We all face the temptation to quit at some point; it is a universal experience, and no one is immune. Handling failure with grace is a rare skill, and even though we logically understand that setbacks are a part of the human condition, we are often still caught off guard when they happen to us.
Here are 36 quotes to turn to the next time you feel like throwing in the towel. Reminding yourself that hopelessness is only temporary might be the spark you need to pick yourself up and keep moving forward.
1. **Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’**
—Mary Anne Radmacher, American author and artist
2. **Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.**
—Earl Nightingale (1921–1989), American radio performer and writer
3. **Fall seven times and stand up eight.**
—Japanese Proverb
4. **It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.**
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955), physicist and developer of the theory of relativity
5. **Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.**
—Thomas Edison (1874–1931), inventor of the light bulb
6. **Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.**
—Henry Ford (1863–1947), founder of Ford Motor Company
7. **A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.**
—B.F. Skinner (1904–1990), American psychologist
8. **Ask yourself this question: ‘Will this matter a year from now?’**
—Richard Carlson, American psychotherapist and author of *Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff*
9. **What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same? I doubt you’d be happy. So, why are you so afraid of change?**
—Karen Salmansohn, best-selling self-help author
10. **Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.**
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933), U.S. president
11. **As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.**
—Dr. Steve Maraboli, speaker and author
12. **Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.**
—Robert Collier (1885–1950), American self-help author
13. **It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.**
—Confucius (551–479 BC), philosopher
14. **Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.**
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), American author
15. **Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.**
—Newt Gingrich (1943– ), American politician, historian, and author
16. **Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.**
—Julie Andrews (1935– ), English film and stage actress
17. **Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.**
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881), British politician and writer
18. **Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.**
—William Feather (1889–1981), American author
19. **Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.**
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955), world-renowned author and speaker
20. **Failure is often that early morning hour of darkness which precedes the dawning of the day of success.**
—Leigh Mitchell Hodges (1876–1954), journalist and poet
21. **We will either find a way or make one.**
—Hannibal (247–182 BC), Carthaginian General
22. **It always seems impossible until it’s done.**
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013), South African anti-apartheid leader
23. **The best way out is always through.**
—Robert Frost (1874–1963), American poet
24. **A winner is just a loser who tried one more time.**
—George M. Moore Jr. (1862–1940), Member U.S. House of Representatives
25. **Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.**
—George Edward Woodberry (1855–1930), American poet
26. **When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you … never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.**
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896), American abolitionist and author
27. **The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.**
—Confucius (551–479 BC), philosopher
28. **I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.**
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), 16th President of the United States
29. **Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.**
—Babe Ruth (1895–1948), baseball legend
30. **Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.**
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th President of the United States
31. **Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.**
—James A. Michener (1907–1997), American author
32. **Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.**
—Walter Elliot (1888–1958), Scottish politician
33. **The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next.**
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983), American journalist and author
34. **Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.**
—Louis Pasteur (1822–1895), scientist and inventor of the pasteurization process
35. **I was taught the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.**
—Marie Curie (1867–1934), French physicist and two-time winner of the Nobel Prize
36. **Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.**
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965), former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom