Optimism is a kind of heart stimulant – the digitalis of failure.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.

There is no way to prosperity, prosperity is the way.

What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.

The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

I’m a Sagittarius, and one of our major qualities is that we’re blindly optimistic.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

Every experiment, by multitudes or by individuals, that has a sensual and selfish aim, will fail.

In retrospect, I do think it’s fair to say that we were overly idealistic and focused on more of the good parts of what connecting people and giving people a voice can bring.

The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn’t make it.

One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Any idea, plan, or purpose may be placed in the mind through repetition of thought.

I don’t think that you can invent on behalf of customers unless you’re willing to think long-term, because a lot of invention doesn’t work. If you’re going to invent, it means you’re going to experiment, and if you’re going to experiment, you’re going to fail, and if you’re going to fail, you have to think long term.

It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory it too good.

A man may be a pessimistic determinist before lunch and an optimistic believer in the will’s freedom after it.

I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best.

Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.

Why don’t you start believing that no matter what you have or haven’t done, that your best days are still out in front of you.

Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

One of the most basic factors in sports is that winning becomes a habit, and losing is the same way. When failure starts to feel normal in your life or your work or even your darkest vices, you won’t have to go looking for trouble, because trouble will find you. Count on it.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

I thank God for my failures. Maybe not at the time but after some reflection. I never feel like a failure just because something I tried has failed.

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

I’ve actually taken companies public, I’ve actually busted companies, I’ve actually gone broke.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

All human actions are equivalent and all are on principle doomed to failure.

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

Assuming if there’s such a thing as reality, if you have a false relationship with it, how can you do anything but fail?

Without failure there is no achievement.

I want to let you in on a little secret: I don’t always feel like I’m a success. That’s right. There are plenty of times when I feel like I’ve just totally messed up and failed to connect with the people I’m trying to communicate with.

Movies are not novels, and that’s why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost always failure. It can’t be done.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.

Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be.

It’s not the tools that you have faith in – tools are just tools. They work, or they don’t work. It’s people you have faith in or not. Yeah, sure, I’m still optimistic I mean, I get pessimistic sometimes but not for long.

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.

The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Of course, violence will not end with our combat mission. Extremists will continue to set off bombs, attack Iraqi civilians and try to spark sectarian strife. But ultimately, these terrorists will fail to achieve their goals.

Treat failure as a lesson on how not to approach achieving a goal, and then use that learning to improve your chances of success when you try again. Failure is only the end if you decide to stop.

If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.

‚Worry‘ is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.

I always have an optimistic view, no matter what it is.

Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.

Instead of blaming everyone and everything else for your problems, pray for God to help you take an inventory of what’s been on your mind so you can think about what you’ve been thinking about.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

I’m living in the present, thinking about the past, hoping for the future.

The most positive men are the most credulous.

The less we deserve good fortune, the more we hope for it.

When fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade.