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"All honor to him who shall win the prize,"
The world has cried for a thousand years;
But to him who tries, and who fails and dies,
I give great honor and glory and tears. Give glory and honor and pitiful tears
To all who fail in their deeds sublime;
Their ghosts are many in the van of years,
They were born with Time in advance of Time.

— Joaquin Miller

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Failure

More quotes by Joaquin Miller

God can find a soul of beauty
Where it falls, as gems of worth
Are found by miners dark in earth.

Shadows of Shasta (1881)

That man who lives for self alone
Lives for the meanest mortal known.

The Building of the City Beautiful (1905)

The soul that feeds on books alone —
I count that soul exceeding small
That lives alone by book and creed,—
A soul that has not learned to read.

In Classic Shades, and Other Poems (1890)

Each gives to each, and like the star
Gets back its gift in tenfold pay.

The Building of the City Beautiful (1905)

This creature comes from out the dim
Far centuries, beyond the rim
Of time's remotest reach or stir.

The Ship in the Desert (1875)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joaquin Miller (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.