“I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process.” — Thomas Edison (19th/20th-century American inventor), responding to a reporter who asked how it felt to fail 2000 times before successfully inventing the light bulb

“Be patient and calm — for no one can catch fish in anger.” — Herbert Hoover, 20th-century American public servant, U.S. president

“Fall seven times. Stand up eight.” — Japanese proverb

“If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.” — Mary Pickford, 20th- century American actress

“The way to succeed is never quit. That’s it. But really be humble about it.” — Alex Haley, 20th-century American author

“Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We attempt nothing great but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter, we persevere in nothing great but from a pride in overcoming them.” — William Hazlitt, early 18th-century English essayist and literary critic

“The greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it.” — Jean Baptiste Molière, 17th- century French dramatist

“What does not destroy makes me stronger.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th-century German philosopher

“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew.” — Saint Francis de Sales

“Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall.” — Oliver Goldsmith, 18th- century English novelist

“Endurance is nobler than strength and patience than beauty.” — John Ruskin, 19th-century British critic and author

“By and by never comes.’’ — St. Augustine

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” — Benjamin Franklin, 18th-century American Founding Father, inventor and statesman

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” — Calvin Coolidge, 20th-century American president

“People may fail many times, but they become failures only when they begin to blame someone else.” — Unknown

“One is defeated only when one accepts defeat.” — Marshall Foch, 19th/20th-century French general

“It is not falling into the water, but lying in it, that drowns.” — Unknown

“Winners are losers who got up and gave it one more try.” — Dennis DeYoung, 20th-century songwriter and member of the pop rock band Styx