Which is worse: failing or never trying?

Neither are acceptable, they are both equally as bad. That's loser talk to pick. I always try, and when I fail, I am punished.

There's a few things that I wish I never tried, but if failure doesn't lead to death, then all you can do is learn from it.

Never trying. The feeling of failing is that you couldn't accomplish what you thought you could. Thats over and done with. The feeling of never trying is regret and misery because you may have been able to accomplish the task, maybe not, but you never tried so you will never know.

Both suck equally. Nothing is as disheartening than failing at something you set out to do. But nothing is more pathetic than not trying at all.

What exactly do you mean by never trying? What do you mean by "worse"? Compared to what?

For me, not trying is not a bad decision in itself, it must be a rational and logical conclusion that leads you to think that no matter what you will do, in general, you will not obtain what you wanted in the first place.
It does not always imply failing completely either, because it gives you other opportunities, other solutions to the same problem.
If you're implying that "never trying" is never thinking about a solution to a problem, then I agree it's not a good thing.

About failing, I don't see it as a bad thing either, as most people said, it helps you grow up, not repeating the same mistakes for exemple, it gives you experience. It's not a very good feeling though, I agree it can be very discouraging.

A person who never throws the ball will never chase after it and discover allot of interesting things.
Because of the simple fact that he never had the courage to explore and never saw what the outside world had to offer.

Sometimes the world is a cruel and harsh place but allot of good things can come out of trying instead of not trying.

missed opportunities are terrible and are far worse than simply failing. I do neither of these things so... yea.

i constantly kick myself for missing opportunities.
depending on what you're failing at, it can be real breaking to fail.
I think it's the matter of how big the subject is or risks...
Using the example, I don't think there was much failing to be done apart from death, which will be down to the supervisors....I think it will be down to 'balls' and depends on how bothered you are to do it. If you're not keen on doing it, then there's no worry

Never trying is definitely worse than failing. If you never try, then you'll never know what the results will be and you'll always be in doubts and regrets. I always tell myself "If you fail, then you fail, there's nothing you can do about it right now, so just do better the next time". If you try and fail, you'll know what the consequences are, what you must not do in order to succeed the next time.

Old saying but "You never know unless you try"
You always have to give it your best shot. I would rather fail a million times than never even attempt to try. Give it your best and hold your head up high!

Never trying is far worse then failing in my opinion.

Never Trying. The reasons are pretty much summed up by everyone who posted before me.

not trying.Due to the fact the person doesnt gain any experience what so ever.The person who failed knows his or her misktake so they can try their best not to do it again if they do the same mission (or whatever) again.

Never trying unless you did not ever planned on to.

Fearing failure is one thing and fearing the consequences of failure is another. I fear that the consequence of my failure will lead to fear of failure which leads to stress and many bad, terrible things (lethargy, depression, splitting migraines). And I generally regret my failures much more than I do the times I didn't try. I pat myself on the back for all the times I had the opportunity to do something really stupid but didn't. More often, though, I do the stupid thing and regret it every day when my thoughts start to wander.

Also, keep in mind that everything has an opportunity cost. Even if you try one thing, you're effectively not trying something else. Thomas Edison could have failed millions of times and found out millions of ways to not make a light bulb and, in fact, never have made a light bulb at all--if his attempts weren't related to making a light bulb. So the question isn't whether or not you try, but what you try (in relation to your objectives).

[font=Verdana][color=green]Undoubtedly not trying is worse. You're remembered for what you have done; failing or not - not for what you didn't even try to do.

No trying is worse. You're left with "What if".
At least in Failing, you learn.