
“Solomon made a great mistake when he asked for wisdom.”
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
Said to Enver Hoxha, on his visit to China in 1956, as quoted in Hoxha's (1986) The Artful Albanian, (Chatto & Windus, London), ISBN 0701129700
“Solomon made a great mistake when he asked for wisdom.”
Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)
“We all make mistakes, but when I made mistakes there was no filter between me and the consumer.”
The Guardian staff (December 27, 2000) "It's the end of an earache or do I mean era?", The Guardian.
Interviews
“He who does nothing makes no mistakes; he who makes no mistakes learns nothing.”
“We made too many wrong mistakes.”
What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All, Simon and Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0743244532, p. 75
On why the Yankees lost the 1960 series to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Yogiisms
“The Professor of Philosophy has made a mistake.”
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 29
Context: The Professor of Philosophy has made a mistake. He's wasted his disciplinary authority on an innocent student while Phædrus, the guilty one, the hostile one, is still at large. And getting larger and larger. Since he has asked no questions there is now no way to cut him down. And now that he sees how the questions will be answered he's certainly not about to ask them.
The innocent student stares down at the table, face red, hands shrouding his eyes. His shame becomes Phædrus' anger. In all his classes he never once talked to a student like that. So that's how they teach classics at the University of Chicago. Phædrus knows the Professor of Philosophy now. But the Professor of Philosophy doesn't know Phædrus.
Attributed in FBI Memo, February 13, 1950 (item 61-4099-25 in Einstein's FBI file—viewable online as p. 72 of "Albert Einstein Part 1 of 14" here http://vault.fbi.gov/Albert%20Einstein, as well as p. 72 of the pdf file which can be downloaded here http://vault.fbi.gov/Albert%20Einstein/Albert%20Einstein%20Part%201%20of%2014/at_download/file). There is no other information in the FBI's released files as to what source attributed this statement to Einstein, and the files are full of falsehoods, including the accusation that Einstein was secretly pro-communist, when in fact he was openly so Albert Einstein#Vierick Interview (1929)
Disputed
Context: In December, 1947, he made the following statement: "I came to America because of the great, great freedom which I heard existed in this country. I made a mistake in selecting America as a land of freedom, a mistake I cannot repair in the balance of my life."
“From sheer indolence great mistakes are often made in re-presentation.”
A Handbook for Young Painters