Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure. George Edward Woodberry

This sort of fatuous platitude is everything that is wrong with judgemental people who know nothing and choose to prove it. Just look at the massive assumptions incorporated in these fifteen words.
Defeat does not exist until it is proven that you are not able to succeed (impossible).
Worst of failures is simply arrogant tosh. There are no degrees of failure, indeed, failure does not exist. If what you try to do does not work, that is not a failure, it is a success in finding how not to do it.