Failure Quotes
Because life can't always be sunshine and lollipops.
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Failure Quotes
Failure is no fun... but it has inspired some pretty great quotes. Click on any failure quote below to see it in context and find out where it falls on Shmoop's pretentious scale. We'll give you details on who said it, when they said it, and in some cases, why on earth they thought it was okay to say it.
"And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."Source: East of Eden | Author: John Steinbeck
"And that's how you play "Get the Guests.""Source: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Speaker: George
"But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out."Source: Casey at the Bat | Author: Ernest Lawrence Thayer
"Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave? Stop, Dave. I'm afraid."Source: 2001: A Space Odyssey | Speaker: HAL 9000
"Do…or do not. There is no try."Source: Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back | Speaker: Yoda
"Errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous."Source: A Treatise of Human Nature | Author: David Hume
"Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement."Source: Henry Ford's Marketing Team | Speaker: Henry Ford
"Everybody in the whole cell block was dancing to the jailhouse rock!"Source: "Jailhouse Rock" | Speaker: Elvis Presley
"have done it again. One year in every ten I manage it—"Source: Lady Lazarus | Author: Sylvia Plath
"He who marches out of step hears another drum."Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest | Author: Ken Kesey
"Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone."Source: "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" | Speaker: Pink Floyd
"I am a sick man… I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man."Source: Notes from the Underground | Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"I never knew me a better time, and I guess I never will."Source: "Crocodile Rock" | Speaker: Elton John
"If I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble."Source: Of Mice and Men | Author: John Steinbeck
"If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it, I betcha you would have done the same!"Source: "Cell Block Tango" | Speaker: Prison Girls
"Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."Source: Matthew 15:14 | Author: Matthew
"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing."Source: Animal Farm | Author: George Orwell
"Man serves the interests of no creature except himself."Source: Animal Farm | Author: George Orwell
"Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father's passing."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Speaker: Reverend Sykes
"Sometimes I can feel my bones straining"Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close | Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
"That is just the way with some people. They get down on a thing when they don't know nothing about it."Source: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Author: Mark Twain
"The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart."Source: 1 Samuel 13:14 | Author: The Deuteronomists
"There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn't be fair if they tried."Source: To Kill a Mockingbird | Author: Harper Lee
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."Source: The Lorax | Author: Dr. Seuss
"Very superstitious, writing's on the wall. Very superstitious, ladder's 'bout to fall."Source: Superstition | Speaker: Stevie Wonder
"We can't go on together with suspicious minds."Source: "Suspicious Minds" | Speaker: Elvis Presley
"When today fails to offer the justification for hope, tomorrow becomes the only grail worth pursuing."Source: Death of a Salesman | Author: Arthur Miller
"You ain't nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time."Source: "Hound Dog" | Speaker: Elvis Presley
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war."Source: 1946 Letter | Author: Albert Einstein