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Failure makes success so much sweeter, and allows you to thumb your nose at the crowds.

— Wilbur Smith

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More quotes by Wilbur Smith

Something always dies when the lion feeds — and yet there is meat for those that follow him.

When the Lion Feeds (1964)

It’s a strange paradox that a man gifted with too many talents can fritter them all away without developing a single one to its full.

Rage (1987)

War is the game played by old men with the lives of the young.

River God (1993)

Beware of your most implacable enemy — yourself.

The Leopard Hunts in Darkness (1984)

We are all mere insects caught in the web that the gods spin for us.

Desert God (2014)

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We spend our lives fighting to get people very slightly more stupid than ourselves to accept truths that the great men have always known.

Doris Lessing The Golden Notebook (1962)

To rank the effort above the prize may be called love.

Confucius

Greatness by nature includes a power, but not a will to power.

Martin Buber Between Man and Man (1965)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

Attribution

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