Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. XI : Self-Culture — Facilities and Difficulties.
Source: The Lives Of George And Robert Stephenson
Context: We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct (1859), Ch. XI : Self-Culture — Facilities and Difficulties
Quotes 1990s, 1990-1994, Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent, 1992
Context: I never criticized United States planners for mistakes in Vietnam. True, they made some mistakes, but my criticism was always aimed at what they aimed to do and largely achieved. The Russians doubtless made mistakes in Afghanistan, but my condemnation of their aggression and atrocities never mentioned those mistakes, which are irrelevant to the matter -- though not for the commissars. Within our ideological system, it is impossible to perceive that anyone might criticize anything but "mistakes" (I suspect that totalitarian Russia was more open in that regard).
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Variant: A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
“The American who first discovered Columbus made a bad discovery.”
G 42
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook G (1779-1783)
Song lyrics, Never for Ever (1980)
“What you do in your dreams is never your choice. But it made me happy anyway.”
Source: Saint Anything
From Her Books, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight, INVISIBILITY
John N. Bahcall, quoted in his obituary at CalTech (7 September 2005) http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/features/articles/20050907.shtml; On the Hubble Space Telescope's capabilities for the advancement of science
“What would I do without you?
You're never going to find out.”
Source: Reflected in You
“I've never made a discovery myself, unless by accident.”
Quoted in Sally Helgeson, "Every Day", Bookletter, Vol. 3, No. 8 (6 December 1976), p. 8
Context: I've never made a discovery myself, unless by accident. If you write glibly, you fool people. When I first met Asimov, I asked him if he was a professor at Boston University. He said no and … asked me where I got my Ph. D. I said I didn't have one and he looked startled. "You mean you're in the same racket I am," he said, "you just read books by the professors and rewrite them?" That's really what I do.
