One of the movies I loved growing up was Chariots of Fire. It is the story of two athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice.
A scene in the movie reveals a lot about grit, determination, and never giving up in the face of adversity. Liddell is in a race and he is pushed to the infield and off the track. It would have been quite easy to just wallow around in the cool grass, but that was not what Liddell did. He sprung to his feet and sped through the track like a man possessed. Soon he caught up with the last runner in the pack and then began one by one to pass each of them on his way to the finish. He wins the race after unbelievable odds stacked against him.
History is full of stories of those overcome their odds, those who fail and continue to move forward. They are in inspiration to each of us when we experience our own failures. It allows us to move forward and make progress when the everything else around us seems to tell us to stop, that we have made a good effort and no one would fault us from quitting. In the spirit of growing after failure, I have compiled some quotes on the subject which are as follows. I hope you enjoy.
1. “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” – Ken Robinson
2. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
3. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield
4. “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley
5. “Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.” – Denis Waitley
6. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison
7. “When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.” – Eloise Ristad
8. “What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?” – John Green
9. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki
10. “Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” – Gena Showalter
11. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield
12. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho
13. “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” – Dale Carnegie
14. “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
15. “Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s ok to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.” – H. Stanley Judd
16. “We are all failures – at least the best of us are.” – J.M. Barrie
17. “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky
18. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy
19. “Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.” – Morihei Ueshiba
20. “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” George Herman “- Babe” Ruth
21. “If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie
22. “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” – Colin Powel