Go forward with joyful confidence.
George EliotRead
I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True failure is not in falling short, but in abandoning one's true purpose.
In this quote, George Eliot emphasizes that failure should not be feared in the traditional sense, but rather, one should be concerned about failing to stay true to one's own purpose and convictions. This perspective encourages individuals to embrace their ambitions and to see setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than as definitive failures, inspiring them to remain steadfast in their pursuits.
Themes
FailurePurposeSuccessFearDetermination
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote as a motivational statement during a team meeting to encourage persistence despite setbacks.
More from George Eliot
All quotes →You must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honorable to you to be doing something else. You must have a pride in your own work and in learning to do it well.
George EliotRead
She thought it was part of the hardship of her life that there was laid upon her the burthen of larger wants than others seemed to feel – that she had to endure this wide hopeless yearning for that something, whatever it was, that was greatest and best on this earth.
George EliotRead
Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.
George EliotRead
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them: they can be injured by us, they can be wounded; they know all our penitence, all our aching sense that their place is empty, all the kisses we bestow on the smallest relic of their presence.
George EliotRead
Similar quotes
There is nothing of which we are more ashamed than of not being ourselves. And there is nothing which brings us greater joy and happiness than to think, feel, and say what is ours.
Erich FrommRead
We've got a generation now who were born with semiequality. They don't know how it was before, so they think, this isn't too bad. We're working. We have our attache' cases and our three piece suits. I get very disgusted with the younger generation of women. We had a torch to pass, and they are just sitting there. They don't realize it can be taken away. Things are going to have to get worse before they join in fighting the battle.
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The offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can’t give way, is an offer of something not worth having. I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don’t know anything like enough yet; that I haven’t understood enough; that I can’t know enough; that I’m always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Christopher HitchensRead
Never read any book that is not a year old.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.
C. S. LewisRead
Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.
Harper LeeRead