You cannot measure a man by his failures. You must know what use he makes of them. What did they mean to him. What did he get out of them.
Interpretation
A person's failures should not define them; rather, it's their response to those failures that is important.
This quote emphasizes the idea that failures are not the ultimate measure of a person's worth. Instead, the focus should be on how an individual interprets and learns from their failures, as well as the value they extract from those experiences. It suggests that resilience and the ability to grow from setbacks are what truly define a person's character and potential.
In practice
A speaker at a personal development workshop could use this quote to inspire attendees to view their setbacks as opportunities for growth.
Opportunity is latent in the very foundation of human society. Opportunity is everywhere about us. But the preparation to seize upon the opportunity, and to make the most of it, is to be made by every one for himself ... he will be self-made or never made.
We lift ourselves by our thought, we climb upon our vision of ourselves. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always, everywhere - your ideal of what you long to attain - the ideal of health, efficiency, success.
You know from past experiences that whenever you have been driven to the wall, or thought you were, you have extricated yourself in a way which you never would have dreamed possible had you not been put to the test. The trouble is that in your everyday life you don't go deep enough to tap the divine mind within you.
Something greater than wealth, grander even than fame β that manhood, character, stand for success, and that nothing else really does.
Many a man has finally succeeded only because he has failed after repeated efforts. If he had never met defeat he would never have known any great victory.
If our dreams are sincere desires to achieve, not mere pipe-dreams, there is something deep within ourselves which comes out to meet them and helps to make them realities.
The beginning is the most important part of the work.
Almost always the men who achieve these fundamental inventions of a new paradigm have been either very young or very new to the field whose paradigm they change.
Suckers try to win arguments, nonsuckers try to win.
All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.
What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.
Nothing is more despicable than a professional talker who uses his words as a quack uses his remedies
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