Quotes about Errors

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

It's a sad commentary on American culture that anyone should defend rather than apologize for their errors.

People still retain the errors of their childhood, their nation, and their age, long after they have accepted the truths needed to refute them. 

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.

Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion.

It is not only our errors which ruin us, but our ways of conducting ourselves after committing them.

If we have made an error, done a wrong, been unjust to another or to ourselves, or, like the Pharisee, passed by some opportunity for good, we should have the courage to face our mistake squarely, to call it boldly by its right name, to acknowledge it frankly and to put in no flimsy alibis of excuse to protect an anemic self-esteem.

The humblest citizen of all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error.

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,- The eternal years of God are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes with pain, And dies among his worshippers.

The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth.

In all science error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last.

Love truth, but pardon error.

Give me the fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.

I shall endeavor not to look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

Sooner or later, a man, if he is wise, discovers that life is a mixture of good days and bad, victory and defeat, give and take. He learns that it doesn't pay to let things get his goat; that he must let some things go over his head like water off a duck's back. He learns that carrying a chip on his shoulder is the quickest way to get into a fight. He learns that buck-passing acts as a boomerang. He learns that carrying tales and gossip about others is the surest way to become unpopular. He learns that giving others a mental lift by showing appreciation and praise is the best way to lift his own spirits. He learns that the world will not end when he fails or makes an error; that there is always another day and another chance. He learns that listening is frequently more important than talking, and that he can often make a friend by letting the other fellow tell his troubles. He learns that all men have burnt toast for breakfast now and then, and that he shouldn't let their grumbling get him down. He learns that people are not any more difficult to get along with in one place than another, and that "getting along" depends about 98 per cent on his own behavior.

At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer, you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer.

He that is possessed with a prejudice is possessed with a devil, and one of the worst kinds of devils, for it shuts out the truth, and often leads to ruinous error.

A man and his wife, each in a different small plane, were out enjoying a flight, when the husband committed a flight error. He was able to recover, but his wife who was following him, crashed and was killed. The husband was distraught, blaming himself for the accident. One day when pleading with the Lord for forgiveness, he heard a voice saying "Jesus died, even for dumb mistakes."

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy-the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men. A weird life it is to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could become real.

This institution will be based upon the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.

It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.

Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

Delay is preferable to error.

Died of wounds inflicted in error by his own troops at the battle of Chancellorsville during the US Civil War. Let us cross over the river and sit in the shade of the trees.

The errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning proceeds; and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see but cannot avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly;  who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.