Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
An old mistake harms a new truth more than anything else.
In plain terms
Old errors damage new truths.
What can you take from it?
Past misconceptions can impede fresh insights.

Where it applies

  • scientific research
  • debate

Putting it to work

  • challenge entrenched misconceptions

Questions to consider

  • How do we identify harmful old errors?
  • What strategies protect new ideas from bias?

Another view

Not all old errors are equally damaging; some are harmless.

More from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  1. Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art.

    Permalink to quote #86
  2. Doubt grows with knowledge.

    Permalink to quote #88
  3. Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.

    Permalink to quote #85

Related quotes

  1. Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense.

    Henry, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke St JohnHenry, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke St John quote #1
  2. What can we know, or what can we discern, When error chokes the windows of the mind, The diverse forms of things, how can we learn, That have been ever from ou…

    John DaviesJohn Davies quote #4
  3. It is better to don't understand something true, than to understand something false.

    Niels BohrNiels Bohr quote #19