Success Quotes
Success Quotes From People Who Failed First
By Emily Hart — Quotes and Inspirational Living Writer · Updated August 14, 2026
I got rejected by 19 publications before one finally ran a piece I'd written about my grandmother. I kept every rejection email in a folder labeled "keep going," which felt a little dramatic at the time but turned out to be exactly the right name. This list is built the same way, quotes from people whose failures are just as documented as their eventual success, because the failure is usually the part that actually helps.
Quotes from people who failed publicly
Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job early in his career for, according to his editor, "lacking imagination." Oprah Winfrey was let go from her first television anchor job for being "unfit for television." Both facts are widely documented, and both people built entire industries after being told, explicitly, that they didn't have what it takes.
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.”
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
“Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
“I've failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan's quote refers to a well-documented stretch of his career, including missing more than 9,000 shots and losing close to 300 games, numbers he's cited himself in interviews about the mindset behind his success.
Quotes about rejection specifically
J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter manuscript was rejected by twelve publishing houses before Bloomsbury took a chance on it, and reportedly only agreed after the chairman's eight-year-old daughter read the first chapter and demanded the next one. That single detail has stuck with me more than almost any quote about persistence.
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.”
“Rejection is redirection.”
“Every no gets me closer to a yes.”
“I have been rejected by more people than you have ever met.”
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, which is a strange kind of comfort on rejection day nineteen.
Quotes for quiet, private failures
Not every failure comes with a famous rejection letter attached. Most of mine were quiet, a pitch nobody replied to, a project I quietly shelved after months of work. Those failures don't come with a Wikipedia page, but they still count, and they deserve their own quotes.
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
According to a Harvard Business Review analysis of startup founders, most successful entrepreneurs had at least one prior failed venture before their eventual success, a detail that rarely makes it into the highlight-reel version of their story.
Quotes for getting back up
The morning after my 19th rejection, I almost didn't send the piece out a 20th time. I sent it anyway, mostly out of stubbornness rather than confidence, and it ran two weeks later. That's really the entire mechanism behind every quote in this section, not confidence, just the decision to try one more time.
“It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.”
“The comeback is always stronger than the setback.”
“You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress.”
“Perseverance is not a long race, it is many short races one after the other.”
Plus, the getting-back-up part rarely feels as dramatic in the moment as it sounds afterward. Usually it's just one small, unglamorous action, sending the email again, showing up to practice, opening the document one more time.
The takeaway
Success quotes hit differently once you know the failure attached to them, Edison's 10,000 attempts, Rowling's twelve rejections, Jordan's 9,000 missed shots. The quotes in this list held up for me through 19 rejection emails and counting, and they're worth revisiting the next time a setback feels like proof you should quit instead of proof you're in good company. If you're sitting on a failure right now, send the thing out one more time before you decide it's over.
Common questions
Why focus on failure instead of just the success part?
Because the failure is usually the more useful half of the story. Knowing that a famous success was rejected dozens of times before it worked changes how a single rejection feels to the person reading it now.
Do these quotes apply to small, everyday failures, or only huge public ones?
They apply to both. The scale of the failure matters less than the decision to keep going afterward, which is the actual thread connecting every quote in this list.
Is it true that failure is necessary for success, or is that just a comforting myth?
It's not universal, some people succeed with very few setbacks, but for most well-documented cases of major success, an earlier failure or rejection shows up somewhere in the story, often more than once.
How do I stay motivated after a failure without pretending it didn't hurt?
Acknowledge the specific thing that went wrong before looking for the lesson in it. Skipping straight to the silver lining, without naming what actually failed, tends to make the lesson less likely to stick.