Quotes About Error

The taxonomy of medical error is vast, colorful, and at times confusing. There are slips, lapses, harmless hits, and near misses; errors of omission and of commission; operator errors, system errors, accidents, complications, and bad outcomes.

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.

The Advent movement was born in failure rather than success, error rather than truth, darkness rather than light, and sorrow rather than joy.

Our church had an awkward beginning. We grew out of a movement that was dead wrong about the dates and times of Jesus' return. But out of that great disappointment and gross error grew a people devoted to voraciously studying the Bible and banking on being with Jesus as soon as He would allow.

Fight, flight, and screw up royaly.

The most common strategic error that salespeople make in this phase of the sale is that they don't try to uncover the customer's guidelines, or criteria, for making the decision.

Is it Locke who says that it is one thing to show a man he is in error and another to convince him of the truth? You have shown me my error. Pray reveal the whole truth.

It's easy, today, to chuckle at Aristotle's error. But it's also easy to understand how the great philosopher was led so far astray. The brain, packed neatly into the bone-crate of the skull, gives us no sensory signal of its existence. We feel our heart beat, our lungs expand, our stomach churn—but our brain, lacking motility and having no sensory nerve endings, remains imperceptible to us. The source of consciousness lies beyond the grasp of consciousness.

Western radicals fall for an equally inane error. Because it is easier to expose abuses of power in democracies, and because Western radicals are most concerned about abuses of power in their own countries, they assume that democratic abuses are the major or only abuses of power worth protesting about.

Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.

I have erred, and so I must atone. I lived when I should have died, and so I must become Immortal." – Oath of the Immortals

The greatest modern error is not to proclaim that God died, but to believe that the devil has died.

El máximo error moderno no es anunciar que Dios murió, sino creer que el diablo ha muerto.

There are two equally erroneous attitudes toward Marxism: disdaining what it teaches, believing what it promises. I understand that Communism which is a protest, but not that which is a hope.

There are two equally erroneous attitudes toward Marxism: disdaining what it teaches, believing what it promises.

When one is confronted by diverse "cultures," there are two symmetrically erroneous attitudes: to admit only one cultural standard, and to grant all standards the same rank. Neither the overweening imperialism of the European historian of yesterday, nor the shameful relativism of the European historian of today.

It is not enough to be wrong, one must also be polite.

Preserving freedom of speech maximizes the chance of truth emerging from its collision with error and half-truth.

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

John Locke said that it is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of truth. It is easy to point out people's faults. They are always so obvious. But this will never change the person. Better to put the truth in their hands. By the power of truth a life will change.

Error and bias are burdens, indirectly attracting remedies, as every load balances. For the frail they are certainly a weakening agent.

Así, aceptar la falibilidad del conocimiento, confrontarse con la duda, convivir con el error no significa abrazar el irracionalismo y la arbitrariedad. Significa, por el contrario, en nombre del pluralismo, ejercitar el derecho a la crítica y sentir la necesidad de dialogar también con quien lucha por valores diferentes de los nuestros.

Do not always assume motive where human error will suffice.