Stewart Brand Quotes

To err is human; to admit it, superhuman.

Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

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

An intelligent person is never afraid or ashamed to find errors in his understanding of things.

No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.

To change your mind about something is always difficult. I think that people who are big enough to admit they were wrong can be counted on your fingers.

It's not a weakness to admit that you're wrong.

I'm not going to sit here and say I know everything about everything. I definitely have work to do. The thing is, I'm willing to admit that.

The thing I believe in most in the world is my own fallibility, so I am willing to believe that I may be wrong too.

But an escape less self-depreciating was taken by Lord Westbury, who, it is said, rebuffed a barrister's reliance upon an earlier opinion of his Lordship: "I can only say that I am amazed that a man of my intelligence should have been guilty of giving such an opinion". If there are other ways of gracefully and good-naturedly surrendering former views to a better considered position, I invoke them all.

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

Maybe sometimes I have been wrong with some movies. Anyway, I try to do my best.

You've got to be who you are. You've got to be honest with people. If your views change on something, you've got to be willing to express it.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

I don't pretend I know everything.

It is not the truth that a man possesses, or believes that he possesses, but the earnest effort which he puts forward to reach the truth, which constitutes the worth of a man.

I have to stay on top of myself with honesty and be very forthcoming, quickly admit when I'm wrong, you know? I have a whole system that works for me, and that's part of my worldview now.

I grew up learning from a father who said, 'When you make a mistake or you make a bad decision, you man up and take responsibility.'

The truth won't set us free - until we develop the skills and the habit and the talent and the moral courage to use it.

Do I make mistakes? Yeah.

It is a true man's part not to err, but it is also noble of a man to perceive his error.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.

Wisdom is keeping a sense of fallibility of all our views and opinions.