There have been others also just as true and devoted to the cause--I wish I could name every one--but with such women consecrating... their lives, failure is impossible!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is only possible to succeed at second-rate pursuits--like becoming a millionaire or a prime minister, winning a war, seducing b...eautiful women, flying thought the stratosphere or landing on the moon. First-rate pursuits--involving, as they must, trying to understand what life is about and trying to convey that understanding--inevitably result in a sense of failure. A Napoleon, a Churchill, a Roosevelt can feel themselves to be successful, but never a Socrates, a Pascal, a Blake. Understanding is for ever unattainable. Therein lies the inevitablility of failure in embarking upon its quest, which is none the less the only one worthy of serious attention.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Every reader of the French or German papers knows that not a day passes without producing some uneasy discussion of supposed socia...l decrepitude;Mfalling off of the birthrate;Mdecline of rural population;Mlowering of army standards;Mmultiplication of suicides;Mincrease of insanity or idiocy,--of cancer,--of tuberculosis;Msigns of nervous exhaustion,--of enfeebled vitality,--"habits" of alcoholism and drugs,--failure of eyesight in the young,--and so on, without end.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am willing, for a money consideration, to test this physical strength, this nervous force, and muscular power with which I've be...en gifted, to show that they will bear a certain strain. If I break down, if my brain gives way under want of sleep, my heart ceases to respond to the calls made on my circulatory system, or the surcharged veins of my extremities burst--if, in short, I fall helpless, or it may be, dead on the track, then I lose my money.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There was a young man of Australia Who painted his ass like a dahlia.... The drawing was fine And the painting divine But the aroma--that was the failure.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is as absurd to say that [due to motherhood] all women shall be denied the suffrage, as it would be to deny all men the suffrag...e, because some are liable, periodically, to inflammatory rheumatism, delirium tremens, or financial failure.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession. A true man finds so much work to do that he has no time to contemplate his yeste...rdays; for to-day and to-morrow are here, with their impatient tasks. The world is so busy, too, that it cannot afford to study any man's unfinished work; for the end may prove it a failure, and the world needs masterpieces.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Parents are never forgiven for not giving just the right response at the appropriate moment. Or, rather, there are particular time...s in the adolescent's or young adult's life, when a certain response is needed, and this need is not met, and the failure to meet this need is forever remembered, and is never forgiven.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the ex...ceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »