Quotes about Making Mistakes

You are NOT your downfalls.

“Instead of feeling that you’ve blown the day and thinking, “I’ll get back on track tomorrow,” try thinking of each day as a set of four quarters: morning, midday, afternoon, evening. If you blow one quarter, you get back on track for the next quarter. Fail small, not big.”
Gretchen Rubin, Better Than Before

Enough said.

“Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turn before we have learned to walk.”
Cyril Connolly, via Sunbeams (Page 83)

37 Transformative Quotes On Failure To Consider For Your Success

Excerpt: Failure isn’t losing—it’s learning. Those who live by this principle succeed more. Our 37 quotes on failure will transform your perspective.

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.”
Neil Gaiman

Beyond the Quote (Day 366)

With a new year comes an opportunity for a fresh start. Of course, we can choose to start fresh whenever we want—the opportunity is always only one decision away. But, when the clock strikes midnight and the year switches over, it feels only natural to begin anew with the great reset of time on our calendars. And if you can align yourself with this great renewing, like a surfer aligning themselves with the coming of a great wave, then you may be able to enjoy a great ride of momentum heading into your new year.

“Committing many mistakes, one learns what is a mistake and how not to commit it. Knowing what is error, one comes closer and closer to what is truth. It is an individual exploration, you cannot depend on others’ conclusions.”
Osho, Courage (Page 16)

“That is one of the problems: people have been taught never to do anything wrong, and then they become so hesitant, so fearful, so frightened of doing wrong, that they become stuck. They cannot move, something wrong may happen. So they become like rocks, they lose all movement. Commit as many mistakes as possible, remembering only one thing: don’t commit the same mistake again. And you will be growing.”
Osho, Courage (Page 12)

“To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. It’s astounding how powerful this ownership is.”
Kevin Kelly, Blog

Good judgement comes from bad judgement remembered.

“At an early age I learned that people make mistakes, and you have to decide if their mistakes are bigger than your love for them.”
Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

Don’t get it twisted.

“Life is trial and error, and culture is a collection of some of our best practices handed down from generation to generation, but even they aren’t one-size-fits-all. We have to make our own mistakes to figure everything out. When we were kids, we had to bump into something before we stopped running in the house; we had to burn our hands before we stopped playing with the stove. And now, we gotta get our assess kicked a few dozen times before we get the hang of whatever the rest of this life is.” ~ Humble the Poet, Things No One Else Can Teach Us (Page 267)

Leo Babauta Quote on Using Mistakes As Feedback

“Use mistakes as feedback. They’re not signs that you’re a bad person or have no discipline. They’re signs that you need to adjust.”
Leo Babauta, Essential Zen Habits (Page 71)

Beyond the Quote (39/365)

In his book, Essential Zen Habits, Leo Babauta shares a simple story about mistakes that might help you shift your paradigm from looking at mistakes as catastrophic failures to seeing them as opportunities for indispensable feedback. Imagine you are walking across a pond using a small stone path. It’s not the most stable path and it zig zags across the water, but can none-the-less get you to the other side. If you wanted to get to the other side safely and dry, you would have to carefully place each step and make the proper balance adjustments along the way (I believe in you).

No regrets. Stay focused on forward.

“Sometimes the best teacher is our most recent failure.” ~ The Minimalists, Everything That Remains

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” ~ George Bernard Shaw, via Blog of Jonathan Fields

“There is nothing wrong with making mistakes. Mistakes are part of life an essential for growth. It’s like that saying, ‘Happiness comes through good judgment, good judgment comes through experience, and experience comes through bad judgement.’ But there is something very wrong with making the same mistakes over and over again, day in and day out. This shows a complete lack of self-awareness, the very quality that separates humans from animals.” ~ Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

“There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of self-mastery. From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher.” ~ Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari