Quotes about failure are among the most popular on the internet — and among the most misattributed. This is a selection of genuinely attributed quotes about failure from people who encountered it in significant ways, with brief context for each.
Winston Churchill
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” This quote is widely attributed to Churchill, though its exact provenance in his writings is uncertain — it may have been spoken rather than written. Regardless, it reflects themes Churchill returned to throughout his career. He lost his parliamentary seat twice, was considered a spent political force in the 1930s, and became Prime Minister at 65. The quote matches a life.
Thomas Edison
“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that will not work.” Attributed to Edison in multiple sources, likely from interviews given in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Edison held over a thousand patents, and his development process at Menlo Park was explicitly iterative — he ran experiments systematically, expecting and cataloguing failure as a research tool. The quote accurately describes his working method.
J.K. Rowling
In her 2008 Harvard commencement address — available in full text and video — Rowling said: “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.” This is a verifiable, sourced, fully attributed quote from a delivered speech. Rowling had been rejected by twelve publishers before Bloomsbury accepted Harry Potter. The framing of failure as the necessary condition of meaningful effort is one she returned to explicitly.
Nelson Mandela
“Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” This quote circulates widely online attributed to Mandela. While it aligns with themes in his speeches and autobiography, its exact source is difficult to verify. Mandela’s actual writing and documented speeches are extensive; the “Long Walk to Freedom” autobiography contains more directly verifiable statements about resilience. The themes are genuine; the specific attribution should be treated with caution.
Michael Jordan
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” This quote originates from a Nike advertising campaign in the 1990s, for which Jordan provided the voiceover. It is genuinely his, delivered in his voice, and its accuracy about his career statistics is broadly correct. It is one of the few celebrity quotes about failure that is both verifiable and grounded in specific, documented experience.
A Note on Quote Integrity
The internet is full of fabricated failure quotes attributed to Einstein, Lincoln, Churchill, and others. Before repeating a quote, a quick search of the person’s actual published work or biographies usually reveals whether it is genuine. The quotes above can be verified against sourced material. When a quote is too perfectly worded to be real, it usually is not.