“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

—  movie The Dark Knight

Character Harvey Dent

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Related quotes

“Live as a villain, die as a hero”

Banksy pseudonymous England-based graffiti artist, political activist, and painter

Source: Wall and Piece

Lev Grossman photo
Paul Gallico photo
H. Rider Haggard photo

“Everything has an end, if only you live long enough to see it.”

Source: King Solomon's Mines (1885), Chapter 5, "Our March into the Desert"

Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Cited as a piece of anonymous folk-wisdom from the 1940s onwards https://books.google.com/books?id=iNkWAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Learn+from+the+mistakes+of+others.+You+can%27t+live+long+enough+to+make+them+all+yourself%22&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22make+them+all+yourself%22. Not attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt until 2001 https://books.google.com/books?id=ctxi36FCi18C&pg=PA151&dq=%22Learn+from+the+mistakes+of+others%22+%22live+long%22+roosevelt&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI_sD5mqDLAhWIKGMKHb8HAZ0Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=%22Learn%20from%20the%20mistakes%20of%20others%22%20%22live%20long%22%20roosevelt&f=false.
Disputed

Hyman George Rickover photo

“You have to learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.”

Hyman George Rickover (1900–1986) United States admiral

Variations of this quote have been attributed to a number of people, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Samuel Levenson, and Lao Tzu; there is no solid support for any such attribution.
Misattributed

Simone de Beauvoir photo

“If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

All Men are Mortal (1946)

Chuck Palahniuk photo

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