# to err is human

idiom · CEFR B2

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/to-err-is-human
Updated: 2026-08-03

## Meaning

Making mistakes is part of being a person, so a mistake alone is not a scandal.

## Examples

- 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.

## Origin

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.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.