If this fail,

The pillar'd firmament is rottenness,

And earth's base built on stubble.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 597.

  Macb.  If we should fail?

  Lady M.        We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,

And we 'll not fail.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.

In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves

For a bright manhood, there is no such word

As "fail."

Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873): Richelieu. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Prologue to the Tragedy of Irene.

A sacred burden is this life ye bear:

Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly,

Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly.

Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin,

But onward, upward, till the goal ye win.

Wendell Phillips (1811-1884): Lines addressed to the Young Gentlemen leaving the Lenox Academy, Mass.

They never fail who die

In a great cause.

Lord Byron 1788-1824: Marino Faliero. Act ii. Sc. 2.

  Macb.  If we should fail?

  Lady M.        We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,

And we 'll not fail.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 7.