210 Quotes About Getting Back Up & Overcoming Failure

Our latest collection of inspirational failure quotes we have for you will keep you going even after you’ve fallen down.

Failure is a necessary and inevitable part of life.

If we do not fail, we will never learn how to pick ourselves back up again and be stronger because of it.

Are you afraid to do something because you think you’ll fail?

One of the biggest fears people have in their lives is failure.

Some are afraid they won’t succeed if they try something new while others are afraid that they might never “make it” pursuing what they’re passionate about.

It’s this fear of failure that stops many people from doing the things that can move them forward to achieve their goals.

Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, failure is part of life.

Actually, it is impossible to live without failing at something.

The only way you can avoid failure is if you never try anything new.

Life is too short to let the fear of failure stop you from pursuing your dreams and living your best life.

In this regard, here are some great failure and mistake quotes that will inspire you to get back up each time you fall.

Also read our list of the best comeback quotes that will help you bounce back.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement. 

Look through our complete collection of inspirational quotes here.

Inspirational failure quotes about getting back up

1. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

2. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison

You will also enjoy our article on hard times quotes.

3. “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” – Robert F. Kennedy

4. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino

5. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.”– Confucius

6. “Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit bottom” – George S. Patton

You will also enjoy our article on inspirational phrases.

7. “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”― Theodore Roosevelt

You will also enjoy our article on motivational quotes for kids.

8. “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill

9. “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”-  Richard Branson

10. “Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” – Nelson Mandela

You will also enjoy our article on Brené Brown Quotes.

Inspirational failure quotes that inspire us to never give up

11. “There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” – Brene Brown

12. “It’s failure that gives you the proper perspective on success.” – Ellen DeGeneres

13. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” —Michael Jordan

14. “He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.” — Paul Tillich

You will also enjoy our article on adversity quotes.

15. “When everything seems to be going against you remember that an airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” – Henry Ford

You will also enjoy our article on darth vader quotes.

16. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

You will also enjoy our article on finish strong quotes.

17. “Winners never quit. And quitters never win.” – Vince Lombardi

You will also enjoy our article on The 100 quotes.

18. “If you didn’t succeed, it’s just as important to keep in mind that there has never been a success story without failure and lessons along the way.” – Eric Christian

You will also enjoy our article on quotes about breaking your limits.

19. “There is no doubt in my mind that there are many ways to be a winner, but there is really only one way to be a loser and that is to fail and not look beyond the failure.” – Kyle Rote Jr

You will also enjoy our article on evolve quotes.

20. “One fails forward toward success.” – Charles Kettering

If you’re enjoying this collection of quotes, then you’ll love our collection of short inspirational quotes that will help you remain positive and optimistic.

Inspirational quotes about overcoming failure

21. “Success is most often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” – Coco Chanel

22. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” – Jack Canfield

23. “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 have failed by default.” —J. K. Rowling

24. “Don’t bury your failures, let them inspire you.” – Robert Kiyosaki

25. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” – Bill Gates

26. “You were not made for failure, you were made for victory. Go forward with a joyful confidence.” – George Eliot

27. “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”– C. S. Lewis

28. “An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he’s in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.”– Charles F. Kettering

29. “When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.”– Eloise Ristad

30. “Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.”– Napoleon Hill

Failure quotes to help you feel better

31. “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

32. Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.” – Donald Trump

33. “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

34. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

35. “If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.” —Zig Ziglar

36. “We’re born with success. It is only others who point out our failures, and what they attribute to us as failure.” – Whoopi Goldberg

37. “There is no thing as failure, only learning experiences.” – Anonymous

38. “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” ― Truman Capote

39. “A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions–as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.”  ― Friedrich Nietzsche

40. “Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” – Anonymous

Failure quotes to inspire and teach

41. “Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure.” – James Altucher

42. “I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time.” ― Herbert Bayard Swope

43. “Fear regret more than failure.” – Taryn Rose

44. “Success is not a good teacher, failure makes you humble.” – Shah Rukh Khan

45. “We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes.” – Arianna Huffington

46. “I’ve failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

47. “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford

48. “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.” – J.K. Rowling

49. “Failure is enriching. It’s also important to accept that you’ll make mistakes—it’s how you build your expertise. The trick is to learn a positive lesson from all of life’s negative moments.” – Alain Ducasse

50. Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything.” – Marilyn Monroe

If you’re enjoying these quotes, read our collection of Henry Ford quotes from one of America’s greatest pioneers.

Other insightful failure quotes

51. “Don’t live the same day over and over again and call that a life. Life is about evolving mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.” – Germany Kent

52. “No matter how dysfunctional your background, how broke or broken you are, where you are today, or what anyone else says, YOU MATTER, and your life matters!” – Germany Kent

53. “All of us learned how to walk by failing.” – J.R. Rim

54. “You are right, I do fall down a lot. But that wouldn’t be true if I never stood back up.” – Richelle E. Goodrich

55. “Trust is the angels smiling when I’m crying because they see the other side of the world I haven’t come around to yet.” – Helen Edwards

56. “When setbacks arise – and they will from time to time – regroup, recharge, refocus and refine.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru

57. “Life is designed to knock you down. It will knock you down time and time again, but it doesn’t matter how many times you fall – it matters how many times you get back up.” – Lilly Singh

58. “When real people fall down in life, they get right back up and keep walking.” – Sarah Jessica Parker

59. “When life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Let your reason get you back up.” – Les Brown

60. “Everybody, at some point in their life, has fallen down and not felt like getting back up, but you have to, no matter how difficult it is.” – Charlie Hunnam

Thought-provoking failure quotes

61. “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe.” – Sumner Redstone

62. “An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” – Edwin Land

63. “Do not fear mistakes.” – Benjamin Franklin

64. “Our best successes often come after our greatest disappointments.” – Henry Ward Beecher

65. “If you’re doing your best, you won’t have any time to worry about failure.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.

66. “You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you.” – Maxwell Maltz

67. “For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.” – Mary Kay Ash

68. “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.” – Mike Murdock

69. “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.” – James Cameron

70. “Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.” – Robert H. Schuller

Failure Quotes to Help you Bounce Back

71. “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” – Zig Ziglar

72. “There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.” — Oprah

73. “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” ― Paulo Coelho

74. “When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw

75. “A man may fail many times but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.” – John Burroughs

76. “Anyone who attempts is not a failure.” – Sarah Dessen

77. “The master has failed more times than the beginner has tried.” – Stephen McCranie

78. “No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

79. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” – Maya Angelou

80. “Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.” – Virgil Thomson

Encouraging failure quotes to keep you going

81. “Remember that failure is an event, not a person.” – Zig Ziglar

82. “Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.” – Oscar Wilde

83. “You always pass failure on your way to success.” – Mickey Rooney

84. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison

85. “One who fears failure limits his activities.” – Henry Ford

86. “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” -Suzy Kassem

87. “”My grandmother once told me, ‘Don’t let failure go to your heart and don’t let success go to your head.’” – Will Smith

88. “Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed.” – Robert T. Kiyosaki

89. “Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire.” – Oprah Winfrey

90. “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H.G. Wells

More inspirational failure quotes for hard times

91. “Success comes when people act together; failure tends to happen alone.” – Deepak Chopra

92. “Don’t be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.” – Lily Tomlin

93. “Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.” – Roger ven Oech

94. “Success isn’t permanent and failure isn’t fatal.” – Mike Ditka

95. “Sometimes the best gain is to lose.” – George Herbert

96. “There are many victories worse than a defeat.” – George Eliot

97. “The way most people fail is in not keeping up the heart.” – Lady Gregory

98. “A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” – Elbert Hubbard

99. “Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.” – John C. Maxwell

100. “Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” – George Edward Woodberry

Inspirational Failure Quotes To Show Its Normal To Fail Towards Success

101. “There’s no reason to fear (temporary) failure. What others may call a failure is only a temporary setback if you really believe in your dreams.” — Kory Livingstone

102. “If I fail, I try again, and again, and again. If YOU fail, are you going to try again? The human spirit can handle much worse than we realize. It matters HOW you are going to FINISH. Are you going to finish strong?” — Nick Vujicic

103. “It is no fun to fail, but you must pick yourself up and get back in the race. The only way you can grow is to challenge yourself beyond your present circumstances.” — Les Brown

104. “Failure is an inescapable part of life and a critically important part of any successful life.” — Tal Ben-Shahar

105. Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” — Bruce Lee

106. “Failure is success in progress.” — Albert Einstein

107. The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.” — Thomas Edison

108. “So start to change your mind, that a failure can be kind, If we allow ourselves to learn from it.” — Julie Hebert

109. “Failures are made only by those who fail to dare, not by those who dare to fail.” — Lester B. Pearson

110. “The truth is that our mind needs failure! No great inventions would have come into existence without failure.” — Thibaut Meurisse

Inspirational Failure Quotes To Encourage You Not To Fear Failure

111. “Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.” ― Oprah Winfrey

112. “If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes backbone to lead the life you want.” — Richard Yates

113. “Failure is good as long as it doesn’t become a habit.” – Michael Eisner

114. “You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try.” ― Beverly Sills

115. “Failure is a part of the process. You just learn to pick yourself back up.” ― Michelle Obama

116. “You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.” ― Barack Obama

117. “Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never having a striving good enough to be called a failure.” — George Eliot

118. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” – Richard Branson

119. “It’s only when you risk failure that you discover things. When you play it safe, you’re not expressing the utmost of your human experience.” ― Lupita Nyong’o

120. “Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” ― John F. Kennedy

Inspirational Failure Quotes To Motivate You To Keep Trying

121. “There is something good in all seeming failures. You are not to see that now. Time will reveal it. Be patient.” ― Swami Sivananda

122. “I never fail. It’s just that the people around me succeed more than I.” ― Carroll Bryant

123. “It is not failure to fail.” ― Roshani Chokshi

124. “Never feel shame for trying and failing for he who has never failed is he who has never tried.” ― Og Mandino

125. “Failure is when you talk yourself out of becoming something amazing.” ― Rudy Francisco

126. “For some unknown reason, success usually occurs in private, while failure occurs in

full view.” ― Jill Shalvis

127. “Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks.” ― Dottie Walters

128. “Sometimes failure is the beginning of success.” ― Astrid Scholte

129. “There is no failure except in no longer trying.” ― Chris Bradford

130. “The difference between Success and failure is not giving up.” ― Steven redhead

Inspirational Failure Quotes To Encourage You To Keep Your Head Up

131. “The one who falls and gets up is stronger than the one who never tried. Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.” ― Roy T. Bennett

132. “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ― Winston S. Churchill

133. “The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.” ― John C. Maxwell

134. “Failure is constructive feedback that tells you to try a different approach to accomplish what you want.” ― Idowu Koyenikan

135.  “Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.” ― Morihei Ueshiba

136. “Failures are foundation stones of the Success Forts.” ― Invajy

137. “I don’t let failure defeat me; instead I rise above it to make me stronger.” ― Amanda Ray

138. “You can learn a lot from failure, but that requires you to continue moving forward despite having failed.” ― Darcy Oordt

139. “If you accept failure as an opportunity to learn, it will change your whole perspective.” ― Catherine Pulsifer

140. “Don’t waste your time hating a failure. Failure is a greater teacher than success. Listen, learn, go on.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Inspirational Failure Quotes To Encourage You in Life

141. “Life is full of screwups. You’re supposed to fail sometimes. It’s a required part of the human existance.” — Sarah Dessen

142. “In any case, you must not confuse a single failure with a final defeat.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

143. “Success or failure is caused more by mental attitude than by mental capacity.” — Walter Scott

144. “A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.” — James Joyce

145. “Failure is an attitude, not an outcome.” — Harvey MacKay

146. “There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.” — Tom Krause

147. “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” — Abraham Lincoln

148. “Daring to fail is the beginning to success.” — Invajy

149. “Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.” — Mia Hamm

150. “Failure is just another way to learn how to do something right.” — Marian Wright Edelman

Inspirational Failure Quotes to Rise from Adversity

151. “It is not the failure of others to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather your failure to appreciate theirs.” ― Confucius

152. “Failure comes only when we forget our ideals and objectives and principles.” ― Jawaharlal Nehru

153. “All art is failure. How one fails is a different matter.” ― Luc Tuymans

154. “It is not in the least likely that any life has ever been lived which was not a failure in the secret judgment of the person who lived it.” ― Mark Twain

155. “Some of the biggest failures I ever had were successes.” ― Pearl S. Buck

156. “In the long run, failure was the only thing that worked predictably. All else was accidental.” ― Joseph Heller

157. “Every failure teaches a man something, if he will learn; and you are too sensible a man not to learn from this failure.” ― Charles Dickens

158. “About the only problem with success is that it does not teach you how to deal with failure.” ― Tommy Lasorda

159. “Many people dream of success. To me, success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection.” ― Soichiro Honda

160. Success and failure are equally disastrous.” ― Tennessee Williams

Inspirational Failure Quotes to Illuminate the Path Forward After Failure

161. “I am never daunted. If I fail once, it is not a signal that it is the end of the road; it is an opportunity to do even better on the next attempt.” — Norman Grant

162. “You will be tested. You won’t always succeed. But know that you have it within your power to try.” — Barack Obama

163. “Whoever is aware of his own failing will not find fault with the failings of other men.” — Sa’Di

164. “The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it; so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.” — Elbert Hubbard

165. “Generally, it is our failures that civilize us. Triumph confirms us in our habits.” — Clive James

166. “We all have a few failures under our belt. It’s what makes us ready for success.” — Randy K. Milholland

167. “I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.” — Woodrow Wilson

168. “Failure is only postponed success as long as courage coaches ambition.” — Herbert Kaufman

169. “There are two kinds of failures; those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought.” — Laurence J. Peter

170. “I have found that failure is a far better teacher than success.” — Bernard Baruch

Inspiration Failure Quotes to Embrace and Overcome Failure

171. “Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.” — John Dewey

172. “The greatest mistake you can make is to be continually fearing you will make one.” — Hubbard

173. “He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts.” — Richard Whately

174. “The most important of my discoveries have been suggested to me by my failures.” — Humphrey Davy

175. “If someone calls you a failure it’s more than likely they feel like one.” ― Donna Lynn Hope

176. “People usually fail when they are on the verge of success. So give as much care to the end as to the beginning. Then there will be no failure.” — Laozi

177. Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.” — Jim Rohn

178. “Every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.” — Thomas A. Edison

179. “It is often the failure who is the pioneer in new lands, new undertakings, and new forms of expression.” — Eric Hoffer

180. “Do not take yourself too seriously. You have to learn not to be dismayed at making mistakes. No human being can avoid failures.” — Lawrence G. Lovasik

Inspirational Failure Quotes for Resilient Souls

181. “There is no faster way to harden my determination than to assume I will fail at something.” ― Marie Brennan

182. “Anytime we step out boldly to make changes, we take a chance that we might fail. But the only way to get better is to try.” — Joyce Meyer

183. “Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” — Mary Tyler Moore

184. “It is better to be young in your failures than old in your successes.” — Flannery O’Connor

185. “Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can’t handle!” — Sanya Richards-Ross

186. “Every time I fail I assume I will be a stronger person for it.” — Joan Benoit

187. “Be encouraged. Stay on your hustle. You can’t fail until u quit.” — Russell Simmons

188. “A failure is like fertilizer; it stinks to be sure, but it makes things grow faster in the future.” — Denis Waitley

189. “Fear of failure leads to failure.” — Paulo Coelho

190. “Playing things too safe is the most popular way to fail.” — Elliott Smith

Inspirational Failure Quotes to Embrace Failure

191. “Failure is not meant to be final and fatal…. It is meant to refine you to be all that you are meant to be.” — Jon Gordon

192. “Don’t be afraid of failure, be afraid of not trying in the first place.” — Marie Forleo

193. “The strength of character and emotional intelligence to face your failures and learn from them are at the core of success.” — Robert Kiyosaki

194. Success is a pile of failure that you are standing on.” — Dave Ramsey

195. “If you’re willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly.” — Edward Albee

196. Being brave means knowing that when you fail, you don’t fail forever.” — Lana Del Rey

197. “Consult not your fears but your hopes  and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential.” — Pope John XXII

198. “If you want to experience all of the successes and pleasure in life, you have to be willing to accept all the pain and failure that comes with it.” — Mat Hoffman

199. “Keep your head up in failure and your head down in success.” — Jerry Seinfeld

200. “Learn from the negative as well as the positive, from the failures as well as the successes.” — Jim Rohn

201. “Sometimes, when we want something so badly, we fear failure more than we fear being without that thing.” ― Matthew J. Kirby

202. “All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the base of our splendid failure to do the impossible.” ― William Faulkner

203. “If life throws you a few bad notes or vibrations, don’t let them interrupt or alter your song.” ― Suzy Kassem

204. “When we fail, our pride supports us, and when we succeed it betrays us.” ― Charles Colton

205. “How much you can learn when you fail determines how far you will go into achieving your goals.” ― Roy Bennett

206. “I’ve reached the age where bruises are formed from failures within rather than accidents without.” ― Nicole Krauss

207. “Her failure was a useful preliminary to success.” ― Edith Wharton

208. “Failure is not the end. In fact it is the beginning of a beautiful journey.” ― Jade Youssef

Were you inspired by these failure quotes?

Everyone is guaranteed to have failure at some point in their lives.

The easiest way to prevail in times of failure is to learn from your mistakes.

Each failure is an opportunity to move closure to success.

So although not easy, it’s upon you to get back up each time you fail at something.

Hopefully, these inspirational failure quotes have motivated you to get back up as soon as possible.

If you found this article helpful, you will like reading 10 Great Achievers Who Succeeded After Major Failures.

Did you enjoy these quotes about failure?

Which inspirational failure quotes were your favorite?

We would love to hear all about it in the comment section below.