Success Quote by Elihu Root

Root’s line reads like courtroom strategy disguised as self-help: failure isn’t an event that happens to you, it’s a decision you make. Coming from a lawyer and statesman of the early 20th century, the intent is less about comforting bruised egos than about disciplining will. In Root’s world - where institutions, treaties, and reforms are hammered into place through relentless negotiation - “trying” is the only moral variable you control. Outcomes can be postponed by bad luck, opponents, or political tides; quitting can’t be blamed on anyone else.

The subtext is prosecutorial. He’s quietly stripping away excuses and reclassifying “I failed” as “I stopped.” That rhetorical move is persuasive because it shifts the locus of responsibility from the external to the internal without sounding sentimental. It’s also a subtle defense of meritocratic faith: persistence is framed not just as admirable but as determinative, a stance that flatters a certain American belief that effort cashes out into results.

Context sharpens the edge. Root’s career straddled a period obsessed with “efficiency” and professional expertise - the Progressive Era’s promise that competent people could manage messy realities into order. “Men do not fail” is the era talking: the system is winnable if you keep your hand on the lever. Yet the line also reveals its limits. By redefining failure as surrender, it downplays structural barriers and unequal starting points. That tension is precisely why it still lands: it’s motivational, yes, but it’s also a moral challenge posed with legalistic clarity.