Failing Quotes - Page 40

• You must get your living by loving. But as it is said of the merchants that ninety-seven in a hundred fail, so the life of men generally, tried by this standard, is a failure, and bankruptcy may be surely prophesied.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, May, Seven

  Henry David Thoreau (2002). “The Essays of Henry D. Thoreau: Selected and Edited by Lewis Hyde”, p.286, North Point Press

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• Poverty demoralizes. A man in debt is so far a slave; and Wall-street thinks it easy for a millionaire to be a man of his word, aman of honor, but, that, in failing circumstances, no man can be relied on to keep his integrity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wall, Integrity, Men

  "Wealth". Book by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860.

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• When courtesy fails, be nasty, brutish, and short.

  Mason Cooley

  Nasty, Courtesy

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• People need self-respect, but self-respect must be earned - it cannot be self-respect if it's not earned - and the only way to earn anything is to achieve it in the face of the possibility of failing.

  Charles A. Murray

  Self, People, Needs

  "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010". Book by Charles A. Murray, 2012.

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• It is vain to complain of fortune while we fail in policy and conduct.

  Norm MacDonald

  Complaining, Vain, Fortune

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• But as for me, Emperor, nature has not given me stature, age has marred my face, and my strength is impaired by ill health. Therefore, since these advantages fail me, I shall win your approval, as I hope, by the help of my knowledge and my writings.

  Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

  Writing, Winning, Ill Health

  "De architectura". Book by Vitruvius. Book II, Introduction, Section 4,

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• I did not share the enthusiasm of certain politicians for the National Front leader, it was because I had noticed, in the past, some strange contradictions between Mossadeq's declared ends and his actions. Officially he defended nationalist anti-colonialism and was the most intransigent patriot who declared that no concessions or advantages should be granted to foreign powers. He described his doctrine as a "negative balance" and in fact his greatest failing was that he was negative.

  Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

  Past, Leader, Balance

  "The Shah's Story". Book by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, pp. 52-53, 1980.

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• Other trades may fail. The agitator is always sure of his market.

  Mary Augusta Ward

  May, Mischief, Trade

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• An eagerness and zeal for dispute on every subject, and with every one, shows great self-sufficiency, that never-failing sign of great self-ignorance.

  William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

  Ignorance, Self, Disputes

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• I recommend to you, in my last, an innocent piece of art: that of flattering people behind their backs, in presence of those who, to make their own court, much more than for your sake, will not fail to repeat, and even amplify, the praise to the party concerned. This is of all flattery the most pleasing, and consequently the most effectual.

  Doug Stanhope

  Art, People, Pieces

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• A good corroborating chain, if they fail in the last link, the whole will fall to the ground.

  Chris Pratt

  Fall, Links, Lasts

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• Each precious moment of your life in which you are frozen with fear is a moment when you are not being all you can be. In the end, that hurts more than anything. Succeeding or failing does not determine if we are surviving or living. Rather it is in our ability to reach beyond our present self-imposed definition of who we are, and to risk becoming more, that we are able to feel fully alive.

  Rhonda Britten

  Hurt, Fear, Self

  Rhonda Britten (2002). “Fearless Living: Live Without Excuses and Love Without Regret”, p.98, Penguin

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• Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies. When they fail to come off its clergy simply say that they will be realized later on. Thus, if we have another boom, they will argue that the collapse of capitalism is only postponed. The fact that the greatest booms ever heard of followed Marx's formal prophecy of the downfall of capitalism is already forgotten, just as millions have long since forgotten the early Christian prophecy that the end of the world was at hand. The first Christians accepted postponements as docilely as the Communists of today.

  H. L. Mencken

  Christian, Hands, Long

  H.L. Mencken (2013). “Minority Report”, p.277, Knopf

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• ... I never will allow myself to form an ideal of any person I desire to see, for disappointment never fails to ensue.

  Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington

  Disappointment, Desire, Form

  Marguerite Gardiner (countess of Blessington.) (1839). “The idler in Italy”, p.287

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• When strict with oneself, one rarely fails.

  Confucius

  Criticism, Strict, Oneself

  Confucius (1950). “The Best of Confucius”

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• Truth suffers no loss if a vehement youth fails in finding it, in the same way that virtue and religion suffer no detriment if a criminal denies them.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Loss, Suffering, Criminals

  Friedrich Schiller (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Friedrich Schiller (Illustrated)”, p.3875, Delphi Classics

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• Whoever fails to turn aside the ills of life by prudent forethought, must submit to fulfill the course of destiny.

  Friedrich Schiller

  Destiny, Prudent, Forethought

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• When you are waiting for a train, don't keep perpetually looking to see if it is coming. The time of its arrival is the business of the conductor, not yours. It will not come any sooner for all your nervous glances and your impatient pacing, and you will save strength if you will keep quiet. After we discover that the people who sit still on a long railroad journey reach that journey's end at precisely the same time as those who "fuss" continually, we have a valuable piece of information which we should not fail to put to practical use.

  Anna Brackett

  Travel, Journey, Long

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• What Anacharsis said of the vine may aptly enough be said of prosperity. She bears the three grapes of drunkenness, pleasure, and sorrow; and happy is it if the last can cure the mischief which the former work. When afflictions fail to have their due effect, the case is desperate.

  Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

  Sorrow, Three, Vines

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• The boldest stroke and best act of friendship is not to disclose our own failings to a friend, but to show him his own.

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Friendship, Sincerity, Strokes

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• Great merit or great failings will make you respected or despised; but trifles, little attentions, mere nothings, either done or neglected, will make you either liked or disliked, in the general run of the world. Examine yourself, why you like such and such people and dislike such and such others; and you will find that those different sentiments proceed from very slight causes.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Running, People, Different

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• In the ordinary course of things, how many succeed in society merely by virtue of their manners, while others, however meritorious, fail through lack of them? After all, it's only barbarians who wear uncut precious stones.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Success, Failure, Precious Stones

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• Poet, forger of ideals, dreamer among the possibilities of life, prophet of the millenium, do you get impatient with the prosaic life around you -- the dulness, and the earthliness, and the brutishness of men? Fret not. Go forward into the realm which stretches before you; climb the highest mountain you can reach, and plant a cross there. The nations will come up to it some day. Work for immortality if you will; then wait for it. If your own age fail to recognize you, a coming age will not.

  J. G. Holland

  Men, Waiting, Dreamer

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• Failing at something is one thing, but Buddhism tells us that it is up to us how we interpret that failure [Buddhism] a philosophy and way of life that resonates with me I identify with it. I agree with so much of the sentiment behind it. I enjoy the liberating effect it's had on me to get back into the game Buddhism, with its concepts of karma and rebirth, have freed me from the twin fears of death and life without rugby, like life, will also come to an end.

  Jonny Wilkinson

  Karma, Philosophy, Buddhism

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• Let us not fail to scatter along our pathway the seeds of kindness and sympathy. Some of them will doubtless perish; but if one only lives, it will perfume our steps and rejoice our eyes.

  Sophie Swetchine

  Kindness, Eye, Steps

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