“Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error. Not only so; but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of Error is without some latent charm derived from Truth.”

Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy in England, Lecture 7. (1852).

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhau…" by William Whewell?
William Whewell photo
William Whewell 12
English philosopher & historian of science 1794–1866

Related quotes

F. H. Bradley photo

“Eclecticism. Every truth is so true that any truth must be false.”

F. H. Bradley (1846–1924) British philosopher

No. 6.
Aphorisms (1930)

Martin Farquhar Tupper photo
Emil M. Cioran photo

“To have grazed every form of failure, including success.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

Anathemas and Admirations (1987)

Charles Darwin photo

“The numerical side of the theory of relativity is derived from the failure of all attempts to detect the relative motion of matter and ether.”

Herbert Dingle (1890–1978) British astronomer

page 23 https://books.google.com/books?id=hwpKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA23
Relativity for All, London, 1922

Mark Manson photo
Johann Gottlieb Fichte photo
George Pólya photo
Prevale photo

“In every experimentation, without the passion, failure would arise on the birth of any idea.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: In ogni sperimentazione, senza la passione, il fallimento sorgerebbe sul nascere di qualsiasi idea.
Source: prevale.net

Thomas Paine photo

“It is the duty of every man, so far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

The Theophilanthropist: Containing Critical, Moral, Theological and Literary Essays, in Monthly Numbers https://books.google.com/books?id=XasOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA387&lpg=PA387, p. 387
1800s

Related topics