21 Best Quotes About Failure To Help You Move Forward To Success

Quotes about failure are misleading in the sense that one of the steps to success is frequently to fail. The plain truth is no great success was ever accomplished without failure. It may be one epic downfall, or a series of setbacks – like Edison’s 10,000 tries to invent the light bulb or Dyson’s 5,126 attempts to create a bagless vacuum cleaner. But, whether we wish it or not, failure is a vital stepping stone to achieving our goals.

Here are some failure quotes that may help you understand the importance of failure better and help you get over it in case you have already failed in achieving something you dream of every day. You might also like our second failure quotations page.

Best Quotes About Failure

1. The only way to prove that you’re a good sport is to lose.
Ernie Banks

Ernie Banks quote on being a good sport image

2. Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.
John Wooden

3. It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi quote on getting back up image

4. Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.
Mia Hamm

5. I have self-doubt. I have insecurity. I have a fear of failure. I have nights when I show up at the arena, and I’m like, ‘My back hurts, my feet hurt, my knees hurt. I don’t have it. I just want to chill.’ We all have self-doubt. You don’t deny it, but you also don’t capitulate to it. You embrace it.
Kobe Bryant

Inspirational Quotes About Failure

6. Persistence can change failure into extraordinary achievement.
Matt Biondi

Persistence can change failure quote image

7. Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.
Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph quote on how to lose image

8. Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.
Satchel Paige

Satchel Paige quote on never let your head hang image

9. I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion.”
Muhammad Ali

Michael Jordan Failure Quote

10. I’ve missed more than 9,000 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