Success and Failure

It is always better to fail in doing something than to excel in doing nothing.

Unknown, in Success and Failure and Work and Recreation

It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

Unknown, in Success and Failure and Vice and Virtue

It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

It is said that the lonely eagle flies to the mountain peaks while the lowly ant crawls the ground, but cannot the soul of the ant soar as high as the eagle?

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Jenkinson's Law: It won't work.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

Johnson's First Law: When any mechanical contrivance fails, it will do so at the most inconvenient possible time.

Unknown, in Success and Failure

It's better to be an authentic loser than a false success, and to die alive than to live dead.

William Markiewicz, Extracts of Existence, in Success and Failure

Once all struggle is grasped, miracles are possible.

Mao Tse-Tung, in Success and Failure

I kept on digging the hole deeper and deeper looking for the treasure chest until I finally lifted my head, looked up and realised that I had dug my own grave.

Dominic, (on the psychology of a gambler), in Life and Death and Success and Failure

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

Benjamin Disraeli, in Success and Failure

Don't let fear stop you.

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

Delay is preferable to error.

Thomas Jefferson, in Success and Failure

I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.

Thomas Jefferson, in Success and Failure and Work and Recreation

If someone had told me I would be pope one day, I would have studied harder.

Pope John Paul I, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

Every man wishes to rule the world. Unfortunately, the world rules every man.

Jeremy Preston Johnson, in Success and Failure

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

The average person thinks he isn't.

Larry Lorenzoni, in Success and Failure

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

Douglas MacArthur, in Success and Failure

Do, or do not. There is no try.

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

To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else.

Bernadette Devlin, in Success and Failure