quotations about mistakes
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
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
Error, by force of contrast, enhances the triumph of Truth.
MARCEL PROUST
Swann's Way
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.
JOHN POWELL
The Secret of Staying in Love
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
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
With the mistake your life goes in reverse.
Now you can see exactly what you did
Wrong yesterday and wrong the day before
And each mistake leads back to something worse.
JAMES FENTON
"The Mistake", Out of Danger
Those who make no mistakes are making the biggest mistakes of all -- they are attempting nothing new.
ANTHONY DE MELLO
One Minute Nonsense
Mistakes are okay. They're here to help you grow. They teach us what we should and shouldn't do.
PHARAOH MITCHELL
Unstoppable
One error persisted in, frequently produces others.
SAMUEL RICHARDSON
Sir Charles Grandison
Mistakes are there to teach you how to do things right. Contained in every mistake is a lesson. By doing it wrong this is often how you learn to do it right.
DARIN PENZERA
Heroic Egoism
Man's attitude towards his mistakes is various and peculiar; some do not see them; some will not see them; some see without changing; some see and deplore, but keep on; some make the same mistakes over and over again, in principle not in form; some blame others for their own mistakes; some condemn others for mistakes seemingly unconscious that they themselves are committing similar ones; some excuse their mistakes by saying that others do the same thing, as though a disease were less dangerous when it becomes epidemic in a community.
WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN
The Crown of Individuality
Do not dwell upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today.
JAMES ALLEN
Byways of Blessedness
All men may err; but he that keepeth not his folly, but repenteth, doeth well; but stubbornness cometh to great trouble.
SOPHOCLES
Antigone
Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before.
ANONYMOUS
It sucks the way the world works. You can do a hundred things for people, but you do one bad mistake and everyone crucifies you and that's all they want to remember.
GILBERT ARENAS
Sports Illustrated, February 20, 2012
Though you may be last to discover your follies, be always first to correct them.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections