quotations about mistakes
Let the answers be wrong, let the philosophy be mistaken -- errors are more valuable than truths: truth is of the machine, error is alive; truth reassures, error disturbs.
YEVGENY ZAMYATIN
On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters
I have learned all kinds of things from my many mistakes. The one thing I never learn is to stop making them.
JOE ABERCROMBIE
Last Argument of Kings
The wise man corrects his own errors by observing those of others.
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
The Moral Sayings of Publilius Syrus
Mistakes are the knots, the tangles, the broken threads, the dropped stitches in the web of our living. They are the misdeals in judgment, our unwise investments in morals, the profit and loss account of wisdom.
WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN
The Crown of Individuality
They say we learn from mistakes,
that's why they mistake me.
LIL WAYNE
"Blunt Blowin", Tha Carter IV
Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful; there are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind.
JEAN ROSTAND
"A Biologist's Thoughts", The Substance of Man
Makin' mistakes ain't a crime, you know. What's the use of having a reputation if you can't ruin it every now and then?
SIMONE ELKELES
Perfect Chemistry
Mistake, error, is the discipline through which we advance.
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
Address on the Present Age
Our mistakes are especially interesting because they are a major source of wreckage in our relationships, careers, and lives, leading to needless conflict and misunderstanding. Our mistakes lead to ineffective solutions to some of society's biggest problems, and they can send nations into needless wars with the worst of consequences. Fortunately for improvement's sake, the mistakes we make trying to understand the minds of others are predictable and therefore correctable.
NICHOLAS EPLEY
Mindwise
We ought not to look back, unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear bought experience. To enveigh against things that are past and irremediable, is unpleasing; but to steer clear of the shelves and rocks we have struck upon, is the part of wisdom, equally as incumbent on political as other men, who have their own little bark, or that of others, to navigate through the intricate paths of life, or the trackless ocean, to the haven of security and rest.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to Major-General Armstrong, March 26, 1781
Mistakes are like accidents: they are bound to happen, but if we take precautions we have a fairly good chance of minimizing their number and their impact. If we do that, there is no reason to worry: we have enough protection.
GABOR FORRAI
Reference, Truth and Conceptual Schemes: A Defense of Internal Realism
No man's error becomes his own law, nor obliges him to persist in it.
THOMAS HOBBES
Leviathan
He is a thorough accountant who can cast up correctly the sum of his own errors.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
It is not so difficult a task to plant new truths, as to root out old errors; for there is this paradox in men, they run after that which is new, but are prejudiced in favour of that which is old.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
New York Times Magazine, October 4, 1953
Those who learn from their mistakes, are achievers and those who keep on crying on their failures, are losers.
SANJEEV KUMAR
31 Distinctive Qualities for Becoming Rich
I can bear to hear of imputed or real errors. The man who wishes to stand well in the opinion of others must do this; because he is thereby enabled to correct his faults, or remove prejudices which are imbibed against him.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to Joseph Reed, January 14, 1776
Only while sleeping one makes no mistakes. Making mistakes is the privilege of the active--of those who can correct their mistakes and put them right.
INGVAR KAMPRAD
"The Testament of a Furniture Dealer"
The important thing in my view is not to pin the blame for a mistake on somebody, but rather to find out what caused the mistake.
AKIO MORITA
Made in Japan
You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
My Early Life: A Roving Commission