He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.

The saying contrasts two kinds of “failure”: the ordinary, forgivable kind that accompanies genuine risk, and the deeper existential failure of refusing risk altogether. In Tillich’s terms, to risk is to exercise “courage” in the face of anxiety and uncertainty; avoiding risk may preserve comfort or reputation, but it shrinks the self and blocks growth, love, creativity, and moral decision. The line implies that mistakes made in pursuit of meaningful action can be integrated, learned from, and even redeemed, whereas a life organized around safety becomes a betrayal of one’s possibilities—an impoverishment of being itself. It is thus less a celebration of recklessness than an ethical call to live decisively.