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The truth is perilous never to the true,
Nor knowledge to the wise; and to the fool,
And to the false, error and truth alike,
Error is worse than ignorance.
Author: Philip James Bailey
Source: Festus (sc. A Mountain Sunrise)
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Have too rashly charged the troops of error and remain as
trophies unto the enemies of truth.
Author: Sir Thomas Browne
Source: Religio Medici (pt. I, sec. VI)
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Mistake, error, is the discipline through which we advance.
Author: William Ellery Channing
Source: Address on The Present Age
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To err is human, but to persevere in error is only the act of a
fool.
[Lat., Cujusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in
errore perseverare.]
Author: Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Source: Philippicoe (XII, 2)
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By Hercules! I prefer to err with Plato, whom I know how much
you value, than to be right in the company of such men.
[Lat., Errare mehercule malo cum Platone, quem tu quanti facias,
scio quam cum istis vera sentire.]
Author: Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Source: Tusculanarum Disputationum (I, 17)
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The cautious seldom err.
Author: Confucius
Source: Analects (bk. IV, ch. XXIII)
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Man on the dubious waves of error toss'd.
Author: William Cowper
Source: Poem on Truth (l. 1)
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Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.
Author: John Dryden
Source: All for Love (prologue)
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Brother, brother; we are both in the wrong.
Author: John Gay
Source: Beggar's Opera (act II, sc. 2)
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While man's desires and aspirations stir,
He can not choose but err.
[Ger., Es irrt der Mensch so lang er strebt.]
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source: Faust--Prolog im Himmel--Der Herr (l. 77)
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There are men who never err, because they never propose anything
rational.
[Ger., Est giebt Menschen die gar nicht irren, weil sie sich
nichts Vernunftiges vorsetzen.]
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source: Spruche in Prosa (III)
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One goes to the right, the other to the left; both are wrong, but
in different directions.
[Lat., Ille sinistrorsum hic dexrorsum abit, unus utrique
Error, sed variis illudit partibus.]
Author: Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Source: Satires (II, 3, 50)
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Dark Error's other hidden side is truth.
Author: Victor Hugo
Source: La Legende des Siecles
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When every one is in the wrong, every one is in the right.
[Fr., Quand tout le monte a tort, tout le monde a raison.]
Author: Pierre Claude N. La Chaussee
Source: La Gouvernante (I, 3)
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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.
Author: John Locke
Source: Essay Concerning Human Understanding (bk. IV, Of Wrong Assent or Error, ch. XX)
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Sometimes we may learn more from a man's error than from his
virtues.
Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Source: Hyperion (bk. IV, ch. III)
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The smallest errors are always the best.
[Fr., Les plus courtes erreurs sont toujours les meilleures.]
Author: Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere
Source: L'Etourdi (IV, 4)
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A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation.
Author: Jean Baptiste Poquelin Moliere
Source: L'Etourdi (IV, 4)
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The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
Author: Edward J. Phelps
Source: Speech at Mansion House, London, quoting Bishop W.C. Magee of Peterborough in 1868
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For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is
at least human.
Author: Plutarch
Source: Morals--Against Colotes the Epicurean
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Some positive persisting fops we know,
Who, if once wrong, will needs be always so;
But you with pleasure own your errors past,
And make each day a critique on the last.
Author: Alexander Pope
Source: Essay on Criticism (pt. III, l. 9)
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When people once are in the wrong,
Each line they add is much too long;
Who fastest walks, but walks astray,
Is only furthest from his way.
Author: Matthew Prior
Source: Alma (canto III, l. 194)
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To err is human.
Author: Matthew Prior
Source: Alma (canto III, l. 194)
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So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on th' inventors' heads.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Horatio at V, ii)
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Ah, poor our sex! this fault in us I find,
The error of our eye directs our mind.
What error leads must error.
Author: William Shakespeare
Source: The History of Troilus and Cressida (Cressida at V, ii)
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A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
Author: James Joyce
Source: None
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Experience is a revelation in the light of which we renounce our errors of youth for those of age.
Author: Ambrose Bierce
Source: None
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A man's errors are what make him amiable.
Author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Source: None
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Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.
Author: Henry St John
Source: None
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Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them.
Author: Andrew V. Mason
Source: None
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All men are liable to error; and most men are, in many points, by passion or interest, under temptation to it.
Author: John Locke
Source: None
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An error doesn't become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.
Author: Orlando A. Battista
Source: None
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Error is the force that welds men together; truth is communicated to men only by deeds of truth.
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Source: None
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In science, it doesn't matter if you're wrong, as long as you're not stupid. In business, it doesn't matter if you're stupid, so long as you're not wrong.
Author: Unknown
Source: None
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