error

The commonest error in politics is sticking to the carcasses of old policies.

—of Salisbury

The dove descending breaks the air With flame of incandescent terror Of which the tongues declare The one discharge from sin and error.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

All method is imperfect. Error is all around it, and at the least opportunity invades it† But what can we do? There is no other way.

—Nicolle, CharlesJules Henri

Error has never approached my spirit.

—Metternich, Prince Clemens Lothar Wenzel

He which converteththesinner fromthe errorof his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

—Bible (NewTestament)

Reason, an ignis fatuus in the mind, Which leaving light of nature, sense behind, Pathless and dangerous wandering ways it takes, Through error's fenny bogs and thorny brakes; Whilst the misguided follower climbs, with pain, Mountains of whimsy heaped in his own brain.

—Rochester,JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of

   It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.

—Burke, Edmund

L'homme n'est qu'un sujet plein d'erreur, naturelle et ineffa c° able sans la gra"  ce. Man is nothing but a subject full of natural error that cannot be eradicated except through grace.

—Pascal, Blaise

Observe that it is a grave error to believe that all mediums of art are not closely tied to their time.

—Pissarro, Camille

Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled; The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

—Pope, Alexander

Life is too short to silver over this tarnish. The gods, employed to haunt and punish husbands, have no hand for trigger-fine distinctions, their myopia makes all error mortal.

—Lowell, RobertTraill Spence,Jr

Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car.You would call that not a disease but an error of judgement.

—Dick, Philip K(indred)

The classical economists were not wholly free from error, for they were only mortals, even if of a superior species.

—Viner,Jacob

Thehistoryof science, likethehistoryof all humanideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activitiesöperhaps the only oneöin which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there.

—Popper, Sir Karl Raimund

Es gibt nur einen Irrtum, und es ist der, dass wir dasind, um glu«  cklich zu sein. There is only one inborn error, and that is the notion that we exist in order to be happy.

—Schopenhauer, Arthur

Unsterblichkeit der Individualit a« t verlangen heiÞt eigentlich einen Irrtum ins Unendliche perpetuieren wollen. Denn im Grunde ist doch jede Individualit a« t nur ein spezieller Irrtum, Fehltritt, etwas, das besser nicht w a« re, ja wovon uns zuru«  ckzubringen der eigentliche Zweck des Lebens ist. To desire immortality for theindividual isreally thesame as wanting to perpetuate an error for ever; for at bottom every individuality is really only a special error, a false step, something that it would be better should not be, in fact something from which it isthe real purpose of life to bring us back.

—Schopenhauer, Arthur

Of all the inanimate objects, of all men's creations, books are the nearest to us, for they contain our very thoughts, our ambitions, our indignations, our illusions, our fidelity to truth, and our persistent leaning towards error.But most of all they resemble us in their precarious hold on life.

—Connor, Sir William Neil pseudonym Cassandra

Mistakes are a fact of life It is the response to error that counts.

—Giovanni,Nikki in full Yolande CorneliaGiovanni,Jr

Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. Wherethere isdespair, may we bring hope. See St Francis 334:98.

—Thatcher, Margaret HildaThatcher, Baroness