Error Proverbs

Saying about Error

A one-inch error at the start can be a thousand miles at the end. ~ Chinese Proverb

A book is a good friend when it lays bare the errors of the past. ~ Indian Proverb

Every error has its excuse. ~ Polish Proverbs

To err is human. ~ Traditional Proverb

An old error has more friends than a new truth. ~ Danish Proverb

One moment's error becomes a lifetime of sadness. ~ Chinese Proverb

An old error is always more popular than a new truth. ~ German Proverb

Quotations about Error

An error is not a mistake until you refuse to correct it. ~ Grenville Kleiser

One goes to the right, the other to the left; both are wrong, but in different directions. ~ Horace

From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own. ~ Syrus

Nothing hurts a new truth more than an old error. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

No tempting form of error is without some latent charm derived from truth. ~ Sir Arthur Keith

A man's errors are what make him amiable. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Man errs as long as he strives. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Error is but the shadow of the truth. ~ Benjamin Stillingfleet

n error gracefully acknowledged is a victory won. ~ Caroline L. Gascoigne

Error is worse than ignorance. ~ Philip James Bailey

Without music, life would be an error. The German imagines even God singing songs ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Mistakes are a fact of life it is the response to error that counts. ~ Nikki Giovanni

Knowledge being to be had only of visible and certain truth, error is not a fault of our knowledge, but a mistake of our judgment, giving assent to that which is not true. ~ John Locke

The cautious seldom err. ~ Confucius

No one who lives in error is free. ~ Euripides

One error persisted in, frequently produces others. ~ Samuel Richardson

How happy he who can still hope to lift himself from this sea of error! What we know not, that we are anxious to possess, and cannot use what we know. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Love truth, but pardon error. ~ Voltaire

Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Great errors seldom originate but with men of great minds. ~ Francesco Petrarch

Errors to be dangerous must have a great deal of truth mingled with them. It is only from this alliance that they can ever obtain an extensive circulation. ~ Sydney Smith

Look upon the errors of others in sorrow, not in anger. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it. ~ John Locke

Sometimes we may learn more from a man's error than from his virtues. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The smallest errors are always the best. ~ Moliere

Falsity cannot keep an idea from being beautiful; there are certain errors of such ingenuity that one could regret their not ranking among the achievements of the human mind. ~ Jean Rostand

Dark Error's other hidden side is truth. ~ Victor Hugo

The wise man corrects his own errors by observing those of others. ~ Publilius Syrus

No mans error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it. ~ Thomas Hobbes

Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process… ~ Dr. Jonas Salk

There are men who never err, because they never propose anything rational. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Find earth where grows no weed, and you may find a heart wherein no error grows. ~ James Sheridan Knowles

Error is always more busy than truth. ~ Hosea Ballou

Admitting error clears the score, and proves you wiser than before. ~ Arthur Guiterman

Let the answers be wrong, let the philosophy be mistaken — errors are more valuable than truths: truth is of the machine, error is alive; truth reassures, error disturbs. ~ Yevgeny Zamyatin

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error. ~ Marcus T. Cicero

All men may err; but he that keepeth not his folly, but repenteth, doeth well; but stubbornness cometh to great trouble. ~ Sophocles

As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it. ~ Samuel Johnson

Error is just as important a condition of life as truth. ~ Carl Gustav Jung

Mistake, error, is the discipline through which we advance. ~ William Ellery Channing,

The noblest spirits are most sensible of the possibility of Error: and the weakest do most hardly lay down an Error. ~ Benjamin Whichcote

The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error. ~ Voltaire

Error, by force of contrast, enhances the triumph of Truth. ~ Marcel Proust

An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains. ~ Henri-Frederic Amiel

It is only an error of judgment to make a mistake, but it argues an infirmity of character to adhere to it when discovered. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee

To err is human, but to persevere in error is only the act of a fool. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Error is certainty’s constant companion. Error is the corollary of evidence. And anything said about truth may equally well be said about error: the delusion will be no greater. ~ Louis Aragon

An error gracefully acknowledged is a victory won. ~ Caroline Leigh Gascoigne

Where there is much freedom there is much error. ~ Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

Error is discipline through which we advance. ~ William Ellery Channing

To err is human, but it feels divine. ~ Mae West

If you don’t have a margin for error, error kills you. ~ S. M. Stirling

Love has no errors, for all errors are the want for love. ~ William law

To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

The wisest of the wise may err. ~ Aeschylus

Truth is a good dog; but beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

From error to error, one discovers the entire truth. ~ Sigmund Freud

It is not so difficult a task to plant new truths, as to root out old errors; for there is this paradox in men, they run after that which is new, but are prejudiced in favour of that which is old. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

Give me a fruitful error anytime, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. ~ Vilfredo Pareto

Truth will sooner come out of error than from confusion. ~ Francis Bacon

Football is a game of errors. The team that makes the fewest errors in a game usually wins. ~ Paul Brown

Consciousness of error is, to a certain extent, a consciousness of understanding; and correction of error is the plainest proof of energy and mastery. ~ Walter Savage Landor

All errors spring up in the neighborhood of some truth; they grow round about it, and, for the most part, derive their strength from such contiguity. ~ Thomas Binney

Error is always more busy than ignorance. Ignorance is a blank sheet on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one from which we must first erase. ~ Charles Caleb Colton

Weeds are omnipresent; errors are to be found in the heart of the most lovable. ~ George Sand

An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it. ~ Orlando A. Battista

Have too rashly charged the troops of error and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth. ~ Sir Thomas Browne

Error is sometimes so nearly allied to truth that it blends with it as imperceptibly as the colors of the rainbow fade into each other. ~ William Benton Clulow

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error. ~ Marcus T. Cicero

He is a thorough accountant who can cast up correctly the sum of his own errors. ~ Eliza Cook

We are built to make mistakes, coded for error. ~ Lewis Thomas

There are some errors so sweet that we repent them only to bring them to memory. ~ Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn

If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed. ~ Philip Dormer Stanhope

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. ~ Thomas Paine

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth. ~ Samuel Butler

A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery. ~ James Joyce

There are strange flowers of reason to match each error of the senses. ~ Louis Aragon

Men err from selfishness, women because they are weak. ~ Madame de Stael

In all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better it should go first than last. ~ Sir Hugh Walpole

There are errors which no wise man will treat with rudeness while there is a probability that they may be the refraction of some great truth still below the horizon.~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Learn to distinguish the difference between errors of knowledge and breaches of morality. ~ Ayn Rand

There is no original truth, only original error. ~ Gaston Bachelard

I postpone death by living, by suffering, by error, by risking, by giving, by losing. ~ Anais Nin

One cannot too soon forget his errors and misdemeanors; for to dwell upon them is to add to the offense. ~ Henry David Thoreau

How full of error is the judgment of mankind! They wonder at results when they are ignorant of the reasons. ~ Metastasio

Every error is truth abused. ~ Jacques Benigue Bossuet

It is much easier to meet with error than to find truth; error is on the surface, and can be more easily met with; truth is hid in great depths, the way to seek does not appear to all the world. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Error will slip through a crack, while truth will stick in a doorway. ~ Henry Wheeler Shaw

There is something to be said for every error; but, whatever may be said for it, the most important thing to be said about it is that it is erroneous. ~ G. K. Chesterton

Error is ever talkative. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

Truly even he errs that is wiser than the wise. ~ Aeschylus

Error is a hardy plant; it flourishes in every soil. ~ Martin F. Tupper

Failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. ~ Jim Rohn

Truth is immortal; error is mortal. ~ Mary Baker Eddy

Error, when she retraces her steps, has farther to go before she can arrive at truth than ignorance.~ Charles Caleb Colton

Our understandings are always liable to error. Nature and certainty is very hard to come at; and infallibility is mere vanity and pretense. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them. ~ Andrew V. Mason

To err is human; to admit it, superhuman. ~ Doug Larson

To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact. ~ Charles Darwin

Knowledge is ancient error reflecting on its youth. ~ Francis Picabia

The most powerful cause of error is the war existing between the senses and reason. ~ Blaise Pascal

A double error sometimes sets us right. ~ Philip James Bailey

Who thinks it just to be judged by a single error? ~ Beryl Markham

The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. ~ Henry David Thoreau

It is human to err, but it is devilish to remain willfully in error. ~ St. Augustine

Error is none the better for being common, nor truth the worse for having lain neglected. ~ John Locke

Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also. ~ Carl Jung

We are never so liable to fall into an error, as when we have just escaped from one. ~ Norman Macdonald