“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
The Second Part, Chapter 26, p. 144
Leviathan (1651)
“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Source: The Doctrine of the Mean
William Greenough Thayer Shedd (1820–1894) American theologian
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 267.
Jane Addams (1860–1935) pioneer settlement social worker
As quoted in The MacMillan Dictionary of Quotations (1989) by John Daintith, Hazel Egerton, Rosalind Ferguson, Anne Stibbs and Edmund Wright, p. 374.
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
"The Knight, Death and the Devil," lines 34-39
The Seven-League Crutches (1951)
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
Young India 1924-1926 (1927), p. 1285
1920s
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States
Third State of the Union Address (7 December 1903)
1900s
Joseph Conrad book The Shadow Line
Referring to Mr. Burns. Compare to Heart of Darkness' manager: "He was becoming confidential now, but I fancy my unresponsive attitude must have exasperated him at last, for he judged it necessary to inform me he feared neither God nor devil, let alone any mere man. I said I could see that very well..."
The Shadow Line (1915)