Success Quote by Roger Babson

Babson’s line lands with the calm authority of someone who spent a lifetime watching fortunes rise and crater on predictable cycles. “Wise to keep in mind” is doing quiet work here: it frames the thought not as inspiration, but as a mental discipline, a habit of attention. The real target isn’t either outcome; it’s the intoxicating story we attach to outcomes. Success tempts us into permanence, failure tempts us into doom. Babson punctures both narratives with the same pin.

The symmetry of “neither...nor...” matters. It refuses the common bargain where we treat one as “real” and the other as an exception. In an educational context, that’s a corrective to the gradebook worldview: the test score feels definitive because institutions act like it is. Babson is arguing for a longer timeline, one where learning and character are not captured by a single snapshot. It’s also a rebuke to complacency and despair at once. If success isn’t final, you don’t get to coast. If failure isn’t final, you don’t get to quit.

Historically, Babson lived through dramatic booms and busts, including the Great Depression, when “final” felt less like a metaphor than a verdict. The quote’s subtext is resilience without romance: keep moving, keep adjusting, keep your ego out of the spreadsheet. It’s stoic, but practical - an educator’s reminder that the next iteration is always already underway.