George Edward Woodberry
“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”
Wendell Phillips: The Faith of an American, p. 45, 1912
Documented source
Source
George Edward Woodberry, Wendell Phillips: The Faith of an American (1912), p. 45
In full
“Death is not the worst of life. Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”
Verified at Archive.org (djvu.txt, lines 1263–1265)
Context
Written about the abolitionist Wendell Phillips — forty years of being shouted down, and he kept showing up
Every quote here is traced to a documented source. How we verify →
About this line
Woodberry wrote it about the abolitionist Wendell Phillips — a man who spent forty years being shouted down and pelted in public halls and kept showing back up. Watching that life, Woodberry didn’t offer advice. He delivered a verdict.
Why we carry this line
Not trying is the real failure — a verdict, not a pep talk. From a writer I’d never met until this line found me.
