“He who does nothing makes no mistakes; he who makes no mistakes learns nothing.”
Luca Pacioli (1445–1517) Italian father of accounting
“He who does nothing makes no mistakes; he who makes no mistakes learns nothing.”
Luca Pacioli (1445–1517) Italian father of accounting
“It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.”
Joseph Conrad book An Outcast of the Islands
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."
Ingvar Kamprad (1926–2018) Entrepreneur
"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.”
Neil Gaiman (1960) English fantasy writer
Source: Norse Mythology (2017), Chapter 4, “Mimir’s Head and Odin’s Eye” (p. 45)
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer
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 (1959) American artist
Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)
Bill Moyers (1934) American journalist
"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.”
Robert Charles Wilson book Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America
Source: Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America (2009), p. 35
Frank Wilczek (1951) physicist
Source: The Lightness of Being – Mass, Ether and the Unification of Forces (2008), Ch. 1, p. 12.