Variant: A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Source: The Armor of God (1943), Ch. 1, p. 4
“Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.”
Attributed to Ben-Gurion in A Call to Action : The Handbook to Unite and Ignite America's Betrayed and Imperiled Public (2004) by A. T. Theodore, p. 6, but earlier published as a saying of unknown authorship in Uncommon Sense : The World's Fullest Compendium of Wisdom (1987) by Joseph Telushkin, p. 204
Disputed
“He who never makes a mistake, never makes anything.”
Variant: He who never makes a mistake never makes anything. It's part of learning the job.
Source: Revenge of the Witch
“The only person who never makes mistakes is the person who never does anything.”
“Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.”
The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985)
“The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything.”
As quoted by Jacob A. Riis in Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen (1904), chapter XVI A Young Men's Hero http://www.bartleby.com/206/16.html
1900s
All the righteous, all the saints, all the holy martyrs were happy.
Book II, ch. 4 (trans. Constance Garnett)
General, The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)
