Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
True greatness requires enduring repeated failures, not just overcoming obstacles once.
In plain terms
To be great, you must keep going even after many failures.
What can you take from it?
Persist through repeated defeat.

Where it applies

  • leadership
  • career growth
  • personal goals

Putting it to work

  • build resilience
  • set long-term goals

Questions to consider

  • When have you persisted through failure?
  • What defines greatness to you?

Another view

Sometimes strategic retreat is better than persistence.

More from Theodore Roosevelt

  1. The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while th…

    Permalink to quote #113
  2. The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

    Permalink to quote #115
  3. The American people are slow to wrath, but once that wrath is kindled, it burns like a consuming flame.

    Permalink to quote #112

Related quotes

  1. From time to time, life as a leader can look hopeless. To help you, consider a man who lived through this: Failed in business at age 31. Defeated for the legis…

    Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln quote #165
  2. What we learn through failure becomes a precious part of us, strengthening us in everything we do. So let the tough things make you tougher.

    Soichiro HondaSoichiro Honda quote #6
  3. Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life, these failures. What would life be without them? It would not be worth having if it w…

    Swami VivekanandaSwami Vivekananda quote #8