Being Wrong Quotes

• The secret to being wrong isn't to avoid being wrong! The secret is being willing to be wrong. The secret is realizing that wrong isn't fatal.

  Seth Godin

  Failure, Secret, Realizing

  Seth Godin (2008). “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us”, p.108, Penguin

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• Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.

  George Soros

  Mistake, Failure, Understanding

  George Soros, Byron Wien, Krisztina Koenen (1995). “Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve”, p.11, John Wiley & Sons

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  I love being wrong because that means in that instant, I learned something new that day.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  Mean, Love Is, Something New

  Source: www.npr.org

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  It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

  Thomas Sowell

  Business, Stupid, Government

  "Wake Up, Parents!". Column at Jewish World Review, www.jewishworldreview.com. August 18, 2000.

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• A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.

  Thomas Paine

  Integrity, Ignorance, Character

  Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “Paine and Jefferson on Liberty”, p.25, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• I don't really care about being right, I just care about success. I don't mind being wrong, and I'll admit that I'm wrong a lot. It doesn't really matter to me too much. What matters to me is that we do the right thing.

  Steve Jobs

  Inspirational, What Matters, Mind

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• I hate being wrong, but I love it when I'm set straight.

  Harlan Ellison

  Hate, Love Hate, I Hate Love

  Harlan Ellison (1989). “Harlan Ellison's watching”

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• I don't really care about being right, I just care about success.

  Steve Jobs

  Care, About Success

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• Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man.

  Thomas Tusser

  Peace, Integrity, Patriotic

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• The worst thing you can do is nothing.

  Terry Pratchett

  Motivational, Change, Positive

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• Being wrong is acceptable, but staying wrong is totally unacceptable.

  Jack D. Schwager

  Motivational, Wise Words, Staying

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• Mistakes are at the very base of human thought, embedded there, feeding the structure like root nodules. If we were not provided with the knack for being wrong, we could never get anything useful done. We think our way along by choosing between right and wrong alternatives, and the wrong choices have to be made as often as the right ones. We get along in life this way.

  Lewis Thomas

  Life, Mistake, Creativity

  Lewis Thomas (1990). “A Long Line of Cells Collected Essays”

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• Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.

  J. K. Rowling

  Forgiveness, People, Forgiving

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• I may have my faults, but being wrong ain't one of them.

  Jimmy Hoffa

  History, May, Faults

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• Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right.

  Igor Stravinsky

  Silence, Foolish, Possibility

  Igor Stravinsky, Robert Craft (1966). “Themes and episodes”

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• The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.

  Paul Tournier

  Worst, Worst Things

  Paul Tournier (1978). “The Violence Within”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• You must never feel badly about making mistakes ... as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.

  Norton Juster

  Inspirational, Mistake, Long

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• Indecisiveness and procrastination are the chosen ways of life for most people. They follow the course of least resistance, which is to do nothing. This provides a security blanket of never being wrong, never making mistakes, never being disappointed and never failing. But they will also never succeed.

  David Peoples

  Mistake, Procrastination, People

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• Being wrong about important things is exhausting.

  John Irving

  Important, Exhausting, Important Things

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• To err is to wander, and wandering is the way we discover the world; and, lost in thought, it is also the way we discover ourselves. Being right might be gratifying, but in the end it is static, a mere statement. Being wrong is hard and humbling, and sometimes even dangerous, but in the end it is a journey, and a story.

  Kathryn Schulz

  Journey, Might, Way

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• Let us pass to the despotic part of the soul, spirit. We must not eliminate it utterly from the youth nor yet allow  him to use it all the time. Let us train boys from earliest childhood to be patient when they suffer wrongs themselves, but, if they see another being wronged, to sally forth courageously and aid the sufferer in fitting measure.

  Saint John Chrysostom

  Boys, Childhood, Soul

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• In their zeal for particular kinds of decisions to be made, those with the vision of the anointed seldom consider the nature of the: process: by which decisions are made. Often what they propose amounts to third-party decision making by people who pay no cost for being wrong-surely one of the least promising ways of reaching decisions satisfactory to those who must live with the consequences.

  Thomas Sowell

  Party, People, Decision

  Thomas Sowell (1995). “The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy”, p.129, Basic Books

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• Being right keeps you in place, being wrong forces you to explore.

  Steven Johnson

  Force

  Steven Johnson (2010). “Where Good Ideas Come From”, p.87, Penguin

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• There's a long record here of being wrong. There's a good reason for it. There are probably multiple reasons. Certainly proliferation is a hard thing to track, particularly in countries that deny easy and free access and don't have free and open societies.

  David Kay

  Country, Long, Track

  David Kay at Senate hearing, edition.cnn.com. January 29, 2004.

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• Do I know I'm right? Judgements aren't the same as facts. Instinct is not science. I'm like any other human being as fallible and as capable of being wrong. I only know what I believe.

  Tony Blair

  Believe, Facts, Judgment

  Tony Blair's Labour Speech to the Conference in Brighton, www.theguardian.com. September 28, 2004.

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