Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Life's biggest pain is not losing but coming close to winning.
In plain terms
Almost winning is worse than losing.
What can you take from it?
Near success hurts the most.

Where it applies

  • competitions
  • career goals
  • personal struggles

Putting it to work

  • accept loss
  • refine goals

Questions to consider

  • What hurts more: loss or near win?
  • How do you handle almost?

Another view

Some find learning in near misses.

More from Heywood Broun

  1. The most casual examination will reveal the fact that all the jokes about the horrible results of masculine cooking and sewing are written by men. It is all pa…

    Permalink to quote #10
  2. The great threat to the young and pure in heart is not what they read but what they don't read.

    Permalink to quote #9
  3. The ability to make love frivolously is the chief characteristic which distinguishes human beings from beasts.

    Permalink to quote #8

Related quotes

  1. And in the lonely cool before dawn, you hear their engines roaring on. But when you get to the porch they're gone On the wind, so Mary climb in. It's a town fu…

    Bruce SpringsteenBruce Springsteen quote #6
  2. The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.

    James MichenerJames Michener quote #52
  3. Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

    F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald quote #78