Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

The saying elevates earnest effort over safe inaction. Eliot contrasts two lives: one that risks, persists, and may ultimately fail, and another that avoids commitment so thoroughly that it never even reaches the dignity of a true “failure.” The “grander” failure is morally and existentially larger because it implies courage, aspiration, and sustained labor—qualities that shape character regardless of outcome. The line also critiques social habits of timidity and self-protection: not striving can preserve comfort and reputation, but it forfeits growth and meaning. In this view, failure is not the opposite of success so much as evidence that one attempted something worth attempting.