"He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being"

Paul Tillich’s assertion draws a profound distinction between external failure and existential failure. At its core, the statement challenges the common fear of taking chances and making mistakes. The person who takes risks but fails demonstrates courage; their willingness to step beyond comfort and familiarity is inherently human and meaningful. Even if the outcome isn’t success, their action embodies vitality, engagement, and authenticity. Such a person can “be forgiven” in the sense that their shortcomings are understandable, even admirable, because they stem from striving and living fully.

Contrastingly, the person who never risks avoids all possibilities of external failure, yet their avoidance becomes an internal and pervasive form of failure. Their entire being is affected because risking is fundamental to growth, creativity, and fulfillment. To never take risks is to never encounter the unpredictable, to evade opportunities for learning, joy, and even love. Existence itself is a series of unknowns, choices, and leaps of faith, by denying this reality, one forfeits the richness of life’s possibilities.

Tillich’s words suggest that the true measure of success is not whether one avoids failure, but whether one dares to act in the first place. A life without risk is stagnant, sheltering the individual from disappointment but also from the rewards of accomplishment and self-discovery. Such existence becomes hollow, defined not by the presence of failure but by the absence of engagement. True failure, then, is not found in a particular outcome but in an unwillingness to participate with courage in life’s uncertainties.

Risk involves vulnerability and an openness to both suffering and triumph. Choosing comfort and certainty over risk may appear as prudence, but Tillich warns it is a subtler, more damaging kind of failure, a denial of one’s own potential. In embracing the possibility of failure, individuals affirm their humanity and capacity for transformation.