The
greatest mistake you can make in life
is to be continually fearing you will
make one. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Note
Book, 1927
Mistakes are part of the dues one
pays for a full life. ~Sophia Loren
It was when I found out I could make
mistakes that I knew I was on to something.
~Ornette Coleman
I never make stupid mistakes. Only
very, very clever ones. ~John Peel
If you don't make mistakes, you're
not working on hard enough problems.
And that's a big mistake. ~F. Wikzek
While one person hesitates because
he feels inferior, the other is busy
making mistakes and becoming superior.
~Henry C. Link
An expert is a man who has made all
the mistakes which can be made in
a very narrow field. ~Niels Bohr
That's not serious; it's just human.
~Jerry Kopke
A man should never be ashamed to own
he has been in the wrong, which is
but saying... that he is wiser today
than he was yesterday. ~Alexander
Pope, in Swift, Miscellanies
The only real mistake is the one from
which we learn nothing. ~John Powell
The man who makes no mistakes does
not usually make anything. ~Edward
Phelps
Making mistakes simply means you are
learning faster. ~Weston H. Agor
One cannot too soon forget his errors
and misdemeanors; for to dwell upon
them is to add to the offense. ~Henry
David Thoreau
You will do foolish things, but do
them with enthusiasm. ~Colette
As long as the world is turning and
spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and
we're gonna make mistakes. ~Mel Brooks
Our blunders mostly come from letting
our wishes interpret our duties. ~Author
Unknown
Things could be worse. Suppose your
errors were counted and published
every day, like those of a baseball
player. ~Author Unknown
Mistakes fail in their mission of
helping the person who blames them
on the other fellow. ~Henry S. Haskins
When you realize you've made a mistake,
make amends immediately. It's easier
to eat crow while it's still warm.
~Dan Heist
Mistakes are the usual bridge between
inexperience and wisdom. ~Phyllis
Theroux, Night Lights
If you shut your door to all errors
truth will be shut out. ~Rabindranath
Tagore, Stray Birds, 1916
A man of genius makes no mistakes.
His errors are volitional and are
the portals of discovery. ~James Joyce,
Ulysses
Just because you make mistakes doesn't
mean you are one. ~Author Unknown
Truth will sooner come out of error
than from confusion. ~Francis Bacon
Admit your errors before someone else
exaggerates them. ~Andrew V. Mason
In the game of life it's a good idea
to have a few early losses, which
relieves you of the pressure of trying
to maintain an undefeated season.
~Bill Vaughan
From the errors of others, a wise
man corrects his own. ~Syrus
It is very easy to forgive others
their mistakes; it takes more grit
to forgive them for having witnessed
your own. ~Jessamyn West
Don't refuse to go on an occasional
wild goose chase - that's what wild
geese are for. ~Author Unknown
I am always doing that which I cannot
do, in order that I may learn how
to do it. ~Pablo Picasso
When in doubt, make a fool of yourself.
There is a microscopically thin line
between being brilliantly creative
and acting like the most gigantic
idiot on earth. So what the hell,
leap. ~Cynthia Heimel, "Lower
Manhattan Survival Tactics"
I dip my pen in the blackest ink,
because I'm not afraid of falling
into my inkpot. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Progress always involves risks. You
can't steal second base and keep your
foot on first. ~Frederick B. Wilcox
Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that
where the fruit is? ~Frank Scully
Yes, risk taking is inherently failure-prone.
Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking.
~Tim McMahon
Many great ideas have been lost because
the people who had them could not
stand being laughed at. ~Author Unknown
You'll always miss 100% of the shots
you don't take. ~Wayne Gretzky
What is more mortifying than to feel
you've missed the Plum for want of
courage to shake the Tree? ~Logan
Pearsall Smith
A ship in harbor is safe - but that
is not what ships are for. ~John A.
Shedd, Salt from My Attic
The knowledge of the world is only
to be acquired in the world, and not
in a closet. ~Lord Chesterfield, Letters
to His Son, 4 October 1746
To win you have to risk loss. ~Jean-Claude
Killy
The torment of precautions often exceeds
the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes
better to abandon one's self to destiny.
~Napoleon Bonaparte
If you're never scared or embarrassed
or hurt, it means you never take any
chances. ~Julia Sorel (Rosalyn Drexler),
See How She Runs, 1978
Take risks: if you win, you will be
happy; if you lose, you will be wise.
~Author Unknown
Prudence keeps life safe, but does
not often make it happy. ~Samuel Johnson
This nation was built by men who took
risks - pioneers who were not afraid
of the wilderness, business men who
were not afraid of failure, scientists
who were not afraid of the truth,
thinkers who were not afraid of progress,
dreamers who were not afraid of action.
~Brooks Atkinson
It is better to be bold than too circumspect,
because fortune is of a sex which
likes not a tardy wooer and repulses
all who are not ardent. ~Machiavelli
The healthy being craves an occasional
wildness, a jolt from normality, a
sharpening of the edge of appetite,
his own little festival of the Saturnalia,
a brief excursion from his way of
life. ~Robert MacIver
Nothing will ever be attempted, if
all possible objections must be first
overcome. ~Samuel Johnson, Rasselas,
1759
Only those who dare to fail greatly
can ever achieve greatly. ~Robert
F. Kennedy
It is not because things are difficult
that we do not dare, it is because
we do not dare that they are difficult.
~Seneca
What great thing would you attempt
if you knew you could not fail? ~Robert
H. Schuller
The knowledge of the world is only
to be acquired in the world, and not
in a closet. ~Lord Philip Dormer Stanhope
Chesterfield
Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember, amateurs built the ark;
professionals built the Titanic. ~Author
Unknown
If one is forever cautious, can one
remain a human being? ~Aleksander
Solzhenitsyn
It is only in adventure that some
people succeed in knowing themselves
- in finding themselves. ~André
Gide
Every man has the right to risk his
own life in order to preserve it.
Has it ever been said that a man who
throws himself out the window to escape
from a fire is guilty of suicide?
~Jean-Jacques Rousseau
There are those who are so scrupulously
afraid of doing wrong that they seldom
venture to do anything. ~Vauvenargues
Do not be too timid and squeamish
about your actions. All life is an
experiment. The more experiments you
make the better. What if they are
a little course, and you may get your
coat soiled or torn? What if you do
fail, and get fairly rolled in the
dirt once or twice. Up again, you
shall never be so afraid of a tumble.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
One does not discover new lands without
consenting to lose sight of the shore
for a very long time. ~André
Gide
Behold the turtle. He makes progress
only when he sticks his neck out.
~James Bryant Conant
You might as well fall flat on your
face as lean over too far backward.
~James Thurber
We fail more often by timidity than
by over-daring. ~David Grayson
Living at risk is jumping off the
cliff and building your wings on the
way down. ~Ray Bradbury
Striving for excellence motivates
you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.
~Harriet Braiker
Certain flaws are necessary for the
whole. It would seem strange if old
friends lacked certain quirks. ~Goethe
No one is perfect... that's why pencils
have erasers. ~Author Unknown
A man would do nothing if he waited
until he could do it so well that
no one could find fault. ~John Henry
Newman
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in.
~Leonard Cohen
To escape criticism - do nothing,
say nothing, be nothing. ~Elbert Hubbard
Only in grammar can you be more than
perfect. ~William Safire
Sometimes... when you hold out for
everything, you walk away with nothing.
~From the television show Ally McBeal
Use what talents you possess; the
woods would be very silent if no birds
sang except those that sang best.
~Henry van Dyke
Ideals are like stars; you will not
succeed in touching them with your
hands. But like the seafaring man
on the desert of waters, you choose
them as your guides, and following
them you will reach your destiny.
~Carl Schurz, address, Faneuil Hall,
Boston, 1859
Better a diamond with a flaw than
a pebble without. ~Confucius, Analects
The most difficult part of attaining
perfection is finding something to
do for an encore. ~Author Unknown
When you aim for perfection, you discover
it's a moving target. ~George Fisher
Once you accept the fact that you're
not perfect, then you develop some
confidence. ~Rosalynn Carter
There are no perfect men in this world,
only perfect intentions. ~Pen Densham,
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
The imperfections of a man, his frailties,
his faults, are just as important
as his virtues. You can't separate
them. They're wedded. ~Henry Miller
Does "anal retentive" have
a hyphen? ~Author Unknown
The human story does not always unfold
like a mathematical calculation on
the principle that two and two make
four. Sometimes in life they make
five or minus three; and sometimes
the blackboard topples down in the
middle of the sum and leaves the class
in disorder and the pedagogue with
a black eye. ~Winston Churchill
He who hath not a dram of folly in
his mixture hath pounds of much worse
matter in his composition. ~Charles
Lamb
Even the best needles are not sharp
at both ends. ~Chinese Proverb
I want to stay as close to the edge
as I can without going over. Out on
the edge you see all kinds of things
you can't see from the center. ~Kurt
Vonnegut, Jr., Player Piano
Unless I accept my faults I will most
certainly doubt my virtues. ~Hugh
Prather
Perfection is achieved, not when there
is nothing more to add, but when there
is nothing left to take away. ~Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry
Striving to better, oft we mar what's
well. ~William Shakespeare, King Lear,
1605
Have no fear of perfection - you'll
never reach it. ~Salvador Dali
All of us failed to match our dreams
of perfection. ~William Faulkner
A good garden may have some weeds.
~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732
The closest to perfection a person
ever comes is when he fills out a
job application form. ~Stanley J.
Randall
I cling to my imperfection, as the
very essence of my being. ~Anatole
France (Jacques Anatole François
Thibault), The Garden of Epicurus,
1894
Congratulations! You're not perfect!
It's ridiculous to want to be perfect
anyway. But then, everybody's ridiculous
sometimes, except perfect people.
You know what perfect is? Perfect
is not eating or drinking or talking
or moving a muscle or making even
the teensiest mistake. Perfect is
never doing anything wrong - which
means never doing anything at all.
Perfect is boring! So you're not perfect!
Wonderful! Have fun! Eat things that
give you bad breath! Trip over your
own shoelaces! Laugh! Let somebody
else laugh at you! Perfect people
never do any of those things. All
they do is sit around and sip weak
tea and think about how perfect they
are. But they're really not one-hundred-percent
perfect anyway. You should see them
when they get the hiccups! Phooey!
Who needs 'em? You can drink pickle
juice and imitate gorillas and do
silly dances and sing stupid songs
and wear funny hats and be as imperfect
as you please and still be a good
person. Good people are hard to find
nowadays. And they're a lot more fun
than perfect people any day of the
week. ~Stephen Manes, Be a Perfect
Person in Just Three Days!
He that will have a perfect brother
must resign himself to remain brotherless.
~Italian Proverb
You see, when weaving a blanket, an
Indian woman leaves a flaw in the
weaving of that blanket to let the
soul out. ~Martha Graham
One minute was enough, Tyler said,
a person had to work hard for it,
but a minute of perfection was worth
the effort. A moment was the most
you could ever expect from perfection.
~Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
When nobody around you seems to measure
up, it's time to check your yardstick.
~Bill Lemley
Living up to ideals is like doing
everyday work with your Sunday clothes
on. ~Ed Howe
Try as hard as we may for perfection,
the net result of our labors is an
amazing variety of imperfectness.
We are surprised at our own versatility
in being able to fail in so many different
ways. ~Samuel McChord Crothers
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