“Your actions might be up to you, but the outcomes are not. So stop judging yourself on whether or not you hit your targets. Instead, focus on how well you prepared for it. Focus on the process, not the outcome.” — Phil Van Treuren
Failure is something that every person gets to experience . . . sometimes in large amounts. The Stoics knew that failure itself isn’t necessarily good or bad, but can be either depending on how we approach it and choose to let it affect us.
As the stoic quotes on failure we’re listing here illustrate, Stoicism teaches that you can look at all failure as an opportunity. To learn, to better yourself, or even to just practice acceptance of things outside of your control.
Every life has more failure in it than success, but the people who take Stoic philosophy to heart and decide to look at failure as an opportunity will have much happier, fulfilling lives because of it. Take inspiration from these quotes that came from Stoics who met with plenty of failure in their own lives, but went on to become stronger because of it.
Stoic Quotes on Failure from Marcus Aurelius
“Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not ‘This is misfortune,’ but ‘To bear this worthily is good fortune.'”
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
“If you want momentum, you’ll have to create it yourself, right now, by getting up and getting started.”
“Just as nature takes every obstacle, every impediment, and works around it—turns it to its purposes, incorporates it into itself—so, too, a rational being can turn each setback into raw material and use it to achieve its goal.”
Stoic Quotes on Failure from Epictetus
“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems”
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Stoic Quotes on Failure from Seneca
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
“How does it help to make troubles heavier by bemoaning them?”
“Think your way through difficulties: harsh conditions can be softened, restricted ones can be widened, and heavy ones can weigh less on those who know how to bear them.”
“It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself to deal with difficult times. While fortune is bestowing favors on it, then is the time for it to be strengthened against her rebuffs.”