Quotes About Error

to apply scientific arguments to the question of God's existence, as if this were somehow a showstopper, is committing a category error.

to apply scientific arguments to the question of God's existence, as if this were somehow a showstopper, is committing a category error

En ocasiones, las administraciones gubernamentales han confundido el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo —establecido desde hace seis sexenios— con una planificación de largo plazo. Esto es un error.

Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire

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

Custom without truth is error grown old." —Tertullian, third-century theologian

The late Lynn White, a distinguished historian of science, understood just what scientists mean by truth: "It is not a citadel of certainty to be defended against error; it is a shady spot where one eats lunch before tramping on."11

To err is human; to forgive, infrequent.

What is at first small is often extremely large in the end. And so it happens that whoever deviates only a little from truth in the beginning is led farther and farther afield in the sequel, and to errors which are a thousand times as large.

Justifying a fault doubles it.

Better the foot slip than the tongue.

Toute erreur doctrinale s'accompagne d'une erreur psychologique à l'égard de ceux qui en sont indemnes : l'athéisme par exemple se prend volontiers pour un héroïsme moral; il ne peut concevoir de théisme libre de toute faiblesse, de tout désir sentimental. Suspicion injuste, car on peut tout admettre par sentimentalité, l'inexistence de Dieu aussi bien que le contraire.

Une des plus grandes sources d'erreurs, c'est de prendre le probable pour certain, et l'improbable pour impossible.

Dieu permet parfois des faiblesses afin de pouvoir susciter ensuite — moyennant le contraste entre ces infirmités accidentelles et l'être essentiel — des vertus d'autant plus profondes. Les qualités qui ont poussé dans l'engrais de quelque misère sont comme douées de conscience : elles connaissent toute la vanité de l'erreur d'une manière concrète.

and who compound that error by conflating their sense of truth

Those who truly seek wisdom are those who will acknowledge the virtue in their adversaries and who will learn from those who disabuse them of error.

Jasnah raised an eyebrow. "You will find wise men in any religion, Shallan, and good men in every nation. Those who truly seek wisdom are those who will acknowledge the virtue in their adversaries and who will learn from those who disabuse them of error. All others—heretic, Vorin, Ysperist, or Maakian—are equally closed-minded.

Anyone can blow their face off by accident—I mean, who hasn't—but if you do it twice in a row, you look really silly.

there is no effort without error

All I have learned through trial and error is to stay alert and aware, especially God smiling @ our silliness.

In philosophy, the opposite of truth is error; in Scripture, the opposite of truth is a lie.

Were half the power that fills the world with terror, Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, Given to redeem the human mind from error, There were no need of arsenals nor forts.

You can hardly convince a man of an error in a lifetime, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be. The geologists tell us that it took one hundred years to prove that fossils are organic, and one hundred and fifty more, to prove that they are not to be referred to the Noachian deluge.