Ideas are invented only as correctives to the past. Through repeated rectifications of this kind one may hope to disengage an idea that is valid.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- New ideas are formed by correcting past mistakes until a valid concept emerges.
- In plain terms
- Good ideas come from fixing old mistakes over time.
- What can you take from it?
- Use past errors as a starting point to refine new ideas.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you learn from past mistakes?
- When did correcting an idea help?
Another view
Some ideas require fresh insight rather than just fixing the past.
More from Gaston Bachelard
To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry.
Permalink to quote #21 A special kind of beauty exists which is born in language, of language, and for language.
Permalink to quote #23 There is no original truth, only original error.
Permalink to quote #20
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