People always seem to be talking about how they are going to lose weight, or how they have lost weight. It’s something that is constantly on people’s minds, and for good reason: obesity rates in the United States are at an all-time high. But what about when people talk about losing things other than weight? Here are some of our favorite quotes about losing things.

The best losing quotes

1. The Democrats are dropping the F–bomb at practically every appearance now, because they think that’s how they connect to the Millennials. They’re losing their minds. — Rush Limbaugh

2. Subhan’allah. It is in the process of ‘losing’ that we are given. — Yasmin Mogahed

3. I think sports for kids is the greatest thing in the world because it teaches you how to share, about winning and losing and pressure. — Wayne Gretzky

4. She felt trapped, but she didn’t have to. The world is wide open and ready, waiting for us to escape this bubble and join it. — C.M. Stunich, Losing Me, Finding You

5. I think sports for kids is the greatest thing in the world because it teaches you how to share, about winning and losing and pressure. — Wayne Gretzky

6. Nobody gets through life without losing a few things on the way. — Neil Gaiman

7. After my mother’s death I began to see her as she had really been…. It was less like losing someone than discovering someone. — Nancy Hale

8. The only person you should ever fear losing in a relationship is you yourself. — Miya Yamanouchi, Embrace Your Sexual Self: A Practical Guide for Women

9. Losing something might be a blessing — gaining something might be a curse!

10. Perversion is just another form of art. It’s like painting or drawing or sculpting. Except instead of paint, us perverts use sex as our medium.  — C.M. Stunich, Losing Me, Finding You

11. It’s a funny thing, the less people have to live for, the less nerve they have to risk losing nothing. — Zora Neale Hurston

12. I just hate losing and that gives you an extra determination to work harder. — Wayne Rooney

13. It’s not about winning or losing, but love and respect. — Max Lucado

14. We can give up belief in God while not losing touch with a treasured heritage. — Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

15. No amount of money can compensate losing your purpose — Sunday Adelaja

16. I hate losing and cricket being my first love, once I enter the ground it’s a different zone altogether and that hunger for winning is always there. — Sachin Tendulkar

17. I want to be able to love youmore than I fear losing you, and I don’t know how. Teach me, Bree. Please teach me. Don’t let me destroy this. — Mia Sheridan, Archer’s Voice

18. All of us were slowly losing that intellectual light that allows you always to tell the similar from the identical, the metaphorical from the real. — Umberto Eco

19. I am losing enough sleep to supply a worn–out army. — Mark Twain

20. To be successful, you have To be out there, you have To hit the ground running — Richard Branson, Losing My Virginity: How I’ve Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

21. I never could stand losing. Second place didn’t interest me. I had a fire in my belly. — Ty Cobb

22. Whatever (its) virtues, (the) writing explores the culture of work but marginalizes work itself. — Maureen Corrigan, Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books

23. I sometimes feel that we are losing an intuitive sense of our own bodies. — Toyo Ito

24. There is something about losing your mother that is permanent and inexpressable–a wound that will never quite heal. — Susan Wiggs, The Goodbye Quilt

25. I should have suspected my husband was lazy. On our wedding day, his mother told me: ‘I’m not losing a son; I’m gaining a couch. — Phyllis Diller

26. Losing my homies in a hurry, they’re relocating to the cemetery. — Tupac Shakur

27. I think losing a child is unimaginable. It’s every person’s worst nightmare. It’s unimaginably difficult. It shakes your faith in the world. It tests your optimism. — Natalie Portman

28. The 2014 elections are not about winning or losing, but of ensuring a bright future for India. It is about sowing the seeds for a ‘Bhavya’ and a ‘Divya Bharat’. — Narendra Modi

29. As long as you feel comfortable losing, you will never win! — Mignon’ Talise Padilla

30. You have to start over. That’s what they say. But life is not a board game, and losing a loved one is never really ‘starting over.’ More like ‘continuing without. — Mitch Albom

31. The worst thing you can do is make money at the expense of losing your time. — J.R. Rim

32. And she sees that the moonlight is losing its orange glow. It has become buttery, and will soon turn to silver. — Stephen King

33. To Dare is to risk losing your foothold for a moment, Not to Dare is to risk losing yourself. — Soren Kierkegaard

34. The Chinese government is quickly losing its ideological legitimacy, maintain its rule with force, but cannot draw strength from the ideology of Marx and Mao. — Steve Forbes

35. Our goodness is our wealth and when we close our eyes to the tragedies of the hard lives, we start losing our wealth! — Mehmet Murat ildan

36. Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. — Rudyard Kipling

37. Going to law is losing a cow for the sake of a cat. — Mark Twain

38. And she sees that the moonlight is losing its orange glow. It has become buttery, and will soon turn to silver. — Stephen King

39. The ego hates losing–even to God. — Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

40. Free is he who is reputable for not being fearful of losing his reputation. — Mokokoma Mokhonoana

41. There is plenty of competition in a Glasser Quality School in that there is winning but no losing. — William Glasser

42. In the bad old days there were three easy ways of losing money–racing being the quickest women the pleasantest and farming the most certain. — William Pitt Amherst

43. When we direct a lot of hostile energy toward the inner critic, we enter into a losing battle. — Sharon Salzberg

44. If outrage were a sign of godliness, then the devil would be the godliest soul in Creation. — Russell D. Moore, Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel

45. It’s a funny thing, the less people have to live for, the less nerve they have to risk losing nothing. — Zora Neale Hurston

46. Fighting a losing battle is as good as tucking in stones in your pockets, jumping in a dam and hoping to float. — Nomthandazo Tsembeni

47. Things that aren’t important, that have nothing to do with winning and losing, don’t have to be a rule. — Peter Richmond

48. After my mother’s death I began to see her as she had really been…. It was less like losing someone than discovering someone. — Nancy Hale

49. There’s nothing like losing yourself in someone else’s troubles to make you forget your own. — Therese Anne Fowler

50. The ego hates losing–even to God. — Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

Conclusion

Remember that sometimes the best way to gain something is to lose something. Take the time to reflect on your losses and use these quotes to help you gain a better perspective on the situation. We all make mistakes, but it’s how we choose to move forward that determines our success. So don’t let your losses keep you from achieving your goals. With strength and courage, you can turn any loss into a learning experience and use it to propel you to greatness.