“The public seldom forgive twice.”
No. 595
Aphorisms on Man (c. 1788)
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Johann Kaspar Lavater 24
Swiss poet 1741–1801Related quotes

“The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.”
Source: The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde

“The lamb misused breeds public strife
And yet forgives the butcher's knife.”

Quiero enviar al publico de México un saludo muy cariñoso, que yo no los olvido que yo cada día hago mas esfuerzos por gustar que si no gusto pues ya fue una desgracia pero el publico es benigno y me perdona todos mis errores, verdad que me los perdona?
Sara Garcia
[John M. Ziman, The Force of Knowledge: The Scientific Dimension of Society, Cambridge University Press, 1976, 0-521-09917-X, 98]

Source: The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book I, Chapter X, Part II, p. 152.
Context: People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty or justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary.

Source: The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats (2002), Ch. 2

Henry Mintzberg (1994), The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, Prentice Hall, Hemel Hempstead. p. 43