Quotes about fault
page 6

Frederic Dan Huntington photo
Julian of Norwich photo
Natália Correia photo

“A dark and troubled abstention:
Put a flower for me in the most secret garden
In a horizon of grace and clarity
Which was untouchable and next.A static promise in the light of the moon
Of the density which was corporal in me.
It is not the fault, it is the memory
Of the first morning of the sin
Without Eve and Adam.Only the proven fruit
And the rolled serpent
In my loneliness.”

Natália Correia (1923–1993) Portuguese writer

Uma obscura e inquieta castidade:
pôs uma flor para mim no jardim mais secreto
num horizonte de graça e claridade
intangível e perto.<p>Promessa estática no luar
da densidade em mim corpórea.
não é a culpa, é a memoria
da primeira manhã do pecado
sem Eva e sem Adão.<p>Só o fruto provado
e a serpente enroscada
na minha solidão.
Obscura Castidade (Dark Abstention).

Christopher Hitchens photo

“Ronald Reagan claimed that the Russian language had no word for "freedom." (The word is "svoboda"; it's quite well attested in Russian literature)… said that intercontinental ballistic missiles (not that there are any non-ballistic missiles—a corruption of language that isn't his fault) could be recalled once launched… said that he sought a "Star Wars" defense only in order to share the technology with the tyrants of the U. S. S. R… professed to be annoyed when people called it "Star Wars," even though he had ended his speech on the subject with the lame quip, "May the force be with you"… used to alarm his Soviet counterparts by saying that surely they'd both unite against an invasion from Mars… used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the "End Times" foreshadowed in the Bible. In the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan told Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal, on two separate occasions, that he himself had assisted personally at the liberation of the Nazi death camps.There was more to Ronald Reagan than that. Reagan announced that apartheid South Africa had "stood beside us in every war we've ever fought," when the South African leadership had been on the other side in the most recent world war… allowed Alexander Haig to greenlight the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, fired him when that went too far and led to mayhem in Beirut, then ran away from Lebanon altogether when the Marine barracks were bombed, and then unbelievably accused Tip O'Neill and the Democrats of "scuttling.".. sold heavy weapons to the Iranian mullahs and lied about it, saying that all the weapons he hadn't sold them (and hadn't traded for hostages in any case) would, all the same, have fit on a small truck… then diverted the profits of this criminal trade to an illegal war in Nicaragua and lied unceasingly about that, too… then modestly let his underlings maintain that he was too dense to understand the connection between the two impeachable crimes. He then switched without any apparent strain to a policy of backing Saddam Hussein against Iran. (If Margaret Thatcher's intelligence services had not bugged Oliver North in London and become infuriated because all European nations were boycotting Iran at Reagan's request, we might still not know about this.) One could go on… This was a man never short of a cheap jibe or the sort of falsehood that would, however laughable, buy him some time.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

2000s, 2004

Kent Hovind photo
Haruki Murakami photo
Henry Adams photo

“It was surely no fault of his that the universe seemed to him real; perhaps — as Mr. Emerson justly said — it was so.”

Henry Adams (1838–1918) journalist, historian, academic, novelist

The Education of Henry Adams (1907)

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo
Marcus Aurelius photo
François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“Only great men have great faults.”

Il n'appartient qu'aux grands hommes d'avoir de grands défauts.
Maxim 190.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Émile Durkheim photo
Regina Spektor photo

“They'll name a city after us
And later say it's all our fault…”

Regina Spektor (1980) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Us
Soviet Kitsch (2004)

Richard Holbrooke photo
Jeremy Hardy photo

“… really very critical of hereditary peers, but they — I mean — they've got their faults, but some of those faults have been in the family for generations.”

Jeremy Hardy (1961–2019) British comedian

The News Quiz, BBC Radio 4, October 1998 (rebroadcast on BBC 7, 6 June 2006)

Pierre Trudeau photo
John Gay photo

“In beauty faults conspicuous grow;
The smallest speck is seen on snow.”

John Gay (1685–1732) English poet and playwright

Fable XI, "The Peacock, Turkey, and Goose"
Fables (1727)

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen photo
Emil M. Cioran photo
Slavoj Žižek photo
Stephenie Meyer photo
Denis Diderot photo

“Shakespeare’s fault is not the greatest into which a poet may fall. It merely indicates a deficiency of taste.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

On Dramatic Poetry (1758)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“the unpunished crime is never regretted. We weep over the consequence, not over the fault.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

Heath's book of Beauty, 1833 (1832)

Glen Cook photo
Joseph Addison photo
Everett Dean Martin photo
Clement Attlee photo
George Gordon Byron photo

“Though the day of my Destiny's over,
And the star of my Fate hath declined,
Thy soft heart refused to discover
The faults which so many could find.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

Stanzas to Augusta http://readytogoebooks.com/LB-Augusta2.html, st. 1 (1816).

Kent Hovind photo

“God's commandments are not grievous. God put them in the garden, said "You can eat of any tree except that one tree, The Knowledge of Good and Evil." It's real simple, Adam. Enjoy the garden, have lots of kids, and don't learn about evil. […] Parents, don't teach your kids about all the evil things. Don't have drug education classes where you show them, "Hey, this is marijuana. This is how you smoke it. Now don't you do that." Duh. Don't put them in sex ed classes in seventh grade, it's a plumbing class at that time. Don't do that, okay? Let them be ignorant. Let them learn it from mom and dad, not from some heathen, okay? It's real simple Adam. Enjoy the world and have lots of kids and don't learn about evil. Don't learn all that stuff. The Lord said, "Hey, have you eaten off that tree I told you not to eat from?" God is not asking for information. He's asking for a confession. And the man said, "The woman (he passed the buck) whom thou gavest to be with me. Now God, this is really your fault, you know. If you hadn't given her to me I wouldn't have this problem." He said to the woman, "Have you done this?" She said, "Well, the snake that you made…." We still do the same thing, nothing changes, okay? Fear God, keep his commandments. Just like the taking of life is very important in any culture. Murder is serious. Giving life is important. That's why God put certain rules down for reproduction, okay? Follow his rules. "Thou shalt not commit adultery. Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Don't even look and lust or you've committed adultery already in your heart. By the way, ladies, that's why it's important how you dress, okay? My daddy always said, "If you're not in business, don't advertise."”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Women should dress in modest apparel. That's what the Bible says, alright.
Creation seminars (2003-2005), The dangers of evolution

Samuel Johnson photo

“Shakspeare never has six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven: but this does not refute my general assertion.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

October 19, 1769, p. 170
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II

Waldemar Łysiak photo
James Comey photo
George Henry Lewes photo

“It is not by his faults, but by his excellences, that we measure a great man.”

George Henry Lewes (1817–1878) British philosopher

On Actors and the Art of Acting (Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1875) p. 13

Francis Hutcheson (philosopher) photo

“Men have been Laughed out of Faults which a Sermon could not reform.”

Francis Hutcheson (philosopher) (1694–1746) Irish philosopher

The Dublin Weekly Journal, No. 12 (June 19, 1725)

Harper Lee photo
Samuel Johnson photo

“It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

April 9, 1778
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

Miranda July photo
Samuel I. Prime photo
William Cowper photo
Plutarch photo

“Cato used to assert that wise men profited more by fools than fools by wise men; for that wise men avoided the faults of fools, but that fools would not imitate the good examples of wise men.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Life of Marcus Cato
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Philip Roth photo
Salvador Dalí photo

“One might think that through ecstasy we would have access to a world as far from reality as that of the dream. – The repugnant can become desirable, affection cruelty, the ugly beautiful, faults qualities, qualities black miseries.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

Quote in 'Le phénomene de l'extase', in 'Minotaure' 1933; as quoted in Dali and Me, Catherine Millet, - translation Trista Selous -, Scheidegger & Spiess AG, 8001 Zurich Switzerland, p. 133
Quotes of Salvador Dali, 1931 - 1940

Philip K. Dick photo
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah photo

“The Quran encourages us to expose the reality of those who are followed by exhorting the followers to be aware of the faults of the oppressors no matter how strong and influential they would appear to be.”

Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (1935–2010) Lebanese faqih

The Quran calls on the weak and oppressed to gain strength http://english.bayynat.org/TheHolyQuran/Quran_QuranCalls.htm

Attila the Stockbroker photo

“A five pence fine is right and proper —
and to sum up my defence
it was his fault he came a cropper:
CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE!”

Attila the Stockbroker (1957) punk poet, folk punk musician and songwriter

"Contributory Negligence", from Cautionary Tales for Dead Commuters (1985)

Jesse Ventura photo

“Every fat person says it's not their fault, that they have gland trouble. You know which gland? The saliva gland. They can't push away from the table.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

Interview in Playboy (November 1999)

Rufus Wainwright photo

“You broke my heart, Danny boy
Not your fault, Danny boy
I was had at the doorstep
Played, like a two to a four-set
Had, like poor Job in the bible by God.”

Rufus Wainwright (1973) American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer

Danny Boy
Song lyrics, Rufus Wainwright (1998)

André Maurois photo
Albert Marquet photo

“I do not know how to write or speak but only to paint and draw. Look at what I have done. Whether I have succeeded in explaining myself or not, in any case, if you do not understand my work, through your fault or mine, I can do no more.”

Albert Marquet (1875–1947) French artist

Marcelle Marquet, Marquet Fernand Hazan Editions, Paris 1955, p. 6; as quoted in 'Appendix – Marquet Speaks on his Art', in "Albert Marquet and the Fauve movement, 1898-1908", Norris Judd, published 1976, - translation Norris Judd - Thesis (A.B.)--Sweet Briar College, p. 116

B.K.S. Iyengar photo
Oliver Goldsmith photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo
Oliver Goldsmith photo

“Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace
The day's disasters in his morning face;
Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;
Full well the busy whisper circling round
Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd.
Yet was he kind, or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault;
The village all declar'd how much he knew,
'T was certain he could write and cipher too.”

Variant: A man severe he was, and stern to view;
I knew him well, and every truant knew:
Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace
The day's disasters in his morning face;
Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee,
At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;
Full well the bust whisper, circling round,
Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned;
Yet he was kind; or if severe in aught,
The love he bore to learning was in fault;
The village all declared how much he knew;
'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too.
Source: The Deserted Village (1770), Line 199.

Harvey Mansfield photo
John Lancaster Spalding photo

“We do not find it hard to bear with ourselves, though we are full of faults. Why then may we not learn to be tolerant of others?”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 238

John Buchan photo
Dinesh D'Souza photo
Thomas Gainsborough photo
Anthony Trollope photo
Margaret Atwood photo

“I became a poet at the age of sixteen. I did not intend to do it. It was not my fault.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

On Writing Poetry (1995)

David Lee Roth photo

“I'm not conceited. Conceit is a fault, and I have no faults.”

David Lee Roth (1954) Rock vocalist; lead singer with Van Halen

Susie Shellenberger (2005) The One Year Devos for Teens 2, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., ISBN 1414301812, p. 357.
Attributed

Marcus Aurelius photo
Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke photo
André Breton photo

“I could spend my whole life prying loose the secrets of the insane. These people are honest to a fault, and their naivety has no peer but my own.”

André Breton (1896–1966) French writer

Le Manifeste du Surréalisme, Andre Breton (Manifesto of Surrealism; 1924)

Adele (singer) photo
Sarah Silverman photo

“You look like my friend Debbie. That's really weird … do you get that a lot? — It's sad, though, 'cause you know, we're not really friends anymore. But, uh, it's not your fault. Seriously, it was 'cause she's, um … not "born again Christian" … oh!”

Sarah Silverman (1970) American comedian and actress

"pathological liar."
Comments to a member of the audience, in "Sarah Silverman-Early Standup (1992) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEb-sXmcMLE

William Howard Taft photo

“One of the marvelous things about him is that he is strong enough to force the men who dislike him the most to stand by him. By far he is the strongest man before the people to-day except Roosevelt. I think his greatest fault is his failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done. This is a great weakness in any man. I think it was one of the strongest things about Roosevelt. He never tried to minimize what other people did and often exaggerated it.”

William Howard Taft (1857–1930) American politician, 27th President of the United States (in office from 1909 to 1913)

On Charles Evans Hughes, in November 1909, as quoted in Taft and Roosevelt : The intimate letters of Archie Butt (1930) by Archibald Willingham Butt, p. 224; this has sometimes been paraphrased: "Failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done is a great weakness in any man."

Frank Chodorov photo

“No sooner do men settle down to a given set of ideas, a pat-tern of living and of thinking, than fault-finding begins, and fault-finding is the tap-root of revolutions.”

Frank Chodorov (1887–1966) American libertarian thinker

Source: One is A Crowd: Reflections of An Individualist (1952), p. 34

Clive Staples Lewis photo
Andrew Tobias photo

“No wonder lawyers, who control the legal system, have fought so hard, and with great success, against "no fault" insurance. No fault, no lawsuits. No lawsuits, no lunch.”

Andrew Tobias (1947) American journalist

Source: The Invisible Bankers, Everything The Insurance Industry Never Wanted You To Know (1982), Chapter 10, Too Many Lawyers, p. 172.

Ali Khamenei photo
Chittaranjan Das photo
Glenn Beck photo
Jane Austen photo
Peter Medawar photo
Joseph Smith, Jr. photo
George Santayana photo

“It is not society's fault that most men seem to miss their vocation. Most men have no vocation.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

Source: The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (1905-1906), Vol. II, Reason in Society, Ch. IV: The Aristocratic Ideal

Raymond Poincaré photo
Yurii Andrukhovych photo

“To be drunk in Moscow is like having a relatively common hair color. Can you fault a man for the color of his hair? I think not.”

The Moscoviad
Source: The Moscoviad. Yuri Andrukhovych. Spuyten Duyvil, New York City. ISBN1933132523, p. 107

Edwin Percy Whipple photo
Oliver Goldsmith photo
Robert Herrick photo

“Before man's fall the rose was born,
St. Ambrose says, without the thorn;
But for man's fault then was the thorn
Without the fragrant rose-bud born; But ne'er the rose without the thorn.”

"The Rose" (published c. 1648). Compare: "Flower of all hue, and without thorn the rose", John Milton, Paradise Lost, book iv. line 256.; "Every rose has it's thorn", Poison, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn".
Hesperides (1648)

Brigham Young photo

“Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of our God and our Father and being exalted, one who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and sees the beauty and excellency of the eternities before him compared with the vain and foolish things of the world, and suppose that he is taken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin he knows will deprive him of the exaltation he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man or woman in this house but would say, 'shed my blood that I might be saved and exalted with the Gods?' All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood?… I have known a great many men who have left this Church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle's being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force.”

Brigham Young (1801–1877) Latter Day Saint movement leader

Journal of Discourses, 4:219 (February. 8, 1857)
Brigham Young describes the doctrine of Blood Atonement
1850s

“The first time you see Winston Churchill you see all his faults, and the rest of your life you spend discovering his virtues.”

Lady Lytton, in Christopher Hassall, Edward Marsh. http://www.explore-parliament.net/nssMovies/05/0558/0558_.htm.
Hudson Review, The, Summer 2002 by Allen, Brooke, - More than the sum of his parts: The enigma of Winston Churchill http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4021/is_/ai_n9129028.

François Fénelon photo

“…nothing will make us so tender and indulgent to the faults of others as a view of our own.”

François Fénelon (1651–1715) Catholic bishop

L'humilité produit le support d'autrui. La vue seule de nos misères peut nous rendre compatissants et indulgents pour celles d'autrui
Œuvres complètes de François de Salignac de La Mothe Fénelon http://www.passtheword.org/DIALOGS-FROM-THE-PAST/innerlife.htm.

Miguel de Cervantes photo

“There's not the least thing can be said or done, but people will talk and find fault.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book II, Ch. 4.

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher photo
Stanley Baldwin photo

“…one day there came a great strike in the coalfields. It was one of the earlier strikes, and it became a national strike. We tried to carry on as long as we could, but of course it became more and more difficult to carry on, and gradually furnace after furnace was damped down; the chimneys erased to smoke, and about 1,000 men who had no interest in the dispute that was going on were thrown out of work through no fault of their own, at a time when there was no unemployment benefit. I confess that that event set me thinking very hard. It seemed to me at that time a monstrous injustice to these men, because I looked upon them as my own family, and it hit me very hard—I would not have mentioned this only it got into the Press two or three years ago—and I made an allowance to them, not a large one, but something, for six weeks to carry them along, because I felt that they were being so unfairly treated. But there was more in it really than that. There was no conscious unfair treatment, of these men by the miners. It simply was that we were gradually passing into a new state of industry, when the small firms and the small industries were being squeezed out. Business was all tending towards great amalgamations on the one side of employers and on the other side of the men…We have to see what wise statesmanship can do to steer the country through this time of evolution, until we can get to the next stage of our industrial civilisation.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1925/mar/06/industrial-peace in the House of Commons (6 March 1925).
1925

Phil Brooks photo

“Punk: I can't help but feel a little resp… hell, who am I kidding? I feel like I started this whole thing. This is all my fault. I've been at the epicenter of everything controversial ever since you took over—actually, since before that, I'm sure you remember, John-Boy.
Cena: I was there.
Punk: You were there. I'm the guy that made walking out look cool. The thing about is I think everybody in the parking lot having a picnic right now have completely misunderstood what I was trying to do. See, I didn't break my contract, I didn't break my word. My contract expired, and I was trying to prove a point to an entire company, not just one man. If anybody has any reason to walk out of the WWE, well you can probably put me at the top of that list. I mean, my microphone constantly cuts out, your friend Kevin Nash runs through the… well, slowly, briskly runs through the crowd, jumps me and screws me not once, but twice. Somebody here doesn't want me to be the WWE Champion. The thing about it is this entire industry is based on men solving their problems in between these ropes. This is the company that gives you Hell in a Cell, this is the company that gives you the Elimination Chamber. I don't wanna sound like a broken record, but "unsafe working environment"? I thrive on that! Hell, this is professional wrestling, this ain't ballet! If you believe in something, you stand and you fight, and you fight on the front line; you don't have a hippie sit-in and grill tofu dogs in the parking lot like a bunch of hippies. [To Triple H] When I had a problem with you and your authority, I dealt with you personally. [To Cena] And you, you big boy scout, when I had a problem with you being the poster boy for this company, I dealt with you personally. Shea-Mo, I'm sure sooner or later, you're gonna step on my toes, I will deal with you personally. Now, I know you three smiley good guys look across the ring from me, and I'm the last guy you expect to see here, [to Triple H] and I know I'm the last guy you expect to see in the foxhole with you. But you know what? Here I am. So… so I got a question—what do we do now?
Triple H: "What do we do now?" That's a big question, "what do we do now?" I say we do what we do on Monday Night Raw—we shut up and fight! How about this? As long as you guys are in agreement, Sheamus, you got yourself a match, fella. Tonight, right here, right now, you will go one-on-one with… [Punk raises his hand] one John Cena. And since I'm the only guy kinda wearing stripes out here, I'll referee. And, foxhole buddy, I got a whole table over there lined up with headphones and pipe bombs just waiting for you with your name on it. And if you want, you can go over there and say anything you feel like.
Punk: You want me to do commentary?!
Triple H: I want you to do commentary.
Punk: Can I wear your blazer?!
Triple H: You can even wear my blazer!
Punk: I'm in!”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

October 10, 2011
WWE Raw

François de La Rochefoucauld photo

“We confess to little faults only to persuade ourselves we have no great ones.”

Nous n'avouons de petits défauts que pour persuader que nous n'en avons pas de grands.
Maxim 327.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

Constantine P. Cavafy photo
Titian photo

“Your Ceasarean Majesty, I consigned to senõr Don Diego di Mendoza, the two portraits of the most serene Empress [ Isabella ], in which I have used all the diligence of which I was capable. I should have liked to take them to your Majesty in person, but that my age and the length of the journey forbade such a course. I beg your Majesty to send me words of the faults or failings which I may have made, and return the pictures that I may correct them. Your Majesty may not permit anyone else to lay hand on them.... Your Majesty’s most humble and constant servant, Titiano.”

Titian (1488–1576) Italian painter

In a letter to Emperor Charles V, from Venice, 5 Oct, 1544; copied in the 'Archives of Simancas' by Mr. Bergenroth; as quoted by J.A.Y. Crowe & G.B. Cavalcaselle in Titian his life and times - With some account... Volume II, publisher John Murray, London, 1877, p. 103
This letter is written by Titian himself - free from the polite style of his secretary/friend Arentino; he is telling the Emperor that he had finished two portraits of the Empress Isabella, he painted after her death after a probably Flemish original. The two portraits were sent to the court in Brussels.
1541-1576
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian#/media/File:Isabella_of_Portugal_by_Titian.jpg