Quotes about mistake (1827 quotes, page 18)

“He could see now what a lot of his mistakes had been—laziness among them. And laziness is curable.”

Fredric Brown book What Mad Universe

Source: What Mad Universe (1949), Chapter 9 “The Dope on Dopelle” (p. 80)

“I cannot help believing that Mucius was all the more lucky because he manipulated the flames as calmly as if he were holding out his hand to the manipulator. He had wiped out all his previous mistakes; he finished the war unarmed and maimed; and with that stump of a hand he conquered two kings.”

Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXVI: On Various Aspects of Virtue

War , Help

“It is always a mistake to threaten unless you mean it, and it is because not merely we threatened, but we meant it, and the Turks knew that we meant it, that you have peace now.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in Manchester (14 October 1922) referring to the Chanak Crisis, quoted in The Times (16 October 1922), p. 17
Prime Minister

Peace

“The State must help to promote and encourage production. … There must be none of that shrinking from national organization, national production, and national assistance. Germany never made that mistake. Take the most important of national industries, agriculture. Agriculture in the past has been overlooked in this country. It has been neglected, with the result that we have been dependent very largely on lands across the seas for our food. We have realized during the war the perils of this position. … It is in the highest interests of the community that the land in this country should be cultivated to its fullest capacity, and I doubt whether there is a civilized country in the whole world where agriculture has received less attention at the hands of the State. … The cultivation of the land is the basis of national strength and prosperity.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in Manchester (12 September 1918), quoted in The Times (13 September 1918), p. 8
Prime Minister

Dependency , Food , Country , War

“As I look back on that time, I think that there were mistakes that I made… I also think that my initial instinct that I was not the best person to put themselves forward as a potential prime minister, well most of my colleagues agreed.”

Michael Gove (1967) British politician

Michael Gove: Theresa May was 'right to sack me' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38267368, BBC News, 9 December 2016
2016

Personality , Thinking , Time

“It is a mistake to believe in my presence... If I take a seat at a party, I can see, even from afar, that only a ghost is sitting there.”

Hugo Ball (1886–1927) German author, poet and one of the leading Dada artists

Quote from his text 'Flucht aus der Zeit', September 1915, p. 44; as quoted by Debbie Lewer in 'Papers of Surrealism Issue 6 Autumn 2007', p. 10
It was in 1915, shortly before Hugo Ball left Berlin for Zurich
before 1916

“We have come up with proposals that we have repeatedly made available to the United States, including in Helsinki, when President Putin met with President Trump. I myself presented one such proposal to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. We re-submitted our proposals during a visit by US National Security Adviser John Bolton to Moscow in August and later in October, when he was in Moscow again. These proposals are about starting a serious, candid and professional dialogue on the INF Treaty, compliance with the START Treaty, and a number of other proposals regarding our approaches to strategic stability. We got nothing in response from the US partners. We occasionally remind them about it. They keep saying that we need to correct our mistakes and stop the violations.”

Sergey Lavrov (1950) Russian politician and Foreign Minister

News conference following the 25th OSCE Ministerial Council, Milan, Italy (7 December 2018)

“The difference of development, North and South, is explained as a sort of working out of cosmic social and economic law. … In this sweeping mechanistic interpretation, there is no room for the real plot of the story, for the clear mistake and guilt of building a new slavery of the working class in the midst of a fateful experiment in democracy.”

W.E.B. Du Bois book Black Reconstruction

Source: Black Reconstruction in America (1935), pp. 714-715

Democracy , Law , Fate

“We hope people can set aside their fears and partisan biases and stop thinking that learning from the mistakes of the past means causing animosity.”

Cheng Li-chun (1969) Taiwanese politician

Cheng Li-chun (2019) cited in " Transitional justice not aimed at spurring animosity: culture minister http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201901310014.aspx" on Focus Taiwan, 31 January 2019.

Past , People , Learning , Hope

“I am still far from being the type of the positively new women who take their experience as females with a relative lightness and, one could say, with an enviable superficiality, whose feelings and mental energies are directed upon all other things in life but sentimental love feelings. After all I still belong to the generation of women who grew up at a turning point in history. Love with its many disappointments, with its tragedies and eternal demands for perfect happiness still played a very great role in my life. An all-too-great role! It was an expenditure of precious time and energy, fruitless and, in the final analysis, utterly worthless. We, the women of the past generation, did not yet understand how to be free. The whole thing was an absolutely incredible squandering of our mental energy, a diminution of our labor power which was dissipated in barren emotional experiences. It is certainly true that we, myself as well as many other activists, militants and working women contemporaries, were able to understand that love was not the main goal of our life and that we knew how to place work at its center. Nevertheless we would have been able to create and achieve much more had our energies not been fragmentized in the eternal struggle with our egos and with our feelings for another. It was, in fact, an eternal defensive war against the intervention of the male into our ego, a struggle revolving around the problem-complex: work or marriage and love? We, the older generation, did not yet understand, as most men do and as young women are learning today, that work and the longing for love can be harmoniously combined so that work remains as the main goal of existence. Our mistake was that each time we succumbed to the belief that we had finally found the one and only in the man we loved, the person with whom we believed we could blend our soul, one who was ready fully to recognize us as a spiritual-physical force. But over and over again things turned out differently, since the man always tried to impose his ego upon us and adapt us fully to his purposes. Thus despite everything the inevitable inner rebellion ensued, over and over again since love became a fetter. We felt enslaved and tried to loosen the love-bond. And after the eternally recurring struggle with the beloved man, we finally tore ourselves away and rushed toward freedom. Thereupon we were again alone, unhappy, lonesome, but free–free to pursue our beloved, chosen ideal …work. Fortunately young people, the present generation, no longer have to go through this kind of struggle which is absolutely unnecessary to human society. Their abilities, their work-energy will be reserved for their creative activity. Thus the existence of barriers will become a spur.”

Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952) Soviet diplomat

The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)

Soul , History , Personality , Perfection

“On his refusal of a set for MTV Unplugged: It’s one of the biggest career mistakes I’ve ever made. I’d be so much more wealthy, because of America. I was offered one of the first ones. But I saw Eric Clapton on it, and it reminded me of Pebble Mill At One.”

Chris Rea (1951) English singer-songwriter

I thought, ‘Oh my God, I don’t want anything to do with this’. Because he’s like God to me. [...] So I turned it down. I should have had an older brother who said, ‘Fucking do it’.
2015

“I have rarely seen such a complete and strong central defender. I am amazed. He seldom makes mistakes. What strikes me the most, is his calmness, especially in his distribution and marking.”

Thiago Silva (1984) Brazilian footballer

Rolland Courbis, 2013 http://www.le10sport.com/football/ligue1/psg/courbis-je-suis-emerveille-par-thiago-silva100295
From former and current footballers

Strong , Making love

“Then the next morning Captain Moffet, my English teacher, gave me the test. I got such a headache, just trying to think carefully so I wouldn’t make any mistakes, that my test score dropped to 96. I couldn’t breathe. This meant that I was mentally slow, that I’d been lucky to even get into high school. My eyes filled with tears. I didn’t know what to do. I asked Captain Moffet if my parents needed to know this. I felt so ashamed. I should’ve been the one to die, not my brother, Joseph. He’d been smart, just like my little sister Linda, who at six years old could read better than me.”

Victor Villaseñor (1940) American writer

Crazy Loco Love: A Memoir (2008)

School , Reading , Making love , Teachers

“The personal, as everyone’s so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here—it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference—the only difference in their eyes—between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life, and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal.”

Richard K. Morgan book Altered Carbon

Source: Altered Carbon (2002), Chapter 15 (pp. 184-185, quoting the fictional work Things I Should Have Learned by Now, Volume II, written by story character Quellcrist Falconer)

Chance , Time , Justice , Business

“My mistakes have been my greatest mentors.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 73

“I think I probably made a mistake in the Hardwick case… I do think it was inconsistent in a general way with Roe.”

Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (1907–1998) American judge

When I had the opportunity to reread the opinions a few months later, I thought the dissent had the better of the arguments.
At NYU Law School, (18 October 1990); after retirement from the Court, reflecting on his vote in Bowers v. Hardwick to uphold laws making homosexual sex a crime for which people could be imprisoned. Reported in Nat Hentoff, " Infamous Sodomy Law Struck Down http://www.villagevoice.com/news/9850,213790,2210,6.html", The Village Voice, 22 December 1998.
1990s

Way , Thinking

“I’m very happy with my life and I wouldn’t take back any mistake I’ve made because it’s made me who I am today. I don’t walk around pretending that I’m perfect, so I don’t think that anyone else should hold me to that and not expect me to fuck up occasionally. Because I do, and you do, too.”

Nicole Richie (1981) American television personality, musician, actress, and author

Source: THE LITTLEST REBEL: NICOLE RICHIE http://www.nylonmag.com/?parid=260&section=article Nylon, August 2007. (March 6, 2008)

Perfection , Life , Thinking , Happiness

“But we make such mistakes all the time, all through our lives. Wisdom, I suppose, is seeing this and acting upon it before it is too late. But it is often too late, isn’t it?”

Alexander McCall Smith (1948) British writer

and those things that we should have said are unsaid, and remain unsaid for ever.
Love Over Scotland, chapter 96.
The 44 Scotland Street series

Time , Wisdom , Making love

“You’ve got to look at life clearly. No rose-colored glasses. The human race is not very admirable. It was a big mistake of God’s... The more I see of people, the more bitter I become. I think I appeal to readers because there’s nothing false or hypocritical in what I write. And they recognize themselves, and recognize their fears. And they know what bastards they are.”

Taylor Caldwell (1900–1985) Novelist

1970s-, The Captains, the Kings, and Taylor Caldwell (1978)

God , Fear , People , Falseness

“Even today, we are still accused of racism. This is a mistake. We know that all interracial groups in South Africa are relationships in which whites are superior, blacks inferior. So as a prelude whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior.”

Steve Biko (1946–1977) anti-apartheid activist in South Africa

Statement quoted in the Boston Globe (25 October 1977)

“When all actions are used for feedback, the consequence of making mistakes will be a corrective and appropriate response, because everything everybody does matters.”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

… The more selective you are in the feedback you accept, the more insane your reasoning will become as you will necessarily reject corrective feedback that would have led to better reasoning.
Re: Lisp's future http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/ba8f8f34c16d55f3 (Usenet article).
Usenet articles, Miscellaneous

Making love

“Abstract cleverness of the mind only separates the thinker from the world of reality, and that world, the Forest of Real Life, is in a desperate condition now because of too many who think too much and care too little. In spite of what many minds have thought themselves into believing, that mistake cannot continue for much longer if everything is going to survive. The one chance we have to avoid certain disaster is to change our approach, and learn to value wisdom and contentment. These are things that are being searched for anyway, through Knowledge and Cleverness, but they do not come from Knowledge and Cleverness. They never have, and they never will. We can no longer afford to look so desperately hard for something in the wrong way and in the wrong place. If Knowledge and Cleverness are allowed to go on wrecking things, they will before much longer destroy all life on this earth as we know it, and what little may temporarily survive will not be worth looking at, even if it were possible for us to do so.”

Benjamin Hoff book The Tao of Pooh

The Now of Pooh.
The Tao of Pooh (1982)

Chance , Search , Learning , Knowledge

“It is at work everywhere, functioning smoothly at times, at other times in firs and starts. It breathes, it heats, it eats. It shits and fucks. What a mistake to have ever said the id. Everywhere it is machines- real ones, not figurative ones: machines driving other machines, machines being driven by other machines, with all the necessary couplings and connections. An organ-machine is plugged into an energy-source-machine: the one produces a flow that the other interrupts The breast is a machine that produces miilk, and the mouth a machine coupled to it.”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

The Desiring Machine
Anti-Oedipus Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1977)

Time

“It is at work everywhere, functioning smoothly at times, at other times in fits and starts. It breathes, it heats, it eats. It shits and fucks. What a mistake to have ever said the id. Everywhere it is machines — real ones, not figurative ones: machines driving other machines, machines being driven by other machines, with all the necessary couplings and connections.”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

from Anti-oedipus: capitalism and schizophrenia, p. 1

Time

“If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us, even though we are certain to experience real sorrow, and great disappointments, and also will probably commit great faults and do wrong things, but it certainly is true, that it is better to be high-spirited, even though one makes more mistakes, than to be narrow-minded and all too prudent. It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love, is well done.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote of Vincent's letter to Theo, from Amsterdam, 3 April 1878; a cited in The Letters of Vincent van Gogh to his Brother, 1872-1886 (1927) Constable & Co
As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul : Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 483
1870s
Variant: Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

Love , Making love , Sincerity , Disappointment

“Today, most parents make three crucial mistakes, 1. They disapprove of their children's emotions, 2. They dismiss their children's emotions and 3. They offer no guidance to a child with regards to their emotions.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Making love , Parent , Children

“Your task as a student of human nature is twofold: First, you must understand and accept the theatrical quality of life. You do not moralize and rail against the role-playing and the wearing of masks so essential to smooth social functioning. In fact, your goal is to play your part on the stage of life with consummate skill, attracting attention, dominating the limelight, and making yourself into a sympathetic hero or heroine. Second, you must not be naive and mistake people’s appearances for reality. You are not blinded by people’s acting skills. You transform yourself into a master decoder of their true feelings, working on your observation skills and practicing them as much as you can in daily life.”

Robert Greene (1959) American author

Chap. 3 : See Through People’s Masks
The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

Understanding , People , Nature , Reality

“Because so many of our writers were born in ugly environments, in monstrous poverty and humilitation, they continue to assert that this is the natural environment, reality, and that beauty is artifice. Why should the natural state be ugliness? Natural to whom? We may be born in ugliness, but the natural consequences should be a thirst for its opposite. To mistake ugliness for reality is one of the frauds of the realistic school. A hunger for the unknown, and an aspiration towards beauty were inseparable from civilization. In America the word art was distorted to mean artificial.
We are born with the power to alter what we are given at birth.
When the Japanese paint flowers or the sea on a kimono they mean to establish a link with nature. But they select only what is beautiful in nature to maintain their love of life.
The creative personality never remains fixed on the first world it discovers. It never resigns itself to anything. That is the deepest meaning of rebellion, not the wearing of different clothes, haircuts, or the adopting of other cultures.”

Anaïs Nin book The Novel of the Future

The Novel of the Future (1969)

School , Hunger , Clothes , Painting

“Inflicting pain as retribution for wrongs is a horrible mistake: The person wronged and the person punished are one and the same.”

Arnold Zuboff (1946) American philosopher

" My 8 Big Ideas https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286624424_My_8_Big_Ideas" (2011), p. 9

Personality , Pain

“You possess all conscious life. Whenever in all time and wherever in all the universe (or beyond) any conscious being stands, sits, crawls, jumps, lies, rolls, flies or swims, its experience of doing so is yours and is yours now. You are that being. You are fish and fowl. Deer and hunter. You are saints and sinners. You are Germans, Jews and Palestinians. This is an important result. What else can come close to it in importance? And perhaps the spread of this knowledge among the intelligent beings that are you can help you to stop yourself from hurting yourself because you mistake yourself for another.”

Arnold Zuboff (1946) American philosopher

" Time, Self and Sleeping Beauty https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282052756_Time_Self_and_Sleeping_Beauty" (2008), p. 44

Hurt , Time , Intelligence , Help

“Well. Adolescence is all about making mistakes.”

N. K. Jemisin book The Kingdom of Gods

Source: The Kingdom of Gods (2011), Chapter 9 (p. 200)

Making love

“Thinking doesn't guarantee that we won't make mistakes. But not thinking guarantees that we will.”

Leslie Lamport (1941) American computer scientist

In [Lamport, Leslie, Why We Should Build Software Like We Build Houses, https://www.wired.com/2013/01/code-bugs-programming-why-we-need-specs/, Wired Magazine, 17 January 2020, January 25, 2013]

Thinking , Making love

“There is no greater mistake than to try to leap an abyss in two jumps.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

[Lloyd George, David, David Lloyd George, War Memoirs, New, 1, 1938, Odhams Press Limited, London, 445, XXIV: Disintegration of the Liberal Party]
War Memoirs

“New York Times… Asshole, asshole. You cannot even criticize your own mistake. Invading a country, making up excuses before the world that is not true, then you have the gall to say stop. You better stop your publishing.”

Rodrigo Duterte (1945) Filipino politician and the 16th President of the Philippines

Duterte to New York Times: ‘You better stop your publishing’ https://globalnation.inquirer.net/155506/duterte-new-york-times-better-stop-publishing
Targeted remarks to personalities and institutions

World , Making love , Time , Country

“Many disasters can be traced to our linguistic shortcomings. Millions of money and multitudes of men have been sacrificed in order to save the prestige of a mistake in translation committed "by authority."”

Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner (1840–1899) British orientalist

Writings of Dr. Leitner, Chapter: Oriental Translations of English Texts, p. 151

Money , Men

“We too often mistake individuals’ honor for race development and so are ready to substitute pretty accomplishments for sound sense and earnest purpose.”

Anna J. Cooper (1858–1964) African-American author, educator, speaker and scholar

Source: A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South (1892), p. 29

Sense

“Progress is impossible without the ability to admit mistakes.”

Masaaki Imai (1930) Japanese business theorist and consultant

“You show me your face everywhere I see
and you try to get any good attribute
so I sometimes make a mistake that's why
I am an ignorant person or maybe I'm rural.”

Qasem-e Anvar (1356–1434) Iranian poet

Original: (fa) از هر طرفی چهره گشایی که منم
در هر صفتی جلوه‌گر آیی که منم
با اینهمه گهگاه غلط می‌افتم‎
نادان کس و بله روستایی که منم‎

Personality , Making love

“It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training. From the age of 17 I had never even witnessed the excitement attending a Presidential campaign but twice antecedent to my own candidacy, and at but one of them was I eligible as a voter.
Under such circumstances it is but reasonable to suppose that errors of judgment must have occurred. Even had they not, differences of opinion between the Executive, bound by an oath to the strict performance of his duties, and writers and debaters must have arisen. It is not necessarily evidence of blunder on the part of the Executive because there are these differences of views. Mistakes have been made, as all can see and I admit...”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

1870s, Eighth State of the Union Address (1876)

Training , Age , Error , Parting

“Nothing can be of more importance than to separate prejudice and mistake on the one hand from reason and demonstration on the other.”

William Godwin (1756–1836) English journalist, political philosopher and novelist

Book III, Ch.1
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)

“I fell into porn by mistake, actually.”

Keiran Lee (1984) British pornographic film actor, director and producer

"The Porn Star With The Million Dollar Penis Tells Us About, Well, His Penis" (July 22, 2016)

“Boys will be boys. Boys commit mistakes.”

Mulayam Singh Yadav (1939–2022) Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh three times

Comments in opposition to a change in law against rape. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/31/india-gang-rape-katra-sadatgunj-fathyer-speaks Burke, Jason (31 May 2014)

Boy

“What is the purpose of being really intelligent if not to have the substance of what you want without mistaking it for the shadow?”

Robert Sheckley book Welcome to the Standard Nightmare

Welcome to the Standard Nightmare (p. 102)
Short fiction, The Robot Who Looked Like Me (1978)

Intelligence

“Everyone can draw, and a drawing doesn't have any mistakes.”

Arifur Rahman (1984) Award-winning Cartoonist, Animator, Illustrator

Source: Quoted in his official website https://www.cartoonistarif.com/ in 2014

Drawing

“If I have one thing over other people in this industry, it's this: I've made more mistakes than anyone else. You're seeing people repeat the same mistakes we'd already made years ago.”

Rick Dyer (video game designer) American video game designer and writer

People

“NO EMOTION IS A MISTAKE

Awakening is not about deleting or transcending human emotions, for how would the ocean transcend a single wave, and how would the sun transcend one of its beloved sunbeams? It's about seeing that every emotion - from joy to despair, bliss to boredom, agony to ecstasy - is only a movement of life energy, actually a movement of yourself, a wave in your vastness. No emotion is a threat, an enemy, or a punishment. Every emotion is an invitation to remember your vastness, rest in your oceanic nature. You are on a pathless path of radical inclusion, friend, and there are no mistakes here.”

Jeff Foster (1980) Spiritual teacher

Source: https://www.facebook.com/LifeWithoutACentre/photos/no-emotion-is-a-mistakeawakening-is-not-about-deleting-or-transcending-human-emo/1109464082484532/

“Everything tells me that I am about to make a wrong decision, but making mistakes is just part of life. What does the world want of me? Does it want me to take no risks, to go back to where I came from because I didn’t have the courage to say “yes” to life?”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Courage , Decision , World , Life

“Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Fashion

“I have made my fair share of mistakes. In the beginning when you are trying to find your way, you end up doing stereotypical and cliche roles, I have done all of that. I am at a stage in regional cinema where I am looking to do roles that test and push me to my limit.”

Samantha Akkineni (1987) Indian actress

"When It Comes To Bollywood, Samantha Ruth Prabhu Doesn't Want To Repeat The "Mistakes" She Made In Regional Cinema" https://www.ndtv.com/entertainment/when-it-comes-to-bollywood-samantha-ruth-prabhu-doesnt-want-to-repeat-the-mistakes-she-made-in-regional-cinema-2327062. NDTV. (November 18, 2020).

Way

“Democracy for most of us is not an ism. It is a way of life. It does not represent any rigid form of state or national organization. It is something constantly developing and unfolding, changing from day to day, making mistakes, advancing in this direction and retreating in that, but always animated by a few fundamental ideas: that men have a right to live their own lives, provided they don’t tread too heavily on other people’s toes;…”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 31

Democracy , People , Animals , Way

“I maybe made some mistakes, but I'm only human. But, I'm man enough to face 'em today. What I did was stupid, no doubt it was dumb. But, the smartest shit I did was take the bullets out of that gun. Because I'd have killed them. Shit, I'd have shot Kim and them both. It's my life, I'd like to welcome you all to 'The Eminem Show.'”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Cleanin' Out My Closet"
2000s, The Eminem Show (2002)

Life , Stupidity

“It's Christmas every time you smile at a child, holding his hand. It's Christmas every time you recognize your limits, your mistakes. It's Christmas every time you stay silent to hear each other. It's Christmas every time you give your sweetness with love. It's Christmas every time you listen to the song of the heart.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) È Natale ogni volta che sorridi a un bimbo, tenendogli la mano. È Natale ogni volta che riconosci i tuoi limiti, i tuoi errori. È Natale ogni volta che rimani in silenzio per ascoltare l'altro. È Natale ogni volta che doni con amore la tua dolcezza. È Natale ogni volta che ascolti la canzone del cuore.
Source: prevale.net

Time , Smile , Heart , Christmas

“Today, on this day that is so extraordinarily important for me, I want to say just a few more personal words than usual.
I want to ask for your forgiveness.
For the fact that many of the dreams we shared did not come true. And for the fact that what seemed simple to us turned out to be tormentingly difficult. I ask forgiveness for not justifying some hopes of those people who believed that at one stroke, in one spurt, we could leap from the gray, stagnant, totalitarian past into the light, rich, civilized future. I myself believed in this, that we could overcome everything in one spurt.
I turned out to be too naive in something. In some places, problems seemed to be too complicated. We forced our way forward through mistakes, through failures. Many people in this hard time experienced shock.”

Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR

1990s, Farewell speech (1999)

Forgiveness , Time , Light , Past

“Generational curses are actually blessings in disguise; the mistakes were already made for you, now all you have to do is apply the solutions.”

Isaac Mashman (2000) businessman, speaker

“No one I imagine is so stupid as to believe that truth or even an approximation of truth is derived from counting pieces of marked paper and that the largest pile of papers is it. What makes democracy so fragile is the certain knowledge, even by the winners, that it is often wrong and if they think it’s right now, then it’s either been wrong at some time in the past or will be at some time in the future. There is then a shaky agreement on both sides of a democratic debate that there is some more fundamental reason for using this method to make decisions than that it is always right. In Western Europe over the last century or so that shaky agreement has not always held together and indeed it still is far from ordinary worldwide. A common everyday reason why most people accept democratic results is that they are rarely always on the losing side. And in the case of government elections they can have another opportunity to persuade the majority that the opinion they hold is correct and hope that the mistakes of the previous few years are not so very bad. On a much deeper level however respecting the “will of the people” comes from a profoundly scary place.”

Justin Barrett (1971) Irish activist

A Republic of Innocent Dead Cannot Live https://nationalparty.ie/a-republic-of-innocent-dead-cannot-live/ (June 4, 2018)

Democracy , Imagination , Time , Past

“Take a serious look at yourself. Ask yourself questions about your mood, the way you view the world and people, think about your mistakes and the dangers they unleash. Today the character of a person determines whether he can exercise influence and authority, far more than all the minds on this earth. As you know, this is all the more true in Belgium, and Belgians want to see in their leader the qualities they will never want from themselves.”

Leopold I of Belgium (1790–1865) German prince who became the first King of the Belgians

https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-2-0 Leopold I In a letter to his son Prince Leopold II

Question , Personality , People , Thinking

“There should be no shame in admitting to a mistake; after all, we really are only admitting that we are now wiser than we once were.”

Greg McKeown (author) book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“We defer to authority figures because they are supposed to know more than we do. If a mistake is made, it's easy to lay the blame at their feet. Ultimately, however, we are responsible for choosing the authority figure we defer to. Choosing to defer to one who urges aggression against others still puts the responsibility on us.””

Mary Ruwart (1949) American scientist and libertarian activist

Source: Healing Our World: In An Age of Aggression, (2003), p. 10

“Still you can't keep doing the coulda and the woulda and the shoulda. And if there's one thing I know it's this. Doesn't matter how smart you are, or even how careful or lucky, there's some mistakes you just keep making over and over.”

Tim Winton (1960) Australian writer

Part III, Ch.4 - p.238, 239
The Shepherd's Hut (2018)

Making love

“Some people found error messages they couldn't ignore more annoying than wrong results, and, when judging the relative merits of programming languages, some still seem to equate "the ease of programming" with the ease of making undetected mistakes.”

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist

Dijkstra (1976-79) On the foolishness of "natural language programming" https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD667.html (EWD 667)
1970s

People , Error

“The only person who never makes mistakes is the person who never does anything.”

Denis Waitley (1933) American writer

Personality , Inspirational

“Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self-education.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Understanding , Way , Education

“It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit to forgive them for having witnessed your own.”

Jessamyn West (1902–1984) American author

Forgiveness

“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

Truth , Way

“If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose.”

Mary Pickford (1892–1979) Canadian-American actress

Chance , Hope , For Men

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Success

“We can’t make the same mistake again,” Aïda said, “of fooling ourselves. Believing in shit that isn’t real.”

Neal Stephenson book Seveneves

“Cleft” (p. 551)
Seveneves (2015), Part Two

Fools

“Misplaced paranoia could be as great a mistake as misplaced faith.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Cryoburn (2010), Chapter 5 (p. 99)

Faith

“I think the whole policy of pre-emptive war is a serious,serious mistake.”

Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) American broadcast journalist

Free the Airwaves! (2002)

Thinking , War

“The man who has never made a mistake has no need of an eraser; just so the man who has never done anything wrong has no need of a Redeemer.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: The Armor of God (1943), Ch. 1, p. 4

“You are the most engaging mistake of my life.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Sei l'errore più coinvolgente della mia vita.
Source: prevale.net

Life

“If people are criticising your work, take it in the right spirit and try to find out what is wrong. I made a lot of mistakes on my first film and told myself not to do it again. Remember that you’re not making a film to keep it in a box, it’s for the people.”

Rima Das (1982) Indian Assamese film maker

Film Companion Article - Rima Das Gives Tips On Zero Budget Filmmaking - 4 November 2017 https://www.filmcompanion.in/interviews/bollywood-interview/rima-das-gives-tips-on-zero-budget-filmmaking/ - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210728182917/https://www.filmcompanion.in/interviews/bollywood-interview/rima-das-gives-tips-on-zero-budget-filmmaking/

People , Box

“Not all ideas of the ideas that pass from one brain to another brain... are good ideas; some are mistakes. These I call 'mismemes.'”

Richard Bergland neuroscientist

The Fabric of Mind (1985)

Idea

“What you gave me, I've never had
No one has fought for me like you have
Please forgive all of my mistakes
I will fix them with whatever it takes”

Zhiar Ali (1999) Kurdish human rights activist and artist

Light in the Dark https://genius.com/Zhiar-ali-light-in-the-dark-lyrics, 2018
Song lyrics

Forgiveness

“Learn from the mistakes of others and avoid being one whose mistakes are used as lessons by others.”

Yasir Qadhi (1975) Pakistani-American preacher and imam

Learning

“I do not believe that woman will make politics worse; nor can I believe that she could make it better. If, then, she cannot improve on man’s mistakes, why perpetrate the latter?”

Emma Goldman book Anarchism and Other Essays

Anarchism and Other Essays (1910), Woman Suffrage

“I have not made any mistakes. The path I'm on is absolutely right, there are just some things I could have done better to contribute to the common work.”

Nguyễn Thị Bình (1927) Vietnamese politician

"BBC phỏng vấn bà Nguyễn Thị Bình" https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/av/2009/03/090301_inv_nguyen_thi_binh_tc2 (1 March 2009)

“How much of what you know about business is shaped by mistaken reactions to past mistakes?”

Peter Thiel (1967) American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager

Source: ZERO to ONE

Business , Past

“You can't correct a mistake by repeating it over again.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“We learn best by making mistakes. At the end of the day, practice is what matters the most.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Learning

“My mistake. My inexcusable mistake, as a con man never stops being a con man; he can’t. But I suffered from a will to believe, a defect of character that I thought I had rooted out. I was mistaken.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 3 (p. 22)

Suffering

“The notion of cleansing history seems to me a huge mistake.”

Mark Sanford (1960) 115th Governor of South Carolina

Source: When talking about the removal of Confederate statues according to " I’m a citizen with no country:’ Mark Sanford on turning against Trump and his party https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/23/mark-sanford-republican-anti-trump" (August 23, 2021)

History

“While I was in their city, it just seemed like such a mistake that I had ever left home, such an error in judgment in all our parts.”

Curtis Sittenfeld book Prep

Source: Prep (2005), p. 321

Home , Parting , Error

“Last year, like many others, I too made the mistake of scoffing at this post-September 11th rhetoric, dismissing it as foolish and arrogant. But I’ve realized...It’s actually a canny recruitment drive for a misconceived, dangerous war.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Source: Articles, Come September (29 Sep 2002)

War

“I have failed, made mistakes, trusted, and had my lows and highs. But today, I stand firm, stronger than ever and living my best life.”

Chika Ike (1985) Nigerian actress

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/12/chika-ike-tumultuous-journey-of-a-screen-diva/ During an interview about herself( December 28 2019)

Life

“I do want to marry, and I want to get it right once and for all. You know, we make such a big deal of it; we force people and put pressure on them to go in. When they eventually rush into this union, they make mistakes because they were only trying to please people.”

Rita Dominic (1975) Nigerian actress

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/04/i-wont-rush-into-marriage-to-please-the-public-rita-dominic/amp/ Rita Dominic on marriage

People

“While I have told about my successes, did I make mistakes? [I made] more than enough; many mistakes that I bitterly regret. First of all, my mistake was the court.”

Mikheil Saakashvili (1967) Georgian-Ukrainian politician, President of Georgia and Governor of Odessa

Tbilisi Courtroom Address (2021)

Success

“That the teachings of neither our modern teachers nor preachers are "wisdom from above" is fully demonstrated. It is proved not by any personal incorrectness in their statements or mistakes in life, for "to err is but human," but by incontrovertible facts.”

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky book The Key to Theosophy

Source: The Key to Theosophy (1889)

Personality , Teachers , Life , Wisdom

“Don't make a mistake to vote for opposition candidates who sole aim is opposing government programs. This will mean that you won't receive the services you deserve.”

Robinah Nabbanja (1969) Ugandan politician and teacher

Source: Robinah Nabbanja (2021) cited in " Uganda: PM Nabbanja Stings "Unreliable" Nup's Nakweede in Kayunga Campaigns https://allafrica.com/stories/202112130435.html" on All Africa, 12 December 2021.

“I made mistakes, in communication. In the beginning, I put too much emphasis on people's own responsibility and not enough on the mandatory measures (with regards to COVID-19 pandemic). The second is that I did not succeed in convincing people to a sufficient extent about the basic measures.”

Mark Rutte (1967) 50th Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Source: Mark Rutte (2021) cited in: " Rutte: I made coronavirus policy mistakes; King can help speed up Cabinet formation https://nltimes.nl/2021/12/24/rutte-made-coronavirus-policy-mistakes-king-can-help-speed-cabinet-formation" in NL Times, 24 December 2021.

People , Communication

“Firefighting is good. That's what's happening right now. But solution is in vaccines. Enough vaccines.It's not which vaccine. Our vaccine. Their vaccine. It's enough vaccines. If we don't have enough, mayhem won't stop. Swallow pride. Accept mistakes. Get 'enough' vaccines.”

Chetan Bhagat (1974) Indian author, born 1974

Source: — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) 2021 at Twitter https://twitter.com/chetan_bhagat/status/1388413949280985089

“In life, those who want to be happy make mistakes.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Nella vita, chi vuole essere felice commette errori.
Source: prevale.net

Life , Happiness

“You may have given me the breaks,
amended all my life's mistakes,
ooh, but wait a minute,
you don't own me.
You may be more than just a friend
on whose assistance I depend
ooh, but wait a minute,
you don't own me.”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"You Don't Own Me"/"If I Know You" (song)
Gilbert O'Sullivan, "You Don't Own Me"/"If I Know You" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5180atue8I (song combination on YouTube)
Song lyrics

Waiting , Dependency , Life

“[E]xclusiveness in a garden is a mistake as great as it is in society.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: The Garden That I Love (1894), p. 117.

“I think you need to have bad times to learn about life. If you keep on being successful, you do not learn. If you do mistakes, you learn from them and become a better person. My past has helped me become a better cricketer and human being.”

Sanju Samson (1994) Indian cricketer

Source: Samson after hitting a century on 2017 Indian Premier League about his unsuccessful domestic season. Sanju Samson says bad times taught him a lot https://m.economictimes.com/news/sports/sanju-samson-says-bad-times-taught-him-a-lot/amp_articleshow/58144832.cms

Personality , Learning , Time , Success

“The mistake we make after we have chased away the lie is because we love the truth so much, we make for her a beautiful and very comfortable bed.”

- Goa

Beauty , Truth , Lie , Love

“Mistakes clear the path for success.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

Success

“Nothing’s a mistake until you make it.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“I always say to myself, 'I never had a career, only work.' What I mean by that is sometimes — and I won't mention names — but when you get into this career-minded perception of one's self it can be a slippery slope, and it can lead to things where you start believing in your own mythos and you start taking yourself way too seriously. You become pretentious and then you fall into the realm of diva, and that's when mistakes happen in your personal life and on camera.”

Nicolas Cage (1964) American actor

"Nicolas Cage Says He Feels 'Very Blessed Right Now': I'm Doing 'Some of the Best Work' of My Life" in People https://people.com/movies/nicolas-cage-feels-hes-doing-best-work-of-his-life-now-exclusive/ (18 April 2022)

Personality , Way , Life

“Though you pay for the hands they're shaking
The speeches and the mistakes they're making
As they struggle with the undertaking
Of simple thought What you want, you don't know
You're with stupid now
What you know, you don't want to know
You're with stupid now.”

Aimee Mann (1960) American indie rock singer-songwriter (born 1960)

"You're With Stupid Now"
Song lyrics, I'm with Stupid (1995)

Stupidity

Quotes about mistake page 18

Quotes about mistake
page 18