A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.

The saying distinguishes between an unfavorable outcome (“failure”) and culpable error (“mistake”). It suggests that results can be constrained by conditions—limited information, resources, or external pressures—so an attempt may be rational and even optimal despite ending badly. The ethical and practical fault, the quote argues, is not the unsuccessful outcome but the abandonment of further effort. Read in a broadly Skinnerian key, it aligns with an emphasis on behavior shaped by circumstances and on persistence through iterative adjustment: progress comes from continued responding, learning, and re-trying rather than from treating a single negative result as definitive.