to err is human
Making mistakes is part of being a person, so a mistake alone is not a scandal.
“Don't be so hard on yourself — to err is human.”
“The report accepted that to err is human and then asked why the same error had been made four times in eighteen months.”
“To err is human is a fair defence of the first mistake and no defence at all of the fourth, which is exactly what the Latin original said before English softened it into a general amnesty.”
Cicero put it plainly in the Philippics: it belongs to any man to make a mistake, but only a fool persists in one. The thought was already proverbial, and Latin compressed it into errare humanum est — to err is human — with a stinging second half often attached: perseverare autem diabolicum, to persist is diabolical.
That second half is the part that does the work. The saying was never an excuse for the error; it was a demand that you stop making it once you know.
Alexander Pope gave English its familiar version in 1711, swapping the ending for a kinder one: "To err is human, to forgive divine." Both couplets survive, and which half somebody quotes tells you a good deal about what they want from the conversation.
Horace, Virgil and Cicero, still quoted in the original.
- 01
carpe diem (idiom)
Seize the day — make use of today rather than counting on tomorrow.
Horace, Odes 1.11.
- 02
tempus fugit (idiom)
Time flies — said when far more of it has gone than you expected.
Virgil, Georgics.
- 03
memento mori (idiom)
A reminder that you are going to die, and that this should change how you spend the time.
The warning in the chariot.
- 04
in vino veritas (idiom)
People say what they actually think once they have had a drink.
Pliny the Elder.
- 05
festina lente (idiom)
Make haste slowly — move quickly, but never faster than you can do it properly.
Augustus' favourite motto.
- 06
homo homini lupus (idiom)
Man is a wolf to man — people are dangerous to each other.
Plautus, Asinaria.
Last updated August 3, 2026