Believe it not, one of the biggest fears people have in their life is failure.
Many people are afraid of not succeeding when attempting something new. They fear they might not “make it” doing something they are very passionate about.
You’re not alone.
I used to be afraid of failure, until I realised that life is too short to allow fear to make big decisions for me.
Whilst it can be a challenge to overcome the fear of failure, it’s possible. Especially if you put your mind to it and don’t allow fear to hold you back.
To help you get in the right mindset and overcome fear of failure, I’ve rounded up 101 quotes that’ll inspire you to take risks in life and get closer to achieving your dreams.
Without further ado, here are 101 fear of failure quotes.
101 Inspiring Fear of Failure Quotes
1 – “I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.” George Burns
2 – “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Wayne Gretzky
3 – “Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” Coco Chanel
4 – “Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.” Denis Waitley
5 – “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” Theodore Roosevelt
6 – “Experience teaches slowly, and at the cost of mistakes.” James A. Froude
7 – “I’ve come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.” Tony Robbins
8 – “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” Theodore Roosevelt
9 – “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Eleanor Roosevelt
10 – “Don’t be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed.” Lily Tomlin
11 – “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” Michael Jordan
12 – “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Confucius
13 – “One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” Andre Gide
14 – “The only failure is not to try.” George Clooney
15 – “Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.” Morihei Ueshiba
16 – “Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.” Anonymous
17 – “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.” Bertrand Russell
18 – “He knows the water best who has waded through it.” Danish Proverb
19 – “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.” George Herman “Babe” Ruth
20 – “The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.” Buddha
21 – “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill
22 – “Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.” Dale Carnegie
23 – “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
24 – “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” Bill Cosby
25 – “One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.” Henry Ford
26 – “Failure doesn’t mean you are a failure it just means you haven’t succeeded yet.” Robert H. Schuller
27 – “No man is a failure who is enjoying life.” William Feather
28 – “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.” Abraham Lincoln
29 – “Failure is success if we learn from it.” Malcolm Forbes
30 – “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” Benjamin Franklin
31 – “Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.” Zig Ziglar
32 – “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.” Elbert Hubbard
33 – “Failure happens all the time. It happens every day in practice. What makes you better is how you react to it.” Mia Hamm
34 – “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” Steve Jobs
35 – “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” Jack Canfield
36 – “Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be” John Wooden
37 – “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” Robert F. Kennedy
38 – “If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want” Richard Yates
39 – “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” Ken Robinson
40 – “Giving up is the only sure way to fail.” Gena Showalter
41 – “When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” Ellen DeGeneres
42 – “There is no failure except in no longer trying.” Chris Bradford
43 – “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas A. Edison
44 – “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” Denis Waitley
45 – “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” Paulo Coelho
46 – “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
47 – “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Henry Ford
48 – “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.” C.S. Lewis
49 – “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” Napoleon Hill
50 – “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” Zig Ziglar
51 – “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
52 – “When we give ourselves permission to fail, we, at the same time, give ourselves permission to excel.” Eloise Ristad
53 – “What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?” John Green
54 – “With a hint of good judgment, to fear nothing, not failure or suffering or even death, indicates that you value life the most. You live to the extreme; you push limits; you spend your time building legacies. Those do not die.” Criss Jami
55 – “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” Johnny Cash
56 – “Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.” Robert T. Kiyosaki
57 – “Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.” Lance Armstrong
58 – “The phoenix must burn to emerge.” Janet Fitch
59 – “There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction.” Oprah
60 – “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
61 – “Just because you fail once doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything.” Marilyn Monroe
62 – “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
63 – “We are all failures- at least the best of us are.” J.M. Barrie
64 – “You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying. To the best you can do everyday.” Jason Mraz
65 – “My grandmother once told me, ‘Don’t let failure go to your heart and don’t let success go to your head.’” Will Smith
66 – What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” Vincent van Gogh
67 – “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.” Richard Branson
68 – “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.” Woody Allen
69 – “A bad day for your ego is a great day for your soul.” Jillian Michaels
70 – “I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.” Yohji Yamamoto
71 – “Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” Bruce Lee
72 – “Act as if it were impossible to fail.” Dorothea Brande
73 – “Fear of failure is a ticket to mediocrity. If you’re not failing from time to time, you’re not pushing yourself. And if you’re not pushing yourself, you’re coasting.” Eric Zorn
74 – “We shouldn’t be fearful of failure because t is not a monster as we think it is. It’s just a training ground for those who are really striving for excellence in life.” Euginia Herlihy
75 – “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
76 – “I arise to face my failures every morning, but I never fail to face them.” Gino Norris
77 – “Don’t face the fear, and you’ll be its slave. Face the fear, and now you are its master. The death of fear is then certain.” Giovanni Dienstmann
78 – “One who fears failure limits his activities.” Henry Ford
79 – “To live a creative life we must first lose the fear of being wrong.” Joseph Chilton Pearce
80 – “Let the fear of failure be the background noise of your success.” Giovanni Dienstmann
81 – “If you are afraid to fail, your successes will be few, common, and unmemorable.” Lorii Myers
82 – “Failure is success if we learn from it.” Malcolm S. Forbes
83 – “You always pass failure on your way to success.” Mickey Rooney
84 – “Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.” Napoleon Hill
85 – “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” Og Mandino
86 – “Either you have dreams big enough to overcome your fears or you have fears big enough to overcome your dreams.” Orrin Woodward
87 – “It is foolish to fear what you cannot avoid.” Publius Syrus
88 – “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem
89 – “Confidence is what we get when we take fear, face it and replace it.” Tim Fargo
90 – “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
91 – “Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” Louis E. Boone
92 – “Many times, the thought of fear itself is greater than what it is we fear.” Idowu Koyenikan
93 – “A fear of weakness only strengthens weakness.” Criss Jami
94 – “Criticism is just someone else’s opinion. Even people who are experts in their fields are sometimes wrong. It is up to you to choose whether to believe some of it, none of it, or all of it. What you think is what counts.” Rodolfo Costa
95 – “He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.” Napoleon Bonaparte
96 – “Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try.” Jack Canfield
97 – “Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I built my life.” J.K. Rowling
98 – “You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.” Barack Obama
99 – “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” James Joyce
100 – “Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success.” Robert Orben
101 – “All my successes have been built on my failures.” Benjamin Disraeli
