Umar Quotes
Let nothing prevent you from changing your previous decision if after consideration you feel that the previous decision was incorrect.
Umar ibn al-Khattab, ~ 581-644, Umar I, 2nd Islamic Caliph & Companion to The Prophet, Instructions to Judges and Public Officials, Firman (Edict) on Justice
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Few people have the integrity and confidence to change their mind on a serious matter and be candid about it.
Although this quotation has been cited by many scholars, none has yet given a primary citation. As a result a few researchers question the attribution to Keynes and argue that the first primary source of this notion was the Nobel Laureate in Economics Paul Samuelson -- Quote {645739}. However, even Samuelson attributed this quotation to Keynes although he did not do so at this particualr interview.
He was commenting on the Iraq War and the refusal of the George W. Bush Administration to alter its failing policy. The dilemma is that by changing policy whatever administration is in power admits that the previous policy was flawed.
The earliest expression of this idea was by the British Economist John Maynard Keynes -- Quotation {610150}
Douglass visited the White House to ask if Lincoln was going to implement his previous position and allow Black troops to serve in the military in other than labor battalions.
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr (r. 632–634) as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate on 23 August 634. Umar was a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He was also an expert Muslim jurist known for his pious and just nature, which earned him the epithet Al-Fārūq ("the one who distinguishes (between right and wrong)"). The title Amir al-Mu'minin was held by Umar ibn Khattab who was also the first one to be given this title.
