“He who does nothing makes no mistakes; he who makes no mistakes learns nothing.”
“It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.”
Source: An Outcast of the Islands (1896), Pt. 3, Ch. 2; possibly an adaptation of a Polish proverb, "Ten się nie myli, kto nic nie robi" — "One is not wrong, who does nothing."
"The Testament of a Furniture Dealer" http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/pdf/reports-downloads/the-testament-of-a-furniture-dealer.pdf (1976).
“He said nothing: seldom do those who are silent make mistakes.”
Source: Norse Mythology (2017), Chapter 4, “Mimir’s Head and Odin’s Eye” (p. 45)
Source: One Minute Nonsense (1992), p. 21
Context: "Tell me," said the atheist, "Is there a God — really?"
Said the master, "If you want me to be perfectly honest with you, I will not answer."
Later the disciples demanded to know why he had not answered.
"Because the question is unanswerable," said the Master.
"So you are an atheist?"
"Certainly not. The atheist makes the mistake of denying that of which nothing may be said... and the theist makes the mistake of affirming it.
“Nothing’s a mistake until you make it.”
Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)
"The Big Story", speech to the Texas State Historical Association (7 March 1997), as quoted in Moyers on Democracy (2008), p. 131
“You must not make the mistake of thinking that because nothing lasts, nothing matters.”
Source: Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America (2009), p. 35
Source: The Lightness of Being – Mass, Ether and the Unification of Forces (2008), Ch. 1, p. 12.
