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If one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm -- but that's a lie.... That way lies stagnation, mediocrity.
VINCENT VAN GOGH, letter to Theo van Gogh, Oct. 1884
It is much easier at all times to prevent an evil than to rectify mistakes.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to James McHenry, Aug. 10, 1798
If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
OSCAR WILDE, Lady Windermere's Fan
It is with pleasure I receive reproof, when reproof is due, because no person can be readier to accuse me, than I am to acknowledge an error, when I am guilty of one; nor more desirous of atoning for a crime, when I am sensible of having committed it.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Governor Dinwiddie, Aug. 27, 1757
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.
If common sense were as unerring as calculus, as some suggest, I don't understand why so many mistakes are made so often by so many people.
CARY WINKEL, as quoted in Explaining One's Self to Others: Reason-Giving in a Social Context
To err is human, but it feels divine.
MAE WEST, The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West
A double error sometimes sets us right.
PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, Festus
To rectify past blunders is impossible, but we might profit by the experience of them.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, letter to Fielding Lewis, Jul. 6, 1780
Hindsight is of little value in the decision-making process. It distorts our memory for events that occurred at the time of the decision so that the actual consequence seems to have been a "foregone conclusion." Thus, it may be difficult to learn from our mistakes.
DIANE F. HALPERN, Thought and Knowledge
An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject and how to avoid them.
WERNER HEISENBERG, Physics and Beyond
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, Jan. 14, 1776
All men may err; but he that keepeth not his folly, but repenteth, doeth well; but stubbornness cometh to great trouble.
Hindsight, or our ability to see our past clearly, is a learning function that, when damaged ... renders us unable to look at the past to guide ourselves through the present and into the future. Without this ability, we cannot learn from our mistakes. We cannot clean up the wreckage of our actions. We are locked into a cycle of repeating the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. This is commonly known as the definition of insanity.
BARBARA S. COLE, The Gifts of Sobriety
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, Mar. 26, 1781
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
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