Failing Quotes - Page 20

• What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Perseverance, What If, Dirt

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.4008, Delphi Classics

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• Guard thy heart on this weak side, where most our nature fails.

  Joseph Addison

  Heart, Weakness, Sides

  Joseph Addison (1825). “Cato: A Tragedy, in Five Acts”, p.1

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• There are women who have an indefinable charm in their faces which makes them beautiful to their intimates, but a cold stranger who tried to reason the matter out and find this beauty would fail.

  Mark Twain

  Beautiful, Matter, Faces

  Mark Twain (2015). “A Tramp Abroad: Mark Twain's Collections”, p.214, 谷月社

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• I fail to see what fun, what satisfaction / A God can find in laughing at how badly / Men fumble at the possibilities.

  Robert Frost

  Fun, Men, Laughing

  Robert Frost (1963). “Selected poems”

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• The earth's distances invite the eye. And as the eye reaches, so must the mind stretch to meet these new horizons. I challenge anyone to stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see a new expanse not only around him, but in him, too.

  Hal Borland

  Distance, Eye, Autumn

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• Sweet April! many a thought Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed; Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought, Life's golden fruit is shed.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Sweet, Heart, Autumn

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1848). “Poems”, p.13

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• The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances, whether created by others or by one's own human failing.

  Ralph Ellison

  Music, Art, Circumstances

  Ralph Ellison (2003). “The Collected Essays of Ralph Ellison”, Random House LLC

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• Credulity is the common failing of inexperienced virtue; and he who is spontaneously suspicious may justly be charged with radical corruption.

  Samuel Johnson

  May, Common, Corruption

  Samuel Johnson (1848). “The Wisdom of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.107

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• The arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration.

  Samuel Johnson

  Influence, Argument, Purity

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.194

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• For thence a paradox Which comforts while it mocks, - Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me: A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.

  Robert Browning

  Comfort, Might, Succeed

  'Rabbi Ben Ezra' (1864) st. 7

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• One who is caught in thought loses one's original nature. All he knows are words and descriptions. When he sees the actual thing, he fails to perceive it.

  Dalai Lama

  Description, Caught, Perceive

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• Although the poet has as wide a choice of subjects as the painter, his creations fail to afford as much satisfaction to mankind as do paintings... if the poet serves the understanding by way of the ear, the painter does so by the eye, which is the nobler sense.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Eye, Choices, Understanding

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• If the Church of England were to fail, it would be found in my parish

  John Keble

  Church, England, Would Be

  In D. Newsome 'The Parting of Friends' (1966) p. 395

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• A story, in which native humour reigns, Is often useful, always entertains; A graver fact, enlisted on your side, May furnish illustration, well applied; But sedentary weavers of long tales Give me the fidgets, and my patience fails.

  William Cowper

  Illustration, Your Side, Long

  William Cowper (1855). “The complete poetical works of William Cowper, with life and critical notice of his writings”, p.86

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• Blest be those feasts, with simple plenty crowned, Where all the ruddy family around Laugh at the jests or pranks that never fail Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Simple, Laughing, Eating

  Oliver Goldsmith (1837). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B.: Including a Variety of Pieces”, p.14

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• But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloisters pale, And love the high embowed roof, With antique pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight; Casting a dim religious light.

  John Milton

  Religious, Feet, Light

  John Milton (2012). “Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes, and the Complete Shorter Poems”, p.51, Modern Library

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• Organizations cannot make a genius out of an incompetent. On the other hand, disorganization can scarcely fail to result in efficiency.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Hands, Organization, Genius

  Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dwight David Eisenhower (1963). “The white house years: mandate for change 1953-1956”

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• Disorganization can scarcely fail to result in efficiency.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Efficiency, Disorganization, Results

  Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dwight David Eisenhower (1963). “The white house years: mandate for change 1953-1956”

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• When the laws are written and administered by the most powerful leaders in a society, it is human nature for them to understand, justify, and protect the interests of themselves and people like them. Many injustices arise from this natural human failing.

  Jimmy Carter

  Powerful, Law, Justice

  Jimmy Carter (2011). “Living Faith”, p.113, Three Rivers Press

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• If we fail to appreciate the soul that Easternism gives us, then what we have is a disconnected, Greco-Roman, Western, egocentric, compartmentalized, reductionist, fragmented, linear thought process that counts on cleverness.

  Joel Salatin

  Appreciate, Giving, Soul

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• The only work of art which succeeds is that which fails.

  Jean Cocteau

  Success, Art, Succeed

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• Paradoxically, we fail to disclose ourselves to other people because we want so much to be loved. Because we feel that way, we present ourselves as someone we think can be loved and accepted, and we conceal whatever would mar that image.

  Sidney Jourard

  Truth, Thinking, People

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• Try again. Fail again. Try better.

  Samuel Beckett

  Perseverance, Trying, Try Again

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• Writers are what they write, also what they fail to write.

  Diana Trilling

  Writing

  Diana Trilling (1993). “The Beginning of the Journey: The Marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling”, Harcourt

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• I am learning that if I just go on accepting the framework for life that others have given me, if I fail to make my own choices, the reason for my life will be missing. I will be unable to recognize that which I have the power to change.

  Liv Ullmann

  Choices, Missing, Goes On

  Liv Ullmann, Robert Emmet Long (2006). “Liv Ullmann: Interviews”, p.136, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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