Success and Failure

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

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

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

Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.

Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower, in Success and Failure

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

Henry Ford, in Success and Failure

If you're strong enough, there are no precedents.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, in Success and Failure

If at first you don't succeed, try, and try again. Then give up. There's no sense in being a damned fool about it.

W. C. Fields, in Success and Failure

Talkers are no good doers.

William Shakespeare, Henry VI, in Success and Failure

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.

Albert Schweitzer, in Success and Failure

Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well. Think about it.

Elias Schwartz, in Success and Failure

Whether you think that you can or that you can't, you are usually right.

Henry Ford, in Success and Failure

To accomplish great things, you must not only act but also dream, not only dream but also believe.

Anatole France, in Success and Failure

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

Benjamin Franklin, in Success and Failure and Work and Recreation

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked throughout the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, in Success and Failure

By doing just a little every day, you can gradually let the task completely overwhelm you.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Boob's Law: You always find something in the last place you look.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Boren's Laws: (1) When in charge, ponder. (2) When in trouble, delegate. (3) When in doubt, mumble.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Bradley's Bromide: If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee -- that will do them in.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Cox's Philosophy: Life's a bitch, and then you die.

Unknown, in Life and Death and Success and Failure