Success and Failure

Talkers are no good doers.

William Shakespeare, Henry VI, in Success and Failure

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

George Bernard Shaw, in Success and Failure

When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.

George Bernard Shaw, in Success and Failure and Work and Recreation

You see things and you say, "Why?" But I see things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"

George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah, Part I, Act I (1921), in Success and Failure

To deny we need and want power is to deny that we hope to be effective.

Liz Smith, in Success and Failure

When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.

Joe Namath, in Success and Failure

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Isaac Newton, in Success and Failure

What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche, in Life and Death and Success and Failure

When one is trying to do something beyond one's known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat.

Henry Miller, in Success and Failure

Modesty is the opium of the mediocre.

Marty Milner, in Success and Failure

Be nice to people on your way up because you'll need them on your way down.

Wilson Mizner, in Success and Failure and Vice and Virtue

After spending many years in Wall Street and after making and losing millions of dollars I want to tell you this: It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting.

Edwin Lefèvre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, in Success and Failure

Don't let fear stop you.

William F. Light, (to someone threatening to knock him out), in Success and Failure

It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.

Vincent T. Lombardi, in Success and Failure

The average person thinks he isn't.

Larry Lorenzoni, in Success and Failure

Do, or do not. There is no try.

George Lucas, The Empire Strikes Back (Yoda), in Success and Failure

Nothing very good or very bad lasts very long.

D. W. Luthanen, in Success and Failure

There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.

Douglas MacArthur, in Success and Failure

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake when you make it again.

Franklin P. Jones, in Success and Failure

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.

James Joyce, in Success and Failure