happiness and contentment; and that, surely, is the ultimate success.”
Barry Long (1926–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The engines that have driven poetry's institutional success — the explosion of academic writing programs, the proliferation of subsidized magazines and presses, the emergence of a creative-writing career track, and the migration of American literary culture to the university — have unwittingly contributed to its disappearance from public view.”
Dana Gioia (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poets serious about making careers in institutions understand that the criteria for success are primarily quantitative. They must publish as much as possible as quickly as possible. The slow maturation of genuine creativity looks like laziness to a committee. Wallace Stevens was forty-three when his first book appeared. Robert Frost was thirty-nine. Today these sluggards would be unemployable.”
Dana Gioia (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No Art can be grafted with success on another art. For though they all profess the same origin, and to proceed from the same stock, yet each has its own peculiar modes both of imitating nature, and of deviating from it, each for the accomplishment of its own particular purpose. These deviations, more especially, will not bear transplantation to another soil.”
Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) first seen 1786 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Discourse no. 13, delivered on December 11, 1786; vol. 2, p. 134.
“He was a terrific writer and was the most responsible for the success and development of Batman. He really was the background for Batman; Bob Kane had ideas while Bill sort of organized them".”
Bill Finger (1914–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth is, all we ever cared to do was top the bullshit hair metal bands that enjoyed undue success for their subpar existence.”
Slash (musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though a hundred crooked paths may conduct to a temporary success, the one plain and straight path of public and private virtue can alone lead to a pure and lasting fame and the blessings of posterity.”
Edward Everett (1794–1865) said by 1865 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Edward Everett, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 352.
“There is no secret ingredient or hidden formula responsible for the success of the best Japanese companies.”
Akio Morita (1921–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this struggle, some success has already been scored. I think it is generally recognised that the activity of the Prime Ministers of the Sponsoring Countries which invited you here had a not unimportant role to play in ending the fighting in Indo-China.”
Sukarno (1901–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So, let this Asian-African Conference be a great success! Make the "Live and let live" principle and the "Unity in diversity" motto the unifying force which brings us all together-to seek in friendly, uninhibited discussion, ways and means by which each of us can live his own life, and let others live their own lives, in their own way, in harmony, and in peace.”
Sukarno (1901–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We cannot bank our hopes on possibilities. We must put our trust in ourselves, in our capabilities and efforts and strength and preparations not only for our success but even to avoid our own defeat.”
Aung San (1915–1947) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Presidential address to the AFPFL Supreme Council Session (August 1946)
“How long must the church live before it will learn that strength is won by action, and success by work, and that all this immeasurable feeding without action and work is a positive damage to it — that it is the procurer of spiritual obesity, gout, and debility.”
Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in A Joke, a Quote, & the Word : Feed Your Body, Soul and Spirit (2006) by Ronald P. Keeven, p. 147
“Here is one of the best bits of advice every given about the fine art of human relationships. "If there is any one secret of success," says Henry Ford, "it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 42 (in 2016 edition)
“I know from people I work with, that people say "I want to have Heidi’s career," and my friends are like, "but she also works very hard." It's the truth! It's not as if I sit back and watch things fly onto my plate. I went for a lot of the things. (Success) doesn't happen by waiting for things to happen because there are other people who are hungry. The early bird catches a worm.”
Heidi Klum (born 1973) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by InStyle December 2008
“I deem we have still much to do and will of course strive for stabilizing the situation in the country and continuing reforms. I am confident in success. All we need at this point is public order.”
Serzh Sargsyan (born 1954) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Government of the Republic of Armenia (March 7, 2008)
“If we add state capitalism to the [[George W. Bush|[George W.] Bush]] administration’s success in eroding both the US Constitution and the power of Congress, we may be witnessing the final death of accountable constitutional government.”
Paul Craig Roberts (born 1939) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Bitter Fruits of Deregulation, CounterPunch (24 October 2008)
“Science’s success did not need a God to explain it; the world was enough.”
Gregory Benford (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The break-up of the European Union is a Kremlin goal and Brexit was a great Kremlin success.”
John Sweeney (journalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only ambition is fired by the coincidences of success and easy accomplishment but nothing is quite as splendidly uplifting to the heart as the defeat of a human being who battles against the invincible superiority of fate. This is always the most grandiose of all tragedies, one sometimes created by a dramatist but created thousands of times by life.”
Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stellar Moments in Human History [Sternstunden der Menschheit] (1953), p. 280, as translated by Marion Sonnenfeld
“Only a numskull is pleased at being a so-called 'success' with women, only a dunderhead is puffed up by it. A real man is much more likely to be dismayed at realizing that a woman has lost her heart to him when he can't reciprocate her feelings.”
Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man has two primary drives in early adulthood: one toward power, success, and accomplishment; the other toward love, companionship, and sex. Half of life then was out of order. To go before them was to stand up as a man and admit that I was only half a man.”
Neil Strauss (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The success of a relationship should be measured by its depth, not by its length.”
Neil Strauss (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Y]ou must have a clear picture in your mind of what success would look, sound, and feel like.”
David Allen (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The balance you have between drive & patience may be your master key to success.”
David Allen (born 1945) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 26 October 2011
“The multitude of formulas (for living the Christian life with success) proposed by Christian writers, preacher, conference speakers, and televangelists simply confuse me. They have different ideas about how it is done, offering promises of fulfillment and joy based on three easy steps, four points of action, or the five smooth stones that David threw.”
Don Miller (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whenever you interview people who are truly successful at their chosen profession—from teaching to telemarketing, acting to accounting—you discover that the secret to their success lies in their ability to discover their strengths and to organize their life so that these strengths can be applied.”
Marcus Buckingham (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source