“Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them” is a saying that has been printed on several images. The saying has been credited to Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) since at least 2011, but there’s no evidence that he ever said it.
The quotation has been cited in print since at least 1965 and is of unknown authorship.
Google Books
Complete Speaker’s and Toastmaster’s Library
By Jacob Morton Braude
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
1965
Pg. 49:
Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them.
17 January 1969, Panama City (FL) News, pg. 3, col. 6 ad:
SUNSHINE LEWIS SAYS:
“Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them.”
*Sunshine Wholesale Food Stores.—ed.)
Twitter
Arun Charles
@livetorque
“Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them.” ~ Unknown
8:37 PM - 11 Jun 2009
Twitter
Aji Kyari
@Aji_Kyari
“Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them”-Alexander Solzhenitsyn @elrufai
9:07 AM - 3 Oct 2011
Google Books
Power Stars to Light the Business Flame:
The visionaries and you
By Hank Moore
Houston, TX: Division Books
2012
Pg. ?:
“Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them.” Anonymous
Twitter
Meditation
@enlighten4ever
Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them. -Unknown
7:00 AM - 4 Mar 2017
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
Recent entries:
•“Taxes are like a subscription to your country that you can’t cancel, no matter how bad the service gets” (5/21)
•“We the People have had enough” (5/21)
•Entry in progress—BP36 (5/21)
•Entry in progress—BP35 (5/21)
•Entry in progress—BP34 (5/21)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
This site is edited by Barry Popik. These are the Cookies and Privacy Policies.