These quotes will help you feel better after a failure.

Throughout our journey on Earth, we all mess up sometimes. However, those slip-ups can make us incredibly hard on ourselves, and most of us have difficulty letting those feelings go when things don’t happen as planned. For some reason, we can forgive others and see past their flaws most of the time; but when it comes to ourselves, those insecurities and supposed shortcomings can eat us up inside.

It is important, however, to remember that by failing, you are living. You take chances, put yourself out there, and show the world what you’re made of. Our failures shape us, teach us, and push us to become better people. Without messing up sometimes, how would you know what success feels like?


Examples of “Failures” to Learn From

To put things into perspective, Walt Disney filed for bankruptcy and got fired from his job writing for a newspaper. Why? His boss claimed that “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” He started numerous businesses afterward that failed. Today, he left behind an empire recognized by people all over the globe.

To give you another example, Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was four and didn’t read until he was seven. He was eventually expelled from school but became a legendary physicist and philosopher.

Oprah Winfrey got fired from her first job as a television reporter because she was “unfit for TV.” I think it’s safe to say she proved her boss wrong, going on to become one of the most successful women in the world.

J.K. Rowling wrote her first installment of Harry Potter in a coffee shop while trying to raise a child on her own after a recent divorce. She was on welfare, was almost completely broke, and suffered from severe depression on top of that. She kept her eyes on the end goal, though and followed her passions regardless. Due to her perseverance, she is one of the most successful authors in the world today. This strong woman went from being almost penniless to attaining incredible abundance in the form of finances and happiness.

If these stories don’t motivate you to embrace your failures and keep your chin up during life’s struggles…

These quotes will help you see the light again after a failure:

  1. Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.” – Confucious
  2. “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
  3. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six 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
  4. “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
  5. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein
  6. “The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein

  7. “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  8. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – JK Rowling
  9. “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.” – Mahatma Gandhi
  10. “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde
  11. “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
  12. “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others, you need to accept yourself.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh
  1. “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love & affection.” – Buddha

  2. “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.” – Eckhart Tolle
  3. “You yourself are the eternal energy of the Universe, you didn’t come into this world. you came out of it. Like a wave from the ocean.” – Alan Watts

Final Thoughts: Your Turn to Share Your Favorite Quotes

What quotes have lifted you up at your lowest point? Share your favorite quotes about overcoming failure in the discussion below!