101
Life is a successive unfolding of success from failure.
The complete collection
All quotes
Every quote we hold, 2473 of them from 233 people across 1123 works. Filter it, sort it, and follow any citation back to the source.
2418 checked at source
Filter the collection
Category
Feeling
Attribution
102
Life is not really what comes to us, but what we get from it.
103
Many of our failures sweep us to greater heights of success, than we ever hoped for in our wildest dreams.
104
If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope.
105
Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often.
106
Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core.
107
Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings are worse than useless.
108
There is no royal road to the control of the brain.
109
We have more will than wallet; but will is what we need.
110
There is no short road to the realization of these aspirations.
111
Men who are successful always seek the company of others who are successful, while men who are on the ragged side of life always seek the company of those who are in similar circumstances.
112
There is no short cut to the making of these ideals into glad realities.
113
If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.
114
Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie. It’s just the way life is sometimes.
115
Our attempts should be not to extinguish nature, but to repress it; not to stand unmoved at distress, but endeavour to turn every disaster to our own advantage. Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Wrongly attributed
The single most-shared sentence ever credited to Confucius, and it is an Irish novelist's. Goldsmith wrote it for the Public Ledger in 1760 and collected it in 1762, in a series of letters supposedly by a Chinese visitor. Letter VII opens with a headnote in Goldsmith's own hand: the Editor thinks proper to acquaint the reader that the greatest part of the following letter seems to him to be little more than a rhapsody of sentences borrowed from Confucius, the Chinese philosopher. Two paragraphs later the narrator says he holds the volume of Confucius in his hand. That framing is precisely how the line became Confucius's, and later Mandela's. Note also the comma after glory, which the popular version drops, and that Goldsmith wrote the same sentence again in Letter XXII with a different opening.
116
Believe that life is done testing you and will start giving you more than it took away from you. The wait might have been long but it's about to be over now.
Spread Cheer / Motivational Quotes (@spreadcheer1)unverified·Post attributed to @spreadcheer1 (user-supplied transcription)
Unverified attribution
Account attribution and wording were supplied by a user. The account is identified as the reported sharer; original authorship and the direct post have not been independently verified. The publication date is unknown. This is a complete-sentence excerpt of the supplied transcription.
117
If things didn't go as planned, it doesn't mean you failed. If everything doesn't work out, that doesn't make life less meaningful. Great people also make mistakes. They just learn from it and never quit. Some of your darkest chapters will lead you to the most sparkling chapters.
Spread Cheer / Motivational Quotes (@spreadcheer1)unverified·Post attributed to @spreadcheer1 (user-supplied transcription)
Unverified attribution
Account attribution and wording were supplied by a user. The account is identified as the reported sharer; original authorship and the direct post have not been independently verified. The publication date is unknown.
118
Life is beautiful. There are a few hiccups on the road but you have always been a warrior. You demonstrated courage in all the tough times. You can do it again. The spectacular view at the end of trials will be worth all your efforts. Unexpected blessings await.
Spread Cheer / Motivational Quotes (@spreadcheer1)unverified·Post attributed to @spreadcheer1 (user-supplied transcription)
Unverified attribution
Account attribution and wording were supplied by a user. The account is identified as the reported sharer; original authorship and the direct post have not been independently verified. The publication date is unknown.
119
Your struggles are making way for rewards. Something awesome is lined up for you. Believe that the best blessings you can receive will show up. Time is not running out. The future holds more gifts than the grief held in the past. You aren't too late for your dreams.
Spread Cheer / Motivational Quotes (@spreadcheer1)unverified·Post attributed to @spreadcheer1 (user-supplied transcription)
Unverified attribution
Account attribution and wording were supplied by a user. The account is identified as the reported sharer; original authorship and the direct post have not been independently verified. The publication date is unknown.
120
Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won't work.
Thomas A. Edisondisputed·Edison: His Life and Inventions, by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin·1910
Attribution contested
The famous form -- I have not failed, I have just found ten thousand ways that won't work -- has no source in Edison. The earliest record of the remark is this one, in the authorised 1910 biography, and it is a colleague's recollection of a conversation, not Edison writing. Note what changes in the retelling: several thousand becomes ten thousand, and a man cheerfully counting negative results becomes a man defending himself against failure.
121
Better late than never.