“I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.”
Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) American writer and editor
As quoted in A Dictionary of Literary Quotations (1990) by Meic Stephens
“I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterwards.”
Source: Under The Deodars
Last update July 31, 2025. History
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Rudyard Kipling200
English short-story writer, poet, and novelist 1865–1936Related quotes
“One makes mistakes; that is life. But it is never a mistake to have loved.”
Romain Rolland (1866–1944) French author
As quoted in On Relationships: A Book for Teenagers (1999) by Kimberly Kirberger
Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America
I've earned everything I've got. <br class="br">Televised press conference with 400 Associated Press Managing Editors at Walt Disney World, Florida. (17 November 1973) <br class="br">Often transcribed as "I am not a crook." <br class="br"> 'I Am Not A Crook': How A Phrase Got A Life Of Its Own http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=245830047, on National Public Radio <br class="br">1970s
Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist
Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994, Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent, 1992
Context: I never criticized United States planners for mistakes in Vietnam. True, they made some mistakes, but my criticism was always aimed at what they aimed to do and largely achieved. The Russians doubtless made mistakes in Afghanistan, but my condemnation of their aggression and atrocities never mentioned those mistakes, which are irrelevant to the matter -- though not for the commissars. Within our ideological system, it is impossible to perceive that anyone might criticize anything but "mistakes" (I suspect that totalitarian Russia was more open in that regard).
J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) British Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and printmaker
one of Girtin's yellow drawings <br class="br">remark of Turner to Chambers Hall, (before 1855); as cited in The Life of J. M. W. Turner R.A. , Walter Thornbury - A new Edition, Revised https://ia601807.us.archive.org/24/items/gri_33125004491185/gri_33125004491185.pdf; London Chatto & Windus, 1897, p. 61 <br class="br">undated quotes
“The mistakes I've made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did.”
Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), p. 309
Bob Schieffer (1937) Journalist, Anchor for CBS News
Source: This Just in: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV
B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) American behaviorist
As quoted in "Unpacking the Skinner Box : Revisiting B. F. Skinner through a Postformal Lens" by Dana Salter in The Praeger Handbook of Education and Psychology Vol. 4 (2008) edited by Joe L. Kincheloe and Raymond A. Horn, Ch. 99, p. 872.