21 English quotes
What famous people learned from winning, losing and trying again.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Often attributed to Winston Churchill
Meaning: Winning doesn't last forever, and losing doesn't end everything. What really matters is having the strength to keep going.
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
– Often attributed to Thomas Edison
Meaning: Every failed attempt teaches you something, so it isn't really a failure. It brings you closer to the way that does work.
– Woody Allen
Meaning: Many people never succeed simply because they never start or don't turn up. Just being there and trying puts you ahead of most people.
“I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
– Michael Jordan, Nike advertisement (1997)
Meaning: One of the best basketball players ever says his many failures are the reason he became great. Each mistake taught him how to improve.
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
– Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho (1983)
Meaning: Failing is normal and not a reason to stop. Each time you try again, your failure can be a little better than the last.
“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
– Albert Einstein, LIFE magazine (1955)
Meaning: Don't just chase money or fame. Try to be a person who gives something useful and good to others.
“Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.”
– Henry Ford, My Life and Work (1922)
Meaning: When you fail, you get a new start – and this time you know more than you did before.
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
– Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World (1762)
Meaning: What makes us admirable is not that we never fail, but that we always get back up. This line is often wrongly credited to Confucius or Nelson Mandela.
– J. K. Rowling, Harvard commencement address (2008)
Meaning: Everyone fails sometimes. The only way to avoid failure is never to try anything – and that is a failure too.
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”
– Bill Gates, The Road Ahead (1995)
Meaning: Winning can make clever people overconfident and careless. You often learn more from losing than from winning.
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same...”
– Rudyard Kipling, the poem "If" (1910)
Meaning: Don't let success make you proud or failure make you hopeless. Both are temporary and less important than they seem, so stay calm with each.
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”
– Robert F. Kennedy, Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
Meaning: Big success needs big risks. If you are not willing to fail badly, you will never do anything great.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.”
– Maya Angelou, interview in Black Women Writers at Work (1983)
Meaning: You will lose many times in life, but you should never let those losses destroy your spirit. Losing a battle is different from giving up.
– Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (1901)
Meaning: Judge success by how much someone has struggled to get where they are, not only by how high they are now.
– Emily Dickinson, Success is counted sweetest (c. 1859)
Meaning: People who have never won understand best how wonderful winning must be, because they want it so much.
– Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning (preface to the 1992 edition)
Meaning: Success comes as a side effect of doing something you care about. If you chase success itself, it keeps moving away.
“There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
– Christopher Morley, Where the Blue Begins (1922)
Meaning: Real success is not money or fame but the freedom to live the way you choose.
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
– Often attributed to Albert Einstein
Meaning: Mistakes are a sign that you are trying new things. If you never make any, you are probably playing it too safe.
– Colin Powell
Meaning: There is no magic trick to success. You get there by preparing well, working hard and learning from your mistakes.
“Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.”
– Napoleon Hill, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude (1960)
Meaning: Bad experiences can lead to something good later. Inside every difficulty is the chance of an advantage, if you look for it.
– Yoda, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
Meaning: Failure teaches us more than anything else. Yoda famously speaks with the words in an unusual order – in normal English: "Failure is the greatest teacher."
