Alain de Botton Quotes

Sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right.

I was lucky in that I had a mother that was full of this colloquial wisdom and she used to say to me 'You know, failure is not the opposite of success, it's the stepping stone to success. There is nobody who has not failed along the way.' So I think its very important for young women, especially as they are starting in life, to recognize that because otherwise, they only see people's success. So, when I speak, I speak of my failures.

The taste of defeat has a richness of experience all its own.

Big defeats make us learn.

We get very little wisdom from success, you know.

You learn as much from failure as from success, Dad always says. Though no one admires you for it.

What people call success is only preparation for the next failure.

From success, you learn absolutely nothing. From failure and setbacks conclusions can be drawn. That goes for your private life as well as your career.

You are fortunate if you have learned the difference between temporary defeat and failure, more fortunate still if you have learned the truth that the very seed of success is dormant in every defeat that you experience.

Losing is the price we pay for living. It is also the source of much of our growth and gain.

Defeat is a school in which truth always grows strong.

The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.

Dealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.

The reward of pain is experience.

Mistakes are the stepping stones to success.

I need people who look at adversity as a challenge and failure as a learning opportunity.

A failure is like fertilizer; it stinks to be sure, but it makes things grow faster in the future.

When you have a challenge and the response is equal to the challenge, that's called 'success'. But once you have a new challenge, the old, once-successful response no longer works. That's why it is called a 'failure'.

If you would not have affliction visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches.

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted.

Man is a pupil, pain is his teacher.

Great success is built on failure, frustration, even catastrophe.

Success is a poor teacher

The art of victory is learned in defeat.

I think sometimes, when you're on top and all you do is win, win, win, win, win, you get lazy and lose focus. When you lose it opens your eyes and you get serious. There is always a time when it is good to lose, at the right time for you.