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It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
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“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

Theodore Roosevelt

Source
The Strenuous Life
Date
1899
Meaning

Meaning of “It is hard to fail, but it is…”

Roosevelt contrasts the disappointment of an unsuccessful attempt with the deeper loss of never attempting worthwhile work at all, making participation and effort more important than guaranteed success.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Strenuous Life, speech before the Hamilton Club, Chicago, April 10, 1899; Project Gutenberg #58821. The sentence appears in Roosevelt’s opening argument for active effort and immediately follows his praise of the person who embodies “victorious effort”; it is preserved as historical motivational rhetoric rather than a promise that effort always produces success.

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