Blunders Quotes
More Blunders Quotes
But what is woman?only one of Nature's agreeable blunders.
Hannah Cowley— 1779 Who's the Dupe?, act 2.
Human blunders usually do more to shape history than human wickedness.
— 1961The Origins of the SecondWorldWar.
There are many scapegoats for our blunders, but the most popular one is Providence.
— c.1897 Quoted in Albert Bigelow Paine (ed) MarkTwain's Notebook (1935).
In practice we always base our preparations against an enemy on the assumption that his plans are good; indeed, it is right to rest our hopes not on a belief in his blunders, but on the soundness of our provisions. Nor ought we to believe that there is much difference between man and man, but to think that the superiority lies with him who is reared in the severest school.
Thucydides— Book I, 1.84-[4]
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
winston churchill— On the Soviet Union’s failure to form a united Balkan front against Hitler ; in The Second World War, Volume III : The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 20 (The Soviet Nemesis)
Weaknesses in men of genius are usually an exaggeration of their personal feeling; in the hands of feeble imitators they become the most flagrant blunders. Entire schools have been founded on misinterpretations of certain aspects of the masters. Lamentable mistakes have resulted from the thoughtless enthusiasm with which men have sought inspiration from the worst qualities of remarkable artists because they are unable to reproduce the sublime elements in their work.
eugène delacroix— 16 January 1860 (p. 391)
Our Irish blunders are never blunders of the heart.
Maria Edgeworth— Essay on Irish Bulls (1802), ch. 4; Tales and Novels, vol. 1, p. 123.Written in collaboration with her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth.
There is a constant rush to judgment in Foucault. He is filled with specious generalizations, false categories, distortions, fudging, pretenses to knowledge in areas where he was ignorant. He had no ability whatsoever to distinguish among historical sources, where he makes terrible blunders.
camille paglia— p. 224 (Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders : Academe in the Hour of the Wolf)
While the body is young and fine, the soul blunders, but as the body grows old it attains its highest power. Again, every good soul uses mind; but no body can produce mind: for how should that which is without mind produce mind? Again, while the soul uses the body as an instrument, it is not in it; just as the engineer is not in his engines (although many engines move without being touched by any one).
sallustius— VIII. On Mind and Soul, and that the latter is immortal.
The lightning bug is brilliant :;:; But he hasn't any mind He blunders through existence :;:; With his headlight on behind.
— Anonymous, widely circulated in American periodicals from the 1890s and early 1900s. The earliest known citation, in Fiber and Fabric, Vol 27, no. 683 (2 April 1898), p. 84,[1] refers to an unidentified issue of Charles Austin Bates' Criticisms, which ran from 1897 to 1902.
While the body is young and fine, the soul blunders, but as the body grows old it attains its highest power. Again, every good soul uses mind; but no body can produce mind: for how should that which is without mind produce mind? Again, while the soul uses the body as an instrument, it is not in it; just as the engineer is not in his engines (although many engines move without being touched by any one).
— VIII. On Mind and Soul, and that the latter is immortal.
I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - the most famous is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line"! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Vizzini— Played by Wallace Shawn in The Princess Bride (1987).
