"Err" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... together, as right hand and left hand, as science and art, as theory and practice. Rede-craft may call for books and hand-craft for tools, but it is by the help of both books and tools that mankind moves on. Indeed, we shall not err wide of the mark if we say that a book is a tool, for it is the instrument which we make use of in certain cases when we wish to find out what other men have thought and done. Perhaps you will not be as ready to admit that a tool ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 497, July 11, 1885 • Various
... doth it show the soul where comfort is to be had; and therefore it is called the 'ministration of condemnation,' the 'ministration of death.' For, though men may have a notion of the blessed Word of God, yet before they be converted, it may be truly said of them, Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power ...
— Sermons to the Natural Man • William G.T. Shedd
... Christ of Nazareth was put to death and rose again. I do not say you err in that belief; but if you refuse to believe that the gentle spirit of Love is crucified daily upon the dark cross of your selfish desires, then, I say, you err in this unbelief, and have not yet perceived, even afar off, ...
— The Way of Peace • James Allen
... err in the use of each particle, Seldom observe where our adverbs belong, Wholly misplace the indefinite article, In our subjunctives go ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, January 21, 1893 • Various
... He turned to the other directors. "I think perhaps that in our city business we may have been a little too conservative, but I have always preferred to err on that side, if I erred at all. I should not oppose a rather more liberal policy ...
— White Ashes • Sidney R. Kennedy and Alden C. Noble
... always to hold it for a law or a right rule. And do not our divines teach, that nihil faciendum est ad ahorum exemplum, sed juxta verbum—Nothing is to be done according to the example of others, but according to the word Ut autem, &c. "As the multitude of them who err (saith Osiander), so long prescription of time purchaseth no patrociny ...
— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie
... makes men fortunate: for by wisdom no man would ever err, and therefore he must act rightly and succeed, or his wisdom would be ...
— Euthydemus • Plato
... the little fellow by the hand, and the man smiled, for he was not sorry to see this Blanchotte, who was, it was said, one of the prettiest girls of the countryside, and, perhaps, he was saying to himself, at the bottom of his heart, that a lass who had erred might very well err again. ...
— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant
... score. The bowling against them was not strong certainly, but they took no liberties with it. Indeed, both the captain and Mr Parrett had so ruthlessly denounced and snubbed anything like "fancy hitting," that their batting was inclined to err on the side of the over-cautious, and more runs might doubtless have been made by a little freer swing of the bats. However, the authorities were well satisfied. Cusack carried his bat for eighteen, much to his own gratification; and of his companions, ...
— The Willoughby Captains • Talbot Baines Reed
... foolish as to attach importance to such trifles, but, on the contrary, think an old soldier who stood fast at Coutras, or even a clerk who has served the King honestly—if such a prodigy there be—more deserving than these professors, still I do not err on the other side; but count him a fool who, because he has solid cause to value himself, disdains the ECLAT which the attachment of such persons gives him in the ...
— From the Memoirs of a Minister of France • Stanley Weyman
... natural temperament, early associations, and real or supposed local interest. As far as such questions are concerned, it is too much to hope that, in times of high party excitement, full justice will be done to prominent statesmen by those of their contemporaries who differ from them. We greatly err, however, if candid men of all parties, and in all parts of the country, do not accord to Mr. Webster the praise of having formed to himself a large and generous view of the character of an American statesman, ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various
... servants by name, and speak to them on arriving at a house, and thank them for an opened door or offered coat; if a tip is given it is accompanied by a gracious word. So rare is this form of civility in America and England (for Britons err as gravely in this matter as ourselves) that our servants are surprised and inclined to resent politeness, as in the case of an English butler who recently came to his master and said he should be “obliged to leave.” On being questioned it came out that one of the guests was ...
— The Ways of Men • Eliot Gregory
... Hermes has spoken well, In that he redes thee put away self-will, And take far-sighted prudence to thy heart. Give ear; for one so wise to err were shame. ...
— Specimens of Greek Tragedy - Aeschylus and Sophocles • Goldwin Smith
... are human we err. But as free men we are also responsible for correcting the errors ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Dwight D. Eisenhower • Dwight D. Eisenhower
... impossible to secure full returns. It was found that three and a half per cent of the population of Massachusetts were in the factories, and nearly the same proportion in Connecticut and Rhode Island; but details were of the most meagre description, and conclusions based upon them were likely to err at every point. Its value was chiefly educative, since the failure it represents pointed to a change in methods, and more preparation than had at any time been considered necessary in the officials who had the ...
— Women Wage-Earners - Their Past, Their Present, and Their Future • Helen Campbell
... and dwelt with great force upon the educational feature. "Education," said he, "means the intelligent exercise of liberty; and surely without this liberty is a calamity, since it means simply the unlimited right to err. Who can doubt that if a man is to govern himself he should have the means to know what is best for himself, and what is injurious to himself, what agencies work against him and what for him? The avenue to all this is simply education. ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine
... Norbert's wife. But she did not acquaint her parents with this determination on her part, preferring to carry out her plans without any aid or advice. Mademoiselle Diana was shrewd and practical, and not likely to err from want of judgment. The frank and open expression of her features concealed a mind of superior calibre, and one which well knew how to weigh the advantages of social rank and position. She affected a sudden sympathy with the ...
— The Champdoce Mystery • Emile Gaboriau
... a woman's errors, still Preserves a woman's gentleness; For thus I think, if one I see Who disappoints my high desire, 'How admirable would she be, Could she but know how I admire!' Or fail she, though from blemish clear, To charm, I call it my defect; And so my thought, with reverent fear To err by doltish disrespect, Imputes love's great regard, and says, 'Though unapparent 'tis to me, Be sure this Queen some other sways With well-perceiv'd supremacy.' Behold the worst! Light from above On the blank ruin writes 'Forbear! Her first crime was unguarded love, And all the rest, perhaps, despair.' ...
— The Angel in the House • Coventry Patmore
... in London: "Who the devil is this? Let them flank him his vegetables to the gate!" But what he did say, I believe, though he did not know or mention my name, was that "a blonde son of Albion" had ventured something gigantesque on him. And gigantesque had, if I do not again fondly err, sometimes if not always its "milder shade" of meaning in Flaubert's ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury
... you an Account of the following Sheets. What I have attempted in them is mostly of the Pindaric and the Lyric Way. I have not follow'd the Strophe and Antistrophe; neither do I think it necessary; besides I had rather err with Mr. Cowley, who shew'd us the Way, than be flat and ...
— Discourse on Criticism and of Poetry (1707) - From Poems On Several Occasions (1707) • Samuel Cobb
... her own judgment, was just saying with decision: "Well, better to err on the right side and have too much than too little," and altering a four into a five, when steps came down the passage and John entered the room. Jinny made him a sign, and John, now Commissioner of Trade and Customs, ...
— Australia Felix • Henry Handel Richardson
... it? It begets a solitude in a vast thronged assemblage for you and for me. It sends its silent, wordless, eloquent message thrilling to the heart of the Beloved, and wins its passionate answer back. Ah! who can err about the ...
— The Dop Doctor • Clotilde Inez Mary Graves
... the same parents and treated in the same manner, certainly did vary much in sterility, it is possible that certain plants in the latter and more fertile classes may have varied so as to have acquired an abnormal degree of fertility. But it should be noticed that, if my standards err in being too low, the sterility of all the many sterile plants in the several classes will have to be estimated by so much the higher. Finally, we see that the illegitimate plants in the four first classes are all more or less sterile, some being absolutely barren, with ...
— The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species • Charles Darwin
... the Dean, 'human justice may err, but it must act according to its lights. The days of taking sanctuary are past. This young man must not take ...
— The Mystery of Edwin Drood • Charles Dickens
... almighty power, is "a very present help in trouble;" and yet we rely on a drug or hypnotism to heal disease, as if senseless matter or err- 202:30 ing mortal mind had more ...
— Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures • Mary Baker Eddy
... Dress is one of the proprieties of civilized and Christian life. If religion reaches a part, it does the whole of life. If it should direct us anywhere, it should in the matter of Dress. There are few things upon which people are more liable to err, and about which there is more wrong feeling than this. Many religious sects have seen this, and have attempted to bring the matter of Dress wholly under the ban of ecclesiastical direction. In this ...
— Aims and Aids for Girls and Young Women • George Sumner Weaver
... if you please, an effusion of sentiment, a chant of faith. In a world more and more given to judging trees by their fruits, we should err if we dismissed this sentiment, this faith, too lightly. Flaubert may have been a better disputant; he had a talent for writing. George Sand may have chosen her side with a truer instinct; she had a genius for living. This ...
— The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters • George Sand, Gustave Flaubert
... First granted the manor to a favourite lady, named Cristina, probably a handsome lass, of the same complexion as his mother; thus we err when we say William gave all the land in the kingdom to his followers—some little was ...
— An History of Birmingham (1783) • William Hutton
... to err on the flattering side in estimating her cousin's regard for her, always now habitually thought of it and mentioned it in the most scanty measure. She had her own reasons for being less sanguine than ever in hopeful views of ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte
... long been a thorny one and inaccessible; that if we postponed the settlement by giving the assembly another trial, the revolt would be forgotten, and in colder blood the necessary powers might be refused. He thought that when once you went into a measure of a despotic character, it was well to err, if at all, on the side of sufficiency; Lord Ripon strongly concurred. The duke sat with his hand to his ear, turning from one towards another round the circle as they took up the conversation in succession, and said nothing till directly and pressingly called ...
— The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. 1 (of 3) - 1809-1859 • John Morley
... blend and the proportions are as perfect as in a picture. After all, what surer guarantee can there be of a woman's character, natural and cultivated, inherent and inherited, than taste? It is a compass that never errs. If a woman has taste she may have faults, follies, fads, she may err, she may be as human and feminine as she pleases, but she will never ...
— The House in Good Taste • Elsie de Wolfe
... remarkable that while a perception of the ridiculous, perhaps to excess, is characteristic of the British mind, and is at the bottom of many defects in the national manners, commonly attributed to less venial feelings, our Transatlantic descendants err in just the opposite direction. The Americans seldom laugh at any body, or any thing—never at themselves; and this, next to an unfortunate trick of insolvency, and a preternatural abhorrence of niggers, is perhaps the besetting sin of an otherwise "smart" people. As individuals, their peculiarities ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847 • Various
... no degradation, no reproach in this, but all dignity and honourableness: and we should err grievously in refusing either to recognize as an essential character of the existing architecture of the North, or to admit as a desirable character in that which it yet may be, this wildness of ...
— Selections From the Works of John Ruskin • John Ruskin
... I grieved with this generation, and said; It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways. Unto whom I sware in my wrath: that they should not enter into ...
— The Prayer Book Explained • Percival Jackson
... ministers to the higher wants of man. He forgets that he is one of a thousand in the city, and does not represent average city life. He fails to compare the average country conditions with the average city conditions, manifestly the only fair basis for comparison. Or he may err still more grievously. He may set opposite each other the worst country conditions and the better city conditions. He ought in all justice to balance country slum with city slum; and certainly so if he insists on trying to find ...
— Chapters in Rural Progress • Kenyon L. Butterfield
... data pertaining to the effects of radiation is due to the failure of most investigators to determine accurately the quantities and wave-lengths of the rays involved. For example, it is easy to err by attributing an effect to visible rays when the effect may be caused by accompanying invisible rays. Furthermore, it may be possible that certain rays counteract or aid the effective rays without being ...
— Artificial Light - Its Influence upon Civilization • M. Luckiesh
... desecrating their 'holy things'—while believing them still to be religious and sacramental! On the other side I have always and shall always understand how it is possible for the most earnest and faithful of men and even of women perhaps, to err in the convictions of the heart as well as of the mind, to profess an affection which is an illusion, and to recant and retreat loyally at the eleventh hour, on becoming aware of the truth which is in them. Such men are the truest of men, and the most ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett
... of expression, and of the sense of literary beauty. The matter of having anything to say beyond a hash of other people's opinions, or of possessing any criterion of beauty, so that we may distinguish between the God-like and the devilish, is left aside as of no moment. I think I do not err in saying that if science were made the foundation of education, instead of being at most stuck on as cornice to the edifice, this state of things could not exist.' Such is the system I should like to see established in ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson
... Myers of Cambridge and Sir William Osler of Oxford apparently never heard of it—that it was the MEDICAL journals of England whose indignant condemnation of vivisection cruelties led up to its attempted regulation by law? The public assumes that authorities like these are not likely to err concerning methods of medical instruction or research. In the mind of the average man, every prepossession is in their favour; he cannot easily bring himself to believe that if cruelty ever existed, THEY should be so completely ignorant of it. It may, indeed, ...
— An Ethical Problem - Or, Sidelights upon Scientific Experimentation on Man and Animals • Albert Leffingwell
... heals, that grace which sustains, that comfort which gladdens. Some have thought that true joy consists in never having a sorrow; that those who have sorrow have not found the way of peace. In this they err. Those who never have a sorrow rejoice because they have no sorrows, but some who have sorrow have learned to rejoice in the Lord. This ...
— How to Live a Holy Life • C. E. Orr
... 'gentle rain from heaven' upon his hard temper, preparing the ground for Estelle's soft words on behalf of Jack. Perhaps it was that his own better nature had asserted itself when all outside arguments had failed, and made him see how 'to err is human, to forgive divine.' Peet waited there in front of his house; and when Jack's voice came to him through the half-closed door in the concluding words of the last song, he understood dimly, in his own fashion, that no one could have ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various
... noble lord,' replied Jim, who, in his uncertainty on the proper method of address, wisely concluded that it was better to err by giving too much honour than by giving too little. 'In short, trade is looking so well that I've become ...
— The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid • Thomas Hardy
... person seldom arouses in me much curiosity. I agree with George Moore that Thackeray, in the interests of mid-Victorian morality, suppressed many of her characteristics, telling us too little of her amatory temperament. Possibly, Mr. Moore may err, Becky may have had no "temperament," notwithstanding her ability to twist men around her expressive digits. That she was disagreeable when she set herself out to be I do not doubt; in fact, she is the protagonist of a ...
— Ivory Apes and Peacocks • James Huneker
... yes," said the old gentleman, "I dare say I did. It is human to err, my dear, especially about dinner on a fine evening. Besides, I have made amends and brought you a visitor, our new neighbour, Colonel Quaritch. Colonel Quaritch, let me introduce you to my ...
— Colonel Quaritch, V.C. - A Tale of Country Life • H. Rider Haggard
... humiliated by the refusal of one man, might not this be minimised if she in turn might refuse another? Harold knew so well the sincerity of his own love and the depth of his own devotion that he was satisfied that he could not err in giving the girl the opportunity of refusing him. It would be some sort of balm to her wounded spirit to know that Leonard's views were not shared by all men. That there were others who would deem it a joy to serve as her slaves. ...
— The Man • Bram Stoker
... that these implements may be more advantageously wielded by those who devote themselves exclusively to their use. It is also true, that, although the process of transferring the statue from plaster to marble is reduced to a science so perfect that to err is almost impossible, yet much depends upon the workmen to whom this operation is intrusted. Still, their position in the studio is a subordinate one. They translate the original thought of the ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 86, December, 1864 • Various
... point the draft included the words "The whole People will not probably mistake their own true Interests, nor err in their Judgment of the Men to whom they may safely commit ...
— The Original Writings of Samuel Adams, Volume 4 • Samuel Adams
... between them the rolls should appear exactly parallel; if they are not, one adjusting screw should be loosened and the other tightened until parallelism is obtained. The rolls are now turned and the disc should be drawn through without any great effort. Beginners are apt to err by trying to do too much with one turn of the handle. It is easy to stop whilst the rolls are only just gripping the metal and then to bring the disc back by reversing the action. If the disc was originally level and the rolls are parallel, the ...
— A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. • Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob Beringer
... borne the odium of loosening a destroying spirit among mankind; which, had Christianity never existed, would have equally prevailed in human affairs. Of a moral malady, it is not only necessary to know the nature, but to designate it by a right name, that we may not err in our mode of treatment. If we call that religious which we shall find for the greater part is political, we are likely to be mistaken in ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli
... palinode as to their accuracy. His materials have been since used for the basis of more than one narrative, not inaccurate, in French, German and Spanish journals of high authority. It is seldom the case that French writers err by prolixity. They have done so in this case. The present narrative, which contains no sentence derived from any foreign one, has the great advantage of close compression; my own pages, after equating ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey
... plan formed by the Government of which Sir Edward Grey was, for this matter, the responsible member. He does not see—- though it is so plain that a wayfaring man though a professional satirist should not err therein—that what the Secretary intended to do—what, in fact, he did do—was to refuse to put a price on British perfidy, to accept any "bargain" offered to ...
— New York Times, Current History, Vol 1, Issue 1 - From the Beginning to March, 1915 With Index • Various
... office of domestic purveyor. It is a case where the office has sought the man, and not the man the office. Lest we forget, everything has been written down so that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein,—baking-powder and coffee and a dozen eggs, and last and least, and under no circumstances to be forgotten, a cake of condensed yeast. These things weigh upon my spirits. The thought of that little ...
— By the Christmas Fire • Samuel McChord Crothers
... better to have both rods with him—the spare one being handy in case of calamity—as the extra trouble of carrying is very slight: rods and landing-net handle can be easily tied up together with small leather straps. Do not have a rod that bends too freely—rather err on the other side; because in loch-fishing you have generally wind enough to carry your flies out, and if you do get a 3 or 4 pounder, the advantage of a fairly stiff rod is apparent. We prefer rods in three pieces—no hollow-butts—and made of greenheart ...
— Scotch Loch-Fishing • AKA Black Palmer, William Senior
... perceive you are not lost to all feelings of humanity." Here the compression of Girty's lips, and a knitting together of his shaggy brows, warned Ella she was treading on dangerous ground, and she quickly added: "All of us are liable to err; and there may be circumstances, unknown to others, that force us to be, or seem to be, that which in our hearts we are not; and to do acts which our calm moments of reason tell us are wrong, and which we ...
— Ella Barnwell - A Historical Romance of Border Life • Emerson Bennett
... for me, first to state wherein Hartley differs from Aristotle; then, to exhibit the grounds of my conviction, that he differed only to err: and next as the result, to show, by what influences of the choice and judgment the associative power becomes either memory or fancy; and, in conclusion, to appropriate the remaining offices of ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... David's Car,142 ready for mounting, turns its long pole towards the north star. The old Lithuanians know, concerning this chariot, that the populace err in calling it David's, since it is the Angel's Car. On it long ago rode Lucifer, when he summoned God to combat, rushing at full gallop along the Milky Way towards the threshold of heaven, until Michael threw him from his car, and cast the car ...
— Pan Tadeusz • Adam Mickiewicz
... criticism. I have simply clothed my thoughts in what appeared to me the most obvious and appropriate language. A person familiar with nature, and with the most celebrated productions of the human mind, can scarcely err in following the instinct, with respect to selection of language, produced ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... may not have had that advantage; which indeed is the general fault of oriental tables of latitude and longitude. The latitude of Al Kossir comes pretty near that formed by Don Juan de Castro; but that of Al Kolzum must err above one degree, while that of Swakem is ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VI - Early English Voyages Of Discovery To America • Robert Kerr
... for your ignorance. Manicure girls are as careful about boiling a hand as some particular people are about bailing their eggs for breakfast of a morning. A two minute hand is no pleasure to her absolutely if she has diagnosed your hand as one calling for six minutes, or vice versa. So, should you err in this regard she will snatch the offending hand out and wipe it off and give it back to you and tell you to keep it in a dry place until she calls for it. Manicure girls are very funny ...
— Cobb's Anatomy • Irvin S. Cobb
... high matter, because of the wrong and of the wickedness that hath been done, and eke by reason of the great damages that in time coming be possible to fall for the same cause, and eke by reason of the great riches and power of the parties both; for which reasons, it were a full great peril to err in this matter. Wherefore, Meliboeus, this is our sentence [opinion]; we counsel you, above all things, that right anon thou do thy diligence in keeping of thy body, in such a wise that thou want no espy nor watch ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer
... out his fishing-line. It was a strong cod-line, with a great cod-hook attached and a lump of fat pork on it; for Archie, in the fervour of hope coupled with piscatorial ignorance and a sanguine disposition, had strongly advised his brother to err, if err he must, on the safe side, and be prepared for anything, from a great lake-serpent to a ...
— The Buffalo Runners - A Tale of the Red River Plains • R.M. Ballantyne
... who are so conscientious as not to kill animals, will never murder human beings. On all these accounts the system cannot be too much recommended. The practice of abstaining cannot be wrong; it must therefore be some consolation to be on the side of duty. If we err, we err on the sure side; it is innocent; it is infinitely better authorized and more nearly associated with religion, virtue, and humanity, than the contrary practice—and we have the sanction of the wisest and the best of men—of ...
— Vegetable Diet: As Sanctioned by Medical Men, and by Experience in All Ages • William Andrus Alcott
... insists that the difference between the Van Buren party and the Whigs is that, although the former sometimes err in practice, they are always correct in principle, whereas the latter are wrong in principle; and, better to impress this proposition, he uses a figurative expression in these words: "The Democrats are vulnerable in the heel, but they are sound in the head ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln
... to his seeming Were but good as touched by her, Ring to seek for love redeeming All who sorrow, all who err. Yes, though human love be ever Heard upon the throbbing air, This shall make his life's endeavour ...
— Memories of Canada and Scotland - Speeches and Verses • John Douglas Sutherland Campbell
... favor. The sun shining on a withered tree which blooms again, "His radiis rediviva viresco" (These rays revive me). A pair of scales, fire in one, smoke in the other, "Ponderare errare" (To weigh is to err). ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin
... behavior," said Bacon, "is like a verse wherein every syllable is measured," and he warned us that manners must be like apparel, "not too strait or point-device, but free for exercise or motion." However, it is better to err on the side of too much attention to our manners rather than to be thought careless of ...
— The Girl Wanted • Nixon Waterman
... before setting out on a four-miles drive to meet Dr. Minchin on the other side of Tipton, the decease of Hicks, a rural practitioner, having increased Middlemarch practice in that direction. Great statesmen err, and why not small medical men? Mr. Wrench did not neglect sending the usual white parcels, which this time had black and drastic contents. Their effect was not alleviating to poor Fred, who, however, ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot
... he had brought another man's wife, and by some strange oversight had left his own at home with five children. It hardly seems possible that a man could be so completely enveloped in a brown study that he would err in the matter of a wife and five children, but such was the case with Martin Luther. Martin Luther couldn't tell you his own name if you asked him suddenly, so as to give ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye
... quarrelling, and drinking, as well as transgressions of the moral code, adultery, seduction, prostitution, and the like, were punishable by the Church and the Church courts. The censures of Bishop Wilson on such offences did not err on the side of clemency. He was the enemy of sin, and no "gentle foe of sinners." He was a believer in witchcraft, and for suspicion of commerce with evil spirits and possession of the evil eye he punished many a blameless old ...
— The Little Manx Nation - 1891 • Hall Caine
... this is certain—and I am the rather bound to remember his words now that he is dead and gone. When I hardly knew his meaning, he bid me beware of the doctrine which causeth to err, which is taught by false prophets, who attest their doctrine by ...
— Waverley Volume XII • Sir Walter Scott
... 'The reason why the ancients did not readily give utterance to their words, was that they feared lest their actions should not come up to them.' CHAP. XXIII. The Master said, 'The cautious seldom err.' ...
— The Chinese Classics—Volume 1: Confucian Analects • James Legge
... has a smaller number of people to select from than he who selects a wife. Therefore a woman ought to be especially careful in her choice of life-time companionship. She cannot afford to make a mistake. If a man err in his selection he can spend his evenings at the club, and dull his sensibilities by tobacco-smoke; but woman has no club-room for refuge, and would find it difficult to habituate herself to cigars. If a woman make a bad job of marital selection, the probability ...
— The Wedding Ring - A Series of Discourses for Husbands and Wives and Those - Contemplating Matrimony • T. De Witt Talmage
... us even of the existence of God? And will the scepticism that can believe its own conclusions in nothing else rest satisfied with one conclusion only—that the writers of the first four centuries cannot err? Surely to regard this as the most certain proposition that can be submitted to the human mind, is ...
— The Christian Life - Its Course, Its Hindrances, And Its Helps • Thomas Arnold
... where she discerned defects, is still further illustrated by a letter of hers to Ruskin on the death of Miss Mitford. "But no, her 'judgment' was not 'unerring,'" wrote Mrs. Browning. "She was too intensely sympathetic not to err often ... if she loved a person it was enough.... And yet ... her judgment could be fine and discriminating, especially upon subjects connected with ...
— The Brownings - Their Life and Art • Lilian Whiting
... nothing positive in ideas which can constitute a form of falsity. But falsity cannot consist in absolute privation (for we say that minds and not bodies err and are mistaken); nor can it consist in absolute ignorance, for to be ignorant and to be in error are different. Falsehood, therefore, consists in the privation of knowledge which is involved by inadequate knowledge of things or by inadequate and confused ideas. For instance, men are ...
— The Philosophy of Spinoza • Baruch de Spinoza
... for much reprobation, except in the matter of the already-mentioned white triangle, in which they err in company with the coats. But a good long waistcoat, buttoned up to the throat, is a very useful and unexceptionable piece of attire. A few years ago, people wore them of all kinds of color, and of ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 • Various
... before the rites of Christianity could be resumed in its desecrated aisles. It was here that within the space of two days, in 1500, the catafalque was raised for the murdered Astorre, and for his traitorous cousin Grifonetto Baglioni. Here, too, if more ancient tradition does not err, were stretched the corpses of twenty-seven members of the same great house at the end of ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds
... place in the answer to a complaint. The customer is rightly or wrongly dissatisfied; business is built only on satisfied customers. Therefore the question is not to prove who is right but to satisfy the customer. This doctrine has its limitations, but it is safer to err in the way of doing too much ...
— How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) - A Complete Guide to Correct Business and Personal Correspondence • Mary Owens Crowther
... more of his memorable sayings on this subject. Many a time I have heard them from his own lips: "Always be as gentle as you can, and remember that more flies are caught with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of vinegar. If we must err in one direction or the other, let it be in that of gentleness. No sauce was ever spoilt by too much sugar. The human mind is so constituted that it rebels against harshness, but becomes perfectly tractable under gentle treatment. A mild word cools the heat of anger, as water extinguishes ...
— The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales • Jean Pierre Camus
... do not understand the Word. In its interiors the Word is spiritual, but in the letter it is natural; consequently those who understand the Word only in accordance with its literal sense, and not according to any spiritual sense, err in many respects, especially about the rich and the poor; for example, that it is as difficult for the rich to enter into heaven as for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle; and that it is easy for the poor because they are poor, since ...
— Heaven and its Wonders and Hell • Emanuel Swedenborg
... like that of many of his countrymen, is not so easily understood as a person might suppose. We err more often than we are aware of, when we judge of others by ourselves. English tourists have all fallen into this mistake, in their, estimate of the Americans. They judge them by their own standard; they ...
— The Attache - or, Sam Slick in England, Complete • Thomas Chandler Haliburton
... an hour of pain, My comforter in many an hour of sadness; And when my spirit leaped to joy again, Thou wert the one who joyed most in its gladness. Ay, more than nurse—and more than comforter— Thou taught'st my erring spirit not to err, Gave it a softness nature had not given, As now the blessed moon makes earth ...
— The Emigrant - or Reflections While Descending the Ohio • Frederick William Thomas
... devotion to acquisitiveness. But upon further thought we must see that these two tendencies flow together and become one, for too much devotion to money-getting and too little attention to the other purposes of life are, after all, expressions of the same thing. Perhaps a man may err in excessive devotion to any object of life but we must admit that in the pursuit of gain the evil tendency to exaggerated absorption in the one aim is promoted through a cooperation with his natural selfishness. Of all the fields of human endeavor, here is one that peculiarly fits in with ...
— Creating Capital - Money-making as an aim in business • Frederick L. Lipman
... "Art may err, but Nature cannot miss,"—is an aphorism attributed to the poet Dryden. It adequately supports Dr. Rucker's wise, significant and timely pronouncement and reminds me of an illustrative incident recorded in connection ...
— Valere Aude - Dare to Be Healthy, Or, The Light of Physical Regeneration • Louis Dechmann
... faith, patience, constancy, fortitude,—shown in all of them as following the heart, which gives its results by a nice tact and happy intuition, without the intervention of the discursive faculty, sees all things in and by the light of the affections, and errs, if it ever err, in the exaggerations of love alone. In all the Shakespearian women there is essentially the same foundation and principle; the distinct individuality and variety are merely the result of modification of circumstances, whether in Miranda the maiden, ...
— Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher • S. T. Coleridge
... shake the Manbo's[17] faith in the trusty omen bird. For him it can not err, it is infallible. For every case you cite him of its errors, he quotes you numberless cases where its prophecies have come true, and ends by attributing the instance you cite to a false interpretation or to divine intervention ...
— The Manbos of Mindano - Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir • John M. Garvan
... great detriment of his fellow-men. That is black magic, and the punishment which it automatically calls down upon the head of the perpetrator is so awful that it is best to draw the veil over it. The mystic may also err because of ignorance, and fall into the meshes of nature's law, but being actuated by love, his mistakes will never be very serious, and as he grows in grace the soundless voice within his heart will speak more distinctly to teach him ...
— The Rosicrucian Mysteries • Max Heindel
... prospect of the consulate; while at the same time a popular opinion prevailed that the government of Britain would be conferred upon him; an opinion not founded upon any suggestions of his own, but upon his being thought equal to the station. Common fame does not always err, sometimes it even directs a choice. When Consul,[136] he contracted his daughter, a lady already of the happiest promise, to myself, then a very young man; and after his office was expired I received her in marriage. He was immediately ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome • Various
... Concerning the Sunday, Article 28 of the Augsburg Confession declares: "For those who judge that by the authority of the Church the observance of the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath-day was ordained as a thing necessary, do greatly err. Scripture has abrogated the Sabbath-day." Over against this plain teaching the General Synod always held that "the observance of the Sunday is binding on all by divine requirement." (Lutheran Observer, Oct. 1, 1915.) Siding with this un-Lutheran ...
— American Lutheranism - Volume 2: The United Lutheran Church (General Synod, General - Council, United Synod in the South) • Friedrich Bente
... long vacation, from April to December, the whole matter was left to executive authority. If Lincoln had lived, his action would have been acquiesced in. It would have been liberal, based upon universal emancipation of negroes, and pardon to rebels. It was supposed that President Johnson would err, if at all, in imposing too harsh terms upon these states. His violent speeches in the canvass of 1864, and his fierce denunciation of the leaders in the Rebellion, led us all to suppose that he would insist upon a reconstruction by the loyal people of the south and that ...
— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman
... and moral people err by applying repression to both classes alike. They repress equally the expression of love and of hatred, of pity and of anger. Such forget one great law, as true in the moral world as in the physical,—that repression lessens and deadens. Twice or thrice mowing will kill off the sturdiest crop ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 • Various
... they would dare to attempt anything in broad daylight," said the tyrant; "still it is best to err on the safe side, and we will leave Scapin, Blazius and Leander to keep guard over Isabelle while we are out. And, by the way, I will take my sword with me, too, so that I can be of some assistance in case they should ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier
... the father had acted unjustly, as in fact he thought he had, he might lessen the son's filial respect. However, he gave his candid opinion. "My Prince," he said, "the greatest men of all times have occasionally made mistakes, for to err is human. I must admit I think your father was in the wrong." "Really!" cried the lad, who looked pained. "I thought you would tell me I was in the wrong, and as I know how right you always are ...
— William of Germany • Stanley Shaw
... once the soul has lost her way, O then how restless does she stray! And having not her God for light, How does she err in endless night! ...
— The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 • Robert Herrick
... granted that they are acquainted with everything." The passage about conscience contains, as Taylor observes, a dogma which is only to be found implicitly maintained in the Scholia of Olympiodorus on the First Alkibiades of Plato. Olympiodorus says that we shall not err if we call "the allotted daemon conscience;" on which subject he has some further remarks. This doctrine of the sameness of conscience and the internal daemon seems to be that of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus (ii. 13): "It is sufficient to attend only to the daemon within us ...
— Plutarch's Lives, Volume II • Aubrey Stewart & George Long
... I err. She came once, but in anger. Impatient of my importunity she brought with her an avenging dream. By the clock of St. Jean Baptiste, that dream remained scarce fifteen minutes—a brief space, but ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte
... margin, which is else a mere unmeaning blankness on the page of palate God has given you! I write of these things as a fleshly man, confessedly and knowingly fleshly, and more than usually aware of my liability to err; I know myself for a gross creature more given to sedentary world-mending than to brisk activities, and not one-tenth as active as the dullest newspaper boy in London. Yet still I have my uses, uses that vanish in monotony, and still I must ask why should ...
— A Modern Utopia • H. G. Wells
... An alphabet, however, may be sufficient, and yet imperfect. It may err on the score of inconsistency. Let there be in a given language two simple single sounds, (for instance) the p in pate, and the f in fate. Let these sounds stand in a given relation to each other. Let a given sign, for instance, ...
— A Handbook of the English Language • Robert Gordon Latham
... shaft of light between the two-and-thirty and the Judge, linking both together, and perhaps reminding some among the audience how both were passing on, with absolute equality, to the greater Judgment that knoweth all things, and cannot err. Rising for a moment, a distinct speck of face in this way of light, the prisoner said, "My Lord, I have received my sentence of Death from the Almighty, but I bow to yours," and sat down again. There was some ...
— Great Expectations • Charles Dickens
... clearly. Fair as the coin may have been, it was not accurate; and though she knew it not, there were treasures that it could not buy. The face, however beloved, was mortal, and as liable as the soul herself to err. We do but shift responsibility by making a standard of ...
— The Longest Journey • E. M. Forster
... corresponding to nature but after the mind's own pleasure, and the result is poesy or feigned history. In the third, the materials are worked up after the model or pattern of nature, though we are prone to err in the progress from sense to reason; the result is philosophy, which is concerned either with God, with nature or with man, the second being the most important. Natural philosophy is again divided into speculative or theoretical and operative or practical, according as ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various
... Pray Heaven I answer right. [Aside. —Madam, if I have err'd in that belief, To know I do so, is sufficient punishment. —Lovers, Madam, though they have no returns, Like sinking Men, still catch at all they meet with; And whilst they live, though in the midst of Storms, Because they wish, they also hope ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn
... Turks actually supposed he had become a Mohammedan and native papers spoke of him as "His Islamic Holiness." In the light of history, the meaning of all this is so clear that he who runs may read, and the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. This visit was repeated in 1898. For more than twenty years every effort was made to extend German influence in Turkey, because that country with its minerals, its oils, its wonderfully strong ...
— Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights • Kelly Miller
... the rocking-stone at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and the tower of Pisa, &c., the Individual shook off her fears, and ascended rapidly. Being somewhat unfamiliar with the etiquette of shoemaker's shop, she hesitated whether to knock or plunge at once into the middle of things, but decided to err on the safe side, and gave a very moderate and conservative rap. Silence. A louder knock. The door rattled. Louder still. The whole building shook. Knuckles filed a caveat. Applied the heel of the dilapidated boot in her hand. Suffocated with a cloud of dust thence ensuing. Contemplated the ...
— Gala-days • Gail Hamilton
... escaped while I was enjoying my little visit at Orne. The former was an immensely tall and very strong boy of nineteen or under; who had come to our society by way of solitary confinement, bread and water for months, and other reminders that to err is human, etc. Unlike Harree, whom, if anything, he exceeded in strength, he was very quiet. Everyone let him alone. I "caught water" in the town with him several times and found him an excellent companion. He taught me the Russian ...
— The Enormous Room • Edward Estlin Cummings
... all denied. What numbers are there, which at once pursue, Praise, and the glory to contemn it, too? Vincenna knows self-praise betrays to shame, And therefore lays a stratagem for fame; Makes his approach in modesty's disguise, To win applause; and takes it by surprise. "To err," says he, "in small things, is my fate." You know your answer, "he's exact in great". "My style", says he, "is rude and full of faults." "But oh! what sense! what energy of thoughts!" That he wants algebra, he must confess; "But not a soul to give our arms success". "Ah! that's ...
— English Satires • Various
... should be done about it. Neither do I need to pay any attention to the fact that there are some who say the opposite, because, beyond the fact that I know that those who say the opposite are wrong and make your Lordship err, besides this, I say that when the bishop determines a thing after having taken due care not to be mistaken, it should not be suffered that others, however excellent they may be, should dare to say the opposite, for this is to cause dissensions between the prelate and ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume VIII (of 55), 1591-1593 • Emma Helen Blair
... he said, when he woke after a series of nightmares. "There's a lot of bad omens! Fortunately, we don't err on the side of superstition. Otherwise...!" And he added, "For that matter, we have a talisman which, to judge by Gilbert and Vaucheray's behaviour, should be enough, with Lupin's help, to frustrate bad luck and secure the triumph of the good cause. ...
— The Crystal Stopper • Maurice LeBlanc
... replied, making an effort to moderate her superciliousness to mere condescension. "I assure you, I too have learned that first impressions may err. I cannot now believe that you are torturing my ...
— Out of the Primitive • Robert Ames Bennet
... called;" that is, not to introduce into the Christian doctrine the janglings of those vain philosophers, which they would pass upon the world for science. And the reasons he gives are, first, That those who professed them did err ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IV: - Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Volume II • Jonathan Swift
... home in the evening, and would be very sorry if he missed us. Mr. Boyd was called out of the room. I was very desirous to stay in so comfortable a house, and I wished to see Lord Errol. Dr Johnson, however, was right in resolving to go, if we were not asked again, as it is best to err on the safe side in such cases, and to be sure that one is quite welcome. To my great joy, when Mr. Boyd returned, he told Dr. Johnson that it was Lady Errol who had called him out, and said that she would never let Dr. Johnson into the house again, if he went away that ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell
... "In the case under review, the proceedings are before a magistrate of our own State, presumed to possess a sympathy with his fellow-citizens, and where, upon the supposition that a freeman is arrested, he may readily procure the evidence of his freedom. If the magistrate should finally err in granting the certificate, the party can still resort to the protection of the national judiciary. The proceedings by which his rights have been invaded being under a law of Congress, the remedy for error or injustice belongs peculiarly to that high tribunal. UNDER THEIR AMPLE SHIELD, THE ...
— Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments • Various
... err in recognizing under this thin veil of imagery a description of the daily struggle between light and darkness, day and night. The maiden is the dawn from whose virgin womb rises the sun in the fullness of his glory and might, but ...
— American Hero-Myths - A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent • Daniel G. Brinton
... for sinners so great that before the world repented of its wickedness He gave His Son to die for an atonement and expiation? Must we then not love those who err, and who repent of their weakness? Nay, are we not all sinners, all weak, all frail and feeble beings in weak mortal bodies? Shall we judge and condemn one another? Shall we not rather seek to strengthen one another ...
— For the Faith • Evelyn Everett-Green
... and only ask life for such gifts as it can bestow. But when your absolute ideas of justice come upon you, you lose both equilibrium and reason. At the same time, I must say that we are all liable to err in much the ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola
... again now, but in a more irregular way. There was none of the vigorous pace for pace that had marked the beginning of their flight, and as the road grew more rough their steps began to err, and sometimes one, sometimes the other ...
— Syd Belton - The Boy who would not go to Sea • George Manville Fenn
... noble fellow; I respect you for making your duty a point of conscience. You may err, humanly speaking, but your motives are pure in ...
— My Ten Years' Imprisonment • Silvio Pellico
... much that is wrong—very much that is wasteful, extravagant, absurd and pernicious, but it is not all base, and the visitor is apt to err in his conclusions, especially if he be of an intense ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard
... church-fellowship. The Lutheran Confessions neither extend the requirements for Christian union to human teachings and institutions, nor do they limit them to merely a part of the divine doctrines of the Bible. They err neither in excessu nor in defectu. Accordingly, Lutherans, though not unmindful of the admonition to bear patiently with the weak, the weak also in doctrine and knowledge, dare not countenance any ...
— American Lutheranism - Volume 1: Early History of American Lutheranism and The Tennessee Synod • Friedrich Bente
... specific social experience it is always a question of how far one may pardonably err on the side of indiscretion; and if I remember here a dinner in the basement of the House of Commons—in a small room of the architectural effect of a chapel in a cathedral crypt—it is with the sufficiently meek hope of keeping ...
— London Films • W.D. Howells
... man, in that locality, may be regarded as in some measure amphibious. Boys and girls equally, if not already in the sea, were, like young turtles, sure to be pointing towards it with an instinct too intense to err. I never met, indeed, with a race of beings believed, or even suspected to be rational, that, provided immediate impulses and inclinations could be gratified, cared so thoroughly little for consequences. On warm summer days, when ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... coagulability of the blood. Anyone who has made frequent blood examinations will have observed that in this respect extraordinary variations occur. In some cases scarcely a drop of blood can be obtained, while in others the blood flows freely. One will not err in assuming in the former case a diminution of the quantity of ...
— Histology of the Blood - Normal and Pathological • Paul Ehrlich
... the pope speak with tongues; and why is he not secure from the evil effects of poison, &c.? He answered, that these last things were not necessary. "But how do you prove it necessary," said I, "that the pope should not err? Is it not sufficient if any one has doubts, to ask his teacher who is not infallible? if you say yes, then the opinion of the fallible man will answer. But if you say no, and that we must go to the pope, what must become of the man who dies before the ...
— Fox's Book of Martyrs - Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant - Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs • John Fox
... that God has builded for hope to play his part upon in this world.'[74] Hence the Word was precious in his eyes; and with so immense a loss, or so magnificent a gain, the throne of grace was all his hope, that he might be guided by that counsel that cannot err, and that should eventually insure ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan
... P: Is't possible! how has my judgment wander'd? Sir, I must, blushing, say to you, I have err'd; And plead ...
— Volpone; Or, The Fox • Ben Jonson
... others require less frequent attention. The season of the year and the state of the atmosphere have also to be considered, as well as the fact that a heavy soil is more retentive of moisture than a lighter compost. A watchful eye and a willing hand will seldom err on this point. The water should always be of the same temperature as the house, otherwise the plants will be constantly checked. A tank in the greenhouse meets this requirement. In its absence, the watering-pots should be kept full under the stage, and they ...
— The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition • Sutton and Sons
... country.[34137] At the same time another demagogue, Varlet, performs the same ceremony with the Council of the department, and both bodies, consecrated by a new baptism, join the sixty-six commissaries to share the dictatorship.—What could be more legitimate? The Convention would err in making ...
— The Origins of Contemporary France, Volume 3 (of 6) - The French Revolution, Volume 2 (of 3) • Hippolyte A. Taine
... new life; with the nobler sense that had grown with the growth of her gratitude to the man who had saved her, fighting on the better side. All the higher impulses of her nature, which had never, from first to last, let her err with impunity—which had tortured her, before her marriage and after it, with the remorse that no woman inherently heartless and inherently wicked can feel—all the nobler elements in her character, gathered their forces for the crowning struggle and strengthened her to meet, ...
— No Name • Wilkie Collins
... since I attended to the philosophy of aesthetics, and did not then think that I should ever make use of my conclusions. Can you refer me to any one or two books (for my power of reading is not great) which would illumine me? or can you explain in one or two sentences how I err? Perhaps it would be best for me to explain what I mean by the sense of beauty in its lowest stage of development, and which can only apply to animals. When an intense colour, or two tints in harmony, or a recurrent and symmetrical ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume I (of II) • Charles Darwin |
