60 Mistake Quotes to Help You Make Better Decisions

This list of mistake quotes will help you get back on track when things no longer seem to be going your way!

It’s easy to think of mistakes as negative things. Often, our first thought is that we must have done something wrong for us to mess up. But, not all mistakes are wrong, and not all errors should be avoided. 

As humans, we are all flawed individuals.

That’s why learning how to accept our imperfections and knowing how to make them work for us instead are great skills to master.

If we learn how to handle our mistakes, then life, in general, will be much easier to deal with.

So, don’t be afraid when you mess up, stumble, or fall! That one misstep will help you get stronger and more resilient in the future.

If you want to know more about this topic, read our complete list of mistake quotes below.

Let’s begin.

And don’t forget to check out these inspirational quotes and positive quotes.

Best Mistake Quotes

1. “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” – Henry Ford

2. “We all make them; the difference is what we do after we make a mistake, how we see the mistake as a learning experience or a failure.” – Catherine Pulsifer

3. “Don’t be ashamed of your mistakes; they only prove that you try hard and never give up.” – Riley Czarkowski

4. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

5. “Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better than you were before.” – Anonymous

6. “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

7. “If you want to grow, you need to get over any fear you may have of making mistakes.” – John C. Maxwell

8. “A mistake made with good in your heart is still a mistake, but it is one for which you must forgive yourself.” – Linda Sue Park

9. “Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later, a collection of mistakes is what is called experience.” – Denise Waitley

10. “Mistakes are the growing pains of wisdom.” – William Jordan

Inspiring Mistake Quotes That’ll Provide Meaningful Life Lessons

11. “Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent.” – Billy Graham

12. “Everyone makes mistakes in life, but that doesn’t mean they have to pay for them for the rest of their life.” – Anonymous

13. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” – George Bernard Shaw

14. “We are all mere mortals, and making mistakes is part of living a long active life. Yet, we still should be able to learn from those who have come before us.” – Mike Finley

15. “Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” – Sophia Loren

16. “You have to make mistakes to find out who you aren’t. You take the action, and the insight follows: you don’t think your way into becoming yourself.” – Anne Lamott

17. “No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you’re still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.” – Tony Robbins

18. “Mistakes can help us to fine-tune our skills, learn better ways of doing things, and get our priorities straight.” – Angela Agranoff

19. “We make our mistakes, we fall, yet we learn something new, and we rise again. That’s the design of humanity. This is our destiny.” – Angelina Talpa

Also read: Quotes to Live By

Positive Mistake Quotes for a Brighter Future

20. “Don’t let the mistakes and disappointments of the past control and direct your future.” – Zig Ziglar

21. “There is no sense in punishing your future for the mistakes of your past. Forgive yourself, grow from it, and then let it go.” – Melanie Koulouris

22. “We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here now with the power to shape your day and your future.” – Steve Maraboli

23. “Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.” – L.M. Montgomery

Mistake Quotes to Help You Move On From Your Errors

24. “It is important that we forgive ourselves for making mistakes. We need to learn from our errors and move on.” – Steve Maraboli

25. “Your capacity to learn from your mistakes and move on will be key to your ultimate success and achievement.” – Amy E. Dean

26. “If you mess up and learn nothing, it’s a mistake. If you mess up and learn something, it’s an experience.” – Mark McFadden

27. “Every time there is a mistake, learn from it, change the plan and keep moving forward.” – Pooja Agnihotri

28. “Some mistakes will be made along the way. That’s good. Because some decisions are being made along the way. We’ll find the mistakes. We’ll fix them.” – Steve Jobs

Short Mistake Quotes to Improve Your Mindset

29. “You fall, you rise, you make mistakes, you live, and you learn.” – Anonymous

30. “There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons.” – Denis Waitley

31. “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” – James Joyce

32. “You cannot correct your mistakes by pointing out the mistakes of others.” – Anonymous

33. “Success lies in one’s ability to learn from mistakes.” – Dr. Prem Jagyasi

34. “What do you do with a mistake? Recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it.” – Dean Smith

35. “You make mistakes. Mistakes don’t make you.” – Maxwell Maltz

36. “Mistakes arm you with new knowledge that you can bring to the situation.” – Tom Meitner

37. “Holding a mistake over someone’s head does not rehabilitate them.” – E’yen A.Gardner

38. “Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them.” – Bruce Lee

39. “Making mistakes is better than faking perfections.” – Anonymous

Mistake Quotes for Those Who Want to Achieve Success

40. “Mistakes increase your experience, and experiences decrease your mistakes. If you learn from your mistakes, then others learn from your success.” – Anonymous

41. “Mistakes are to be learned from. What successful people never do is punish themselves by reliving their mistakes over and over again by thinking of them.” – Gwen Stapleton

42. “So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can because that’s where you will find success—on the far side of failure.” – Thomas J. Watson Sr.

43. “The mistakes we regret the most are the ones we were too scared to make.” – Ollie Slaney

Also read: Success Quotes, Achievement Quotes

Mistake Quotes to Remind You That Missteps Are Okay

44. “Good people make mistakes and hurt others, then they learn from their mistakes and try not to make them again.” – Bob Anderson

45. “It’s okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are our teachers. They help us to learn.” – John Bradshaw

46. “The greatest mistake a man can ever make is to be afraid of making one.” – Elbert Hubbard

47. “You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don’t, it hurts even more.” – Aretha Franklin

48. “So what if you make mistakes? That’s what it means to be human, and that’s how you learn to become better.” – Amy Pendergrass

49. “Mistakes are a sign of trying, and it is always better to try and fail than to fail to try.” – Robert Washington

50. “Never ever believe that each task must be done perfectly. We are humans, and we all are bound to make mistakes, whether a few or many, little or big or rarely or frequently.” – Lindsay J. Hallie

51. “We are all mistaken sometimes; sometimes we do wrong things, things that have bad consequences. But it does not mean we are evil, or that we cannot be trusted ever afterward.” – Alison Croggon

Mistake Quotes to Help You Do Better Next Time

52. “You can’t make the same mistake twice. The second time you make it, it’s no longer a mistake. It’s a choice.” – Anonymous

53. “Making mistakes is not a serious issue. However, making it again raises questions.” – Ehsan Sehgal

54. “If you make a mistake, be big enough to admit to the mistake. People will think much better if you make an admission after a mistake.” – Keith Boyer

55. “The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything. Do not be afraid to make mistakes provided you do not make the same one twice.” – Theodore Roosevelt

56. “When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: admit it, learn from it, and don’t repeat it.” – Paul Bear Bryant

57. “Yet one thing that I have learned over time is that when you make a mistake, recognize it, admit to it and figure out why the mistake was made. Then do everything in your power to avoid making the same mistake again.” – Dr. Marshall Hennington

More Quotes About Mistakes

58. “Smart people learn from their mistakes. But the real sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others.” – Brandon Mull

59. “Some mistakes just have greater consequences than others. But you don’t have to let the result of one mistake be the thing that defines you.” – Jojo Moyes

60. “Don’t mention a person’s past mistakes when they are trying to change. That’s like throwing rocks at them while they are struggling to climb a mountain.” – Anonymous

Did This List Show You the Things You Can Learn From Your Mistakes?

Making mistakes is an essential and fundamental part of our growth and success. In a perfect world, we’d all make the right choices every time. But, that’s just not how life works; mistakes, for the most part, are unavoidable.

Many people are afraid of making mistakes and the consequences that come with them. That’s why they avoid making errors at any cost. However, this is not the right and best approach to life.

Life will be stagnant if there are no ups and downs, and we must realize that making mistakes is necessary for our personal development. Often, our missteps are opportunities to evolve into the best version of ourselves. By learning from them, we can avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future.

Don’t have the mindset that you should be 100% perfect all the time. After all, you will remain stagnant that way. Just like what we’ve gathered from the list above, it’s okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.