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 I dig old books.

 Est. 1998




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Quotations about Mistakes



Every mistake must be paid for, rarely by the person who committed it. ~Jacques Deval (1890–1972), Afin de vivre bel et bien, 1970


Ah, sir. Life is made up of mistakes. ~F. W. Robinson, A Very Strange Family, 1890


The greatest mistake you can make in this life is to be continually fearing you will make one. ~Elbert Hubbard


Overheard: "Yes, I have learned from the mistakes of others, but mostly I am self-taught." ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Mistakes fail in their mission of helping the person who blames them on the other fellow. ~Henry Stanley Haskins, "Human Judgment," Meditations in Wall Street, 1940


Many mistakes are like matches, in themselves insignificant, but the cause of series of events that lead to disasters and catastrophes. ~"Edlets," The Spatula: An Illustrated Magazine for Pharmacists, 1919


Be the first to laugh at your own blunder, and no one will laugh at you. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856


He who promptly corrects, makes his error the less. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856


It differs from person to person — how many times you have to do the same fool thing to learn not to do it twice. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Of all the blunders that blundering critics ever blundered upon, surely this is the greatest. ~"Aristarchus" of Oxford, letter to editor of The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, 1804 April 2nd


What shall we do with past mistakes
      That every human being makes?
We'll walk away from yesterday
      And just begin again today!
~William Arthur Ward (1921–1994)


A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday. ~Alexander Pope


That's not serious — it's just human. ~The amazingly brilliant, generous, and kind-hearted Mr Jerald Raymond Kopke, said to his students, c.1980s


To own a Fault is but to say,
"I'm Wiser Now than Yesterday."
~Arthur Guiterman, "Of Apology," A Poet's Proverbs, 1924


Well! well! It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose. But it's hard. Hard. ~Joseph Conrad


The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all — doing nothing. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1903, George Horace Lorimer, editor


You have made mistakes, and they hate you. Let them. Be worthy of their hate, and never mind explaining. ~Charles F. Raymond, "This Banner Year," Just Be Glad, 1907


The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. ~Edward John Phelps, 1889


Doing one fool thing after another is not so terrible when you consider the human proclivity to do several fool things at once. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Error is not always the result of a want of education, but often a lack of power to comprehend the truth. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher's Stone, 1882


One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors; for to dwell long upon them is to add to the offense... Not to grieve long for any action, but to go immediately and do freshly and otherwise, subtracts so much from the wrong. ~Henry David Thoreau, journal, 1842


Errata.— Deathbed confessions of a book. ~"Specimens of a Patent Pocket Dictionary, For the use of those who wish to understand the meaning of things as well as words," The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, 1824


Signing a document without reading it often makes a man wish he had read it without signing. ~"Poor Richard Junior's Philosophy," The Saturday Evening Post, 1904, George Horace Lorimer, editor


A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value. ~Isaac Asimov


Oh! the many blots and blunders we are making as we write
On the page of life and duty, that we ought to keep so white...
~Lizzie Marshall Berry (1847–1919), "Blots and Blunders," Heart Echoes: Original Miscellaneous and Devotional Poems, 1886


Making a different mistake every day is not only acceptable, it is the definition of progress. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Experience enables us to recognize a mistake when we make it again. ~Arnold H. Glasow (1905–1999)


The error repeated is a fault. ~Publilius Syrus, 1st century BCE, from the Latin by D. Lyman, 1856


If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out. ~Rabindranath Tagore


...truth will sooner come out from error than from confusion... ~Francis Bacon


It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed our own. ~Jessamyn West, To See the Dream, 1957





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published 1998 Mar 18
revised 2021 Jul 31
last saved 2025 Jan 12
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