From our newsletter Outside the Lines

Don’t take my word for it
Smart people thinking out loud about learning from mistakes.

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
-Oscar Wilde, Irish writer

“Making mistakes is a lot better than not doing anything.”
-Billie Joe Armstrong, American musician

“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.”
-Niels Bohr, Danish physicist

“Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but quickly to see how to make them good.”
-Bertolt Brecht, German writer

“My life is full of mistakes. They’re like pebbles that make a good road.”
-Beatrice Wood, American artist

“Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.”
-Shaquille ONeal, American basketball star

“I’ve learned that mistakes can often be as good a teacher as success.”
-Jack Welch, American businessman

“Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.”
-Peter Ustinov, British actor

“Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.”
-Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian writer