mistakes on Being Wrong

In her aptly title book, Being Wrong , Kathleen Schulz describes just how difficult it is to be wrong: A whole lot of us go through life assuming that we are basically right, basically all the ti...

It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I’m right.

To be told we are wrong is sometimes an embarrassment, even a humiliation. We want to run and hide our heads in shame. But there are times when finding out we are wrong is sudden and immediate relief,...

“I should not like to be wrong,” said Poirot. “It is not—how do you say?—my métier.”

Some of you may be remember the classic photograph from the 1948 Presidential Election, in which Harry Truman holds a newspaper triumphantly, with the title, “Dewey Defeats Truman”. What you may not k...

We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is pos...

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.

Sometimes I lie awake at night and ask, “Where have I gone wrong?” Then a voice says, “This is going to take more than one night.”

The point of discourse is to learn with and from one another. I used to tell my students that at least 20 percent of what I was telling them was wrong, but I didn't know which 20 percent it was: I...

If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.

I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn’t explain away afterwards.

I see no reason why I should be consciously wrong today because I was unconsciously wrong yesterday.

"A step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction."

It is human to err, it is devilish to remain willfully in error.

The point of discourse is to learn with and from one another. I used to tell my students that at least 20 percent of what I was telling them was wrong, but I didn't know which 20 percent it was: I...

There is something to be said for every error; but, whatever may be said for it, the most important thing to be said about it is that it is erroneous.

If a mistake is not a stepping stone, it is a mistake.

Have you ever mistaken a person for someone else? I remember being at a party with my best friend in high school. We had just arrived when we saw our friend Nicole standing in the corner having a good...

Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries. Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not se...

One of the most controversial decisions in Super Bowl history took place in the closing seconds of Super Bowl XLIX in 2015. The Seattle Seahawks, with twenty-six seconds remaining and trailing by four...

Error, by force of contrast, enhances the triumph of Truth.

A man is being tailgated by a woman who is in a hurry. He comes to an intersection, and when the light turns yellow, he hits the brakes. The woman behind him goes ballistic. She honks her horn at him;...

“It is a comfort not to be mistaken at all points."

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive ner...

Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction.

When people fail, we are inclined to find fault with them, but if you look more closely, you will find that God had some particular truth for them to learn, which the trouble they are in is to teach t...

“A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.”

To err isn’t human after all. To err is, cosmically speaking, an anomaly. That’s why we can’t bear the imperfection in ourselves and in others.

When you repeat a mistake, it is not a mistake anymore: it is a decision.