Failure as a Prerequisite to Success

If a man wants to succeed in his work, that is, to achieve the anticipated results, he must bring his ideas into correspondence with the laws of the objective external world; if they do not correspond, he will fail in his practice. After he fails, he draws his lessons, corrects his ideas to make them correspond to the laws of the external world, and can thus turn failure into success; this is what is meant by "failure is the mother of success" and "a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit".

"On Practice" (July 1937), Selected Works, Vol. I, pp. 296-97.

Zedong Mao, Quotations Friom Chairman Mao Tsetung (2006-03-01)

• failure
• practice
• success