"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it"
About this Quote
Fields takes a Victorian-era self-help maxim and sucker-punches it with reality. The familiar first line ("try, try again") arrives already wearing a halo: grit, character, moral fiber. Then he swivels into the rude punchline - "Then quit" - and the last clause does the real work. "There's no point in being a damn fool about it" isn't just a gag; it's an attack on the cultural fetish for perseverance as virtue in itself.
The intent is comic deflation, but the subtext is sharper: persistence can be less about courage than about ego, denial, or sunk-cost panic. Fields is mocking the idea that effort automatically ennobles you, or that failure is merely a motivational hurdle instead of useful information. His profanity isn't decorative. "Damn fool" plants the joke in everyday irritation, the voice of a man who's watched people keep pushing a door that clearly says PULL - and insists the universe applaud their determination.
Context matters. Fields built a persona out of self-sabotage, cynicism, and a kind of alcoholic gallows humor: the world is rigged, people are ridiculous, and optimism is often a con. In early 20th-century America, when bootstraps mythology and uplift rhetoric were thick in the air, this line works like a pin in a balloon. It's not anti-ambition so much as anti-sentimentality: know when the noble story you're telling about "trying again" is just a way to avoid changing course.
The intent is comic deflation, but the subtext is sharper: persistence can be less about courage than about ego, denial, or sunk-cost panic. Fields is mocking the idea that effort automatically ennobles you, or that failure is merely a motivational hurdle instead of useful information. His profanity isn't decorative. "Damn fool" plants the joke in everyday irritation, the voice of a man who's watched people keep pushing a door that clearly says PULL - and insists the universe applaud their determination.
Context matters. Fields built a persona out of self-sabotage, cynicism, and a kind of alcoholic gallows humor: the world is rigged, people are ridiculous, and optimism is often a con. In early 20th-century America, when bootstraps mythology and uplift rhetoric were thick in the air, this line works like a pin in a balloon. It's not anti-ambition so much as anti-sentimentality: know when the noble story you're telling about "trying again" is just a way to avoid changing course.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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