Mistaken Quotes - Page 12

• To discover to the world something which deeply concerns it, and of which it was previously ignorant; to prove to it that it had been mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow creatures.

  John Stuart Mill

  Spiritual, Ignorant, Important

  John Stuart Mill (1859). “On Liberty”, p.51

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man does not see reality as it is, but only as he perceives it, and his perception may be mistaken or biased.

  Rudolf Dreikurs

  Men, Reality, Perception

  16 Copy quote

• Creatures are cups. The sciences and the arts and all branches of knowledge are inscriptions around the outside of the cups. When a cup shatters, the writing can no longer be read. The wine's the thing! The wine that's held in the mold of these physical cups. Drink the wine and know what lasts and what to love. The man who truly asks must be sure of two things: One, that he's mistaken in what he's doing or thinking now. And two, that there is a wisdom he doesn't know yet. Asking is half of knowing.

  Rumi

  Art, Writing, Wine

  21 Copy quote

• I never wanted my books to be mistaken for poetry or fiction books; I wanted to write reference books. But instead of referring to something, they refer to nothing.

  Kenneth Goldsmith

  Book, Writing, Fiction

  Interview with Dave Mandl, believermag.com. October 1, 2011.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some of you may think that you are not of interest because you don't have access to classified information. You are mistaken.

  Dan Payne

  Thinking, Information, May

  4 Copy quote

• It is obvious that the great majority of humans throughout history have had grossly, even ridiculously, unrealistic concepts of the world. Man is, among many other things, the mistaken animal, the foolish animal. Other species doubtless have much more limited ideas about the world, but what ideas they do have are much less likely to be wrong and are never foolish. White cats do not denigrate black, and dogs do not ask Baal, Jehovah, or other Semitic gods to perform miracles for them.

  George Gaylord Simpson

  Dog, Cat, Men

  7 Copy quote

• Don't talk to the crazy kids. I longed to shout back that we weren't crazy. I'd mistaken her kid for a ghost, that's all. I wondered whether they had books about his sort of thing. Fifty Ways to Tell the Living from the Dead Before You Wind Up in a Padded Room. Yep, I'm sure the library carried that one.

  Kelley Armstrong

  Crazy, Book, Kids

  4 Copy quote

• Even the incorruptible are corruptible if they cannot accept the possibility of being mistaken. Infallibility is a sin in any man. All laws can be broken and are. Often.

  Craig Ferguson

  Men, Law, Broken

  Craig Ferguson (2007). “Between the Bridge and the River”, p.208, Chronicle Books

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is something in natural affection which will lead it on to eternal love more easily than natural appetite could be led on. But there's also something in it which makes it easier to stop at the natural level and mistake it for the heavenly. Brass is mistaken for gold more easily than clay is. And if it finally refuses conversion its corruption will be worse than the corruption of what ye call the lower passions. It is a stronger angel, and therefor, when it falls, a fiercer devil.

  C. S. Lewis

  Inspirational, Mistake, Fall

  8 Copy quote

• People who talk of outlawing the atomic bomb are mistaken - what needs to be outlawed is war.

  Leslie Groves

  Peace, War, People

  29 Copy quote

• Dipsomaniac and the abstainer are not only both mistaken, but they both make the same mistake. They both regard wine as a drug and not as a drink.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Mistake, Wine, Alcohol

  14 Copy quote

• In opening we can see how many times we have mistaken small identities and fearful beliefs for our true nature and how limiting this is. We can touch with great compassion the pain from the contracted identities that we and others have created in the world.

  Jack Kornfield

  Pain, Buddhism, Compassion

  12 Copy quote

• Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Government, Intelligence

  Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.2, Psychology Press

  82 Copy quote

  Show source

• In order to be truthful
  We must do more than speak the truth.
  We must also hear truth.
  We must also receive truth.
  We must also act upon truth.
  We must also search for truth.
  The difficult truth
  Within us and around us.
  We must devote ourselves to truth.
  Otherwise we are dishonest
  And our lives are mistaken.
  God grant us the strength and the courage
  To be truthful.
  Amen

  Michael Leunig

  Honesty, Order, Truthful

  Michael Leunig (2006). “When I Talk to You: A Cartoonist Talks to God”, p.55, Andrews McMeel Publishing

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even mistaken hypotheses and theories are of use in leading to discoveries. This remark is true in all the sciences. The alchemists founded chemistry by pursuing chimerical problems and theories which are false. In physical science, which is more advanced than biology, we might still cite men of science who make great discoveries by relying on false theories.

  Claude Bernard

  Mistake, Science, Men

  "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine".

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Anyone who thinks science is trying to make human life easier or more pleasant is utterly mistaken.

  Albert Einstein

  Science, Thinking, Trying

  21 Copy quote

• Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may show us that some ends cannot be achieved. But among ends that can be achieved our choice must be decided by other than purely scientific considerations. If a man were to say, "I hate the human race, and I think it would be a good thing if it were exterminated," we could say, "Well, my dear sir, let us begin the process with you." But this is hardly argument, and no amount of science could prove such a man mistaken.

  Bertrand Russell

  Hate, Mistake, Science

  4 Copy quote

• No aphorism is more frequently repeated in connection with field trials, than that we must ask Nature few questions, or, ideally, one question, at a time. The writer is convinced that this view is wholly mistaken. Nature, he suggests, will best respond to a logical and carefully thought out questionnaire; indeed, if we ask her a single question, she will often refuse to answer until some other topic has been discussed.

  Ronald Fisher

  Nature, Science, Views

  21 Copy quote

• Religions lead us to believe that the soul is the ultimate family jewel and that in return for our mindless obedience, they can secure it for us in their vaults, or at least insure it against fire and theft. They are mistaken.

  Tom Robbins

  Fear, Believe, Fire

  4 Copy quote

• I stopped watching for ridicule, the scorpion's tail hidden in his words. He said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not. Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?

  Madeline Miller

  Heart, Cutting, People

  Madeline Miller (2011). “The Song of Achilles”, p.48, A&C Black

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• [Educated blacks] Society refuses to consider them genuine Negroes. The Negro is a savage, whereas the student is civilized. "You're us," and if anyone thinks you are a Negro he is mistaken, because you merely look like one.

  Frantz Fanon

  Thinking, Savages, Looks

  6 Copy quote

• In my life so far, I have discovered that there are really only two kinds of people: those who are for you, and those who are against you. Learn to recognize them, for they are often and easily mistaken for each other.

  Lemmy Kilmister

  Two, People, Kind

  Lemmy Kilmister (2012). “White Line Fever: Lemmy: The Autobiography”, p.169, Simon and Schuster

  282 Copy quote

  Show source

• "Catherine." she paused. I waited, tapping my finger on my desk. Then she spoke words that had me almost falling out of my chair. "I've decided to come to your wedding." I actually glanced at my phone again to see if I'd been mistaken and it was someone else who'd called me. "Are you drunk?" I got out when I could speak. She signed. "I wish you wouldn't marry that vampire, but I'm tired of him coming between us." Aliens replaced her with a pod person, I found myself thinking. That's the only explanation

  Jeaniene Frost

  Fall, Tired, Thinking

  "At Grave's End". Book by Jeaniene Frost, December 30, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If our well-being depends upon the interaction between events in our brains and events in the world, and there are better and worse ways to secure it, then some cultures will tend to produce lives that are more worth living than others; some political persuasions will be more enlightened than others; and some world views will be mistaken in ways that cause needless human misery.

  Sam Harris

  Views, Political, Brain

  Sam Harris (2011). “The Moral Landscape”, p.191, Random House

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Allowances can always be made for your friends to disagree with you. Disagreement, vehement disagreement, is healthy. Debate is impossible without it. Evil does not question itself, only hope questions itself. Even the incorruptible are corruptible if they cannot accept the possibility of being mistaken. Infallibility is a sin in any man. All laws can be broken and are. Often. Like when a bumblebee flies or an ancient regime is toppled.

  Craig Ferguson

  Men, Law, Evil

  Craig Ferguson (2007). “Between the Bridge and the River”, p.208, Chronicle Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source