Top 200 Failure Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed.”

— Robert T. Kiyosaki

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Perseverance Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Success

2. “If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost.”

— Zig Ziglar

Also featured in: Attitude Quotes, Positive Life Quotes, Motivational Work Quotes

3. “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”

— Thomas J. Watson

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Business Quotes, Hard Work Quotes, Learning Quotes

4. “Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.”

— Marilyn Vos Savant

Also featured in: Perseverance Quotes, Life Lessons Quotes, Giving Up Quotes, Thought Provoking Quotes

5. “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. ”

— Bill Cosby

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Inspirational Quotes

6. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

— Michael Jordan

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Inspirational Quotes, Perseverance Quotes

7. “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.”

— John F. Kennedy

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Courage Quotes, Taking Action Quotes, Achievement Quotes

8. “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

— Thomas A. Edison

Also featured in: Startup Quotes, Success Quotes, Perseverance Quotes, Persistence Quotes, Hard Work Quotes

9. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

— Thomas A. Edison

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Positive Quotes, Startup Quotes, Inspirational Quotes, Perseverance Quotes

10. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

— Winston Churchill

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Success Quotes, Inspirational Quotes, Courage Quotes, Perseverance Quotes

11. “Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”

— Oscar Wilde

Also featured in: Experience Quotes, Reflection Quotes, Sarcastic Quotes

12. “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

— Winston Churchill

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Success Quotes, Persistence Quotes

13. “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.”

— J.K. Rowling

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes, Courage Quotes, Deep Quotes About Life, Short Inspiring Quotes

14. “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.”

— Confucius

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Hard Work Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Success

15. “Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.”

— Oprah Winfrey

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Courage Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Success

16. “There are no secrets to success: don’t waste time looking for them. Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty to those for whom you work, and persistence.”

— Colin Powell

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Persistence Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Work, Motivational Quotes for Success

17. “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

Also featured in: Persistence Quotes, Growth Quotes, Quotes About Trying, Encouraging Quotes

18. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”

— Maya Angelou

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Life Quotes, Positive Motivational Quotes

19. “Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.”

— George Soros

Also featured in: Mistake Quotes, Understanding Quotes

20. “Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.”

— Jim Rohn

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes for Work, Motivational Work Quotes, Growth Mindset Quotes

21. “Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

— Henry Ford

Also featured in: Positive Quotes, Startup Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Work

22. “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.”

— H. G. Wells

Also featured in: Positive Life Quotes, Moving On Quotes, Quotes About Trying, Adversity Quotes

23. “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

— Confucius

Also featured in: Positive Quotes, Success Quotes, Courage Quotes

24. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.”

— Michael Jordan

Also featured in: Startup Quotes, Change Quotes, Powerful Motivational Quotes

25. “Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. ”

— Jim Rohn

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Motivational Monday Quotes, Accountability Quotes

26. “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”

— Richard Branson

Also featured in: Positive Quotes, Startup Quotes, Business Quotes

27. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

— Paulo Coelho

Also featured in: Inspirational Quotes, Deep Quotes About Life, Powerful Motivational Quotes

28. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

— Albert Einstein

Also featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes, Inspirational Quotes, Change Quotes

29. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

— Bill Gates

Also featured in: Success Quotes, Business Quotes, Inspirational Quotes for Work

30. “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes, Perseverance Quotes, Spirituality Quotes, Encouraging Quotes

31. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.”

— Bill Cosby

Also featured in: Success Quotes

32. “Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.”

— Denis Waitley

Also featured in: Optimistic Quotes, Moving On Quotes, Quotes About Trying, Progress Quotes

33. “Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”

— George E. Woodberry

Also featured in: Effort Quotes, Giving Up Quotes, Self-Belief Quotes, Determination Quotes

34. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.”

— Og Mandino

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Powerful Motivational Quotes, Short Positive Quotes, Short Inspirational Quotes

35. “I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”

— Benjamin Franklin

36. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”

— Dale Carnegie

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes, Perseverance Quotes, Motivational Quotes for Work

37. “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”

— Johnny Cash

Also featured in: Mistake Quotes, Bullying Quotes

38. “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

— John Wooden

Also featured in: Change Quotes, Short Motivational Quotes, Motivational Work Quotes

39. “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.”

— Benjamin Franklin

Also featured in: Courage Quotes, Fear Quotes

40. “For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.”

— Mary Kay Ash

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes for Work, Opportunity Quotes, Obstacles Quotes, Self-Empowerment Quotes

41. “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

— Napoleon Hill

Also featured in: Positive Inspirational Quotes, Encouragement Quotes, Personal Development Quotes

42. “Failure is an event, not a person.”

— Zig Ziglar

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes for Success, Motivational Quotes About Life, Inspirational Life Quotes

43. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

Also featured in: Life Quotes, Inspirational Life Quotes, Empowerment Quotes

44. “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”

— John C. Maxwell

Also featured in: Powerful Motivational Quotes, Wisdom Quotes, Personal Responsibility Quotes

45. “If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.”

— Kobe Bryant

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes for Success, Motivational Monday Quotes, Performance Quotes, Motivational Workout Quotes

46. “Failure defeats losers, failure inspires winners.”

— Robert T. Kiyosaki

Also featured in: Powerful Motivational Quotes, Inspirational Business Quotes, Winning Quotes

47. “Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.”

— Thomas A. Edison

Also featured in: Motivational Quotes for Success, Effort Quotes, Science Quotes

48. “Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.”

— Robert T. Kiyosaki

Also featured in: Short Inspiring Quotes, Hustle Quotes, Positive Motivation Quotes

49. “Each failure brings you one step closer to success.”

— Zig Ziglar

Also featured in: Positivity Quotes, Sales Motivational Quotes, Ambition Quotes

50. “Failure shows us the way – by showing us what isn’t the way.”

— Ryan Holiday