Top 100 By Mistake Quotes
#1. Daddy, I don't like military parades. I never want to be like those people who march rank and file to music - they were given brains by mistake.
Corinne Maier
#2. Mind your own Brazilian! The words fly out of my mouth before I can stop them. Oops.
OK. The trick when you've said something embarrassing by mistake is to pretend nothing happened.
Sophie Kinsella
#3. Any manual labor I've done was purely by mistake.
Jimmy Buffett
#4. Hi,' he said. He always said it like he was terrifically bored or terrifically tired. He didn't want you to think he was visiting you or anything. He wanted you to think he'd come in by mistake, for God's sake.
J.D. Salinger
#5. I got turned on to rock music almost by mistake when I was seven years old.
Jello Biafra
#6. All that five thousand kids lived in those five thousand houses, owned by guys that got off the train. The houses looked so much alike that, time and time again, the kids went home by mistake to different houses and different families. Nobody ever noticed.
Ken Kesey
#7. Do I really want to spend my whole life trying not to die by mistake?
Amanda Seyfried
#8. [the doctor] clicked by mistake on the notes of a patient she'd got to know well - too well. The unfortunate Mrs. Swayne had become unhealthily doctor-dependent. But had she grasped the nettle? Had she actually finally and against all predictions left the country?
Jane Wilson-Howarth
#10. I went camping and borrowed a circus tent by mistake. I didn't notice until I got it set up. People complained because they couldn't see the lake.
Steven Wright
#11. Justice is justice though it's always delayed and finally done only by mistake.
George Bernard Shaw
#12. Male fruit flies also become a bit randy, although they are less likely to mate successfully - perhaps because, in their alcohol-induced haze, they frequently court other males by mistake, instead of females.
Jennifer Ouellette
#13. In the Bob Hope Golf Classic, the participation of President Gerald Ford was more than enough to remind you that the nuclear button was at one stage at the disposal of a man who might have either pressed it by mistake or else pressed it deliberately in order to obtain room service.
Clive James
#14. AS A chemist, Vogel knew how to make a bomb. In fact, much of his training was to avoid making them by mistake.
Andy Weir
#15. The pity is not that there is a myth of Sylvia Plath but that the myth is not simply that of an enormously gifted poet whose death came carelessly, by mistake, and too soon.
Al Alvarez
#16. If someone can enjoy marching to music in rank and file, I can feel only contempt for him; he has received his large brain by mistake, a spinal cord would have been enough.
Albert Einstein
#17. When I am in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.
W. H. Auden
#18. But aren't many gardens beautiful because they are imperfect? ... aren't the strange, new flowers that arise by mistake or misadventure as pleasing as the well-tended and planned?
Libba Bray
#19. How do you tell an optimist that he or she has lived a happy life by mistake?
Robert Breault
#20. It is not that you do wrong by design, but that you should never do right by mistake.
Junius
#21. I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in 'We, the people.'
Barbara Jordan
#22. Bureaucracies excel at performing tasks that must be done consistently whether the people assigned to them are brilliant performers or bumbling fools. You can't always count on having Albert Einstein in the patent office, so you design its procedures to work even if you hire Mr. Bean by mistake.
Charles Stross
#23. I studied painting and sculpting at school and became an actress by mistake ... I've had many lovers and still have romances. I am very spoiled. All my life, I've had too many admirers.
Gina Lollobrigida
#24. I can accept no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake.
Scott Hildreth
#25. When asked to make the formal declaration that I did not intend to overthrow the Constitution of the United States, I was fool enough to reply that I had no such purpose, but that were I to do it by mistake I should be inexpressibly contrite.
Peter Medawar
#26. Her time on Twin Moons was really getting off to a great start. She hadn't even been awake for one whole morning and she'd already given a peep show to strangers and eaten a whole bowl full of horny fruit by mistake. What the hell was she going to do tonight?
Evangeline Anderson
#27. So if there is something on the planet that is worth living for, I'd better not miss it, because once you're dead, it's too late for regrets, and if you die by mistake, that is really, really dumb.
Muriel Barbery
#28. Better to kill an innocent by mistake than spare an enemy by mistake.
Pol Pot
#29. I had a very bad time with acid. I did that classic thing of looking in the mirror by mistake and seeing the devil. But I took it several times, because you always think that next time you might have the wonderful time that everyone else is having.
Robbie Coltrane
#30. In New York we have streets exploding and innocent Buddhist girls being stabbed in the neck and cabdrivers refusing to help her. If we happen into a nightclub by mistake, when we leave the doorman will be lying in the street surrounded by police.
Cynthia Heimel
#31. Everything that happened to me happened by mistake. I don't believe in fate. It's luck, timing and accident.
Merv Griffin
#32. I was much more interested in literature than I was in art. I just got into art by mistake.
Peggy Guggenheim
#33. When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes.
W. H. Auden
#35. So to answer your question, I'm not entirely sure how I ended up where I am today, in the sense that nobody in my family is an actor. It just happened by mistake.
Hugh Dancy
#36. The whole town looks as if it had been left out in the rain too long and by mistake.
Linda Ellerbee
#37. Most of my advances were by mistake. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn't.
R. Buckminster Fuller
#38. My car broke down. Instead of AAA, I called AA by mistake. They could only move my car twelve steps.
Jerry Snider
#39. If I'm wearing a sign that says Rescue Me, someone put it on me by mistake.
Kelsey Browning
#40. This year will take from me
the hardened person
who I longed to be.
I am healing by mistake.
Rome is also built on ruins.
Eliza Griswold
#41. And the old ones were burly people, as strong as bears or wolverines. One of Thorn's stories told how an old one had married a bear by mistake, and neither of them had noticed; their daughter told them about it years later, not at all pleased with them.
Kim Stanley Robinson
#42. When I was 11, I burned a field down by mistake. It was an empty field, probably about 10 acres in size. Me and my friend were lighting firecrackers, and we ended up burning down the entire field. We got found out, and I think I was grounded for about three months.
Christopher Masterson
#43. As Bush said, after detailing some of Saddam Hussein's charming practices: "If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning." It's not as if anyone is worried that we're making a horrible miscalculation and could be removing the Iraqi Abraham Lincoln by mistake.
Ann Coulter
#44. Songwriting's a weird game. I never intended to become one - I fell into this by mistake, and I can't get out of it. It fascinates me. I like to point out the rawer points of life.
Keith Richards
#45. Quite simply, people go to hell because they want to be there. No one goes to hell by "mistake". Those who reject God, want nothing to do with him and have reached the point where they would rather spend eternity without Him, will ultimately, but with God's sadness, get what they want.
Russell Wimberly
#46. I remember a story about an Irish warrior who killed his son by mistake but when he realised he didn't mind that much because it served the son right.
Max Porter
#47. He didn't look anything like the blokes on that gay porn channel Rory had clicked on by mistake when he'd been trying to find out how to make a daisy chain for Leo.
J.L. Merrow
#48. Nothing is more natural than mutual misunderstanding; the contrary is always surprising. I believe that one never agrees on anything except by mistake, and that all harmony among human beings is the happy fruit of an error.
Paul Valery
#49. There was no plot ... and I discovered it by mistake.
Umberto Eco
#50. I believe nothing happens by mistake. You know, the universe has a divine plan. That sounds dramatic.
Lana Del Rey
#51. I once went to a 'Star Trek' convention by mistake - I thought I was going to a 'Doctor Who' one.
Sylvester McCoy
#53. I believe we were created for a purpose. I believe each of us is here not by mistake, but by design. I believe each of us is here on this planet we call Earth on purpose and for a purpose. It is why I believe we are unstoppable
Thomas Narofsky
#54. Zooey said ... It would be very nice to come home and be in the wrong house. To eat dinner with the wrong people by mistake, sleep in the wrong bed by mistake, and kiss everybody good-bye in the morning thinking they were your own family.
J.D. Salinger
#55. Jess wouldn't argue that, but he saw her as a beautiful wild creature who had been caught for a moment in that dirty old cage of a schoolhouse, perhaps by mistake.
Katherine Paterson
#56. Walking through the city streets ... Is it by mistake or design?
Lana Del Rey
#57. Boxing's an art, it's a science, and you don't go out to knock people out. If they happen to get knocked out, they happen to run into one of these bricks by mistake [looks at his fists], that's their fault.
Roy Jones Jr.
#58. Oh good," said the Beast dryly. "Here I was afraid that I had kidnapped a sane person by mistake." "If you are going to kidnap travelers, you will simply have to take what you can get," snapped Bryony.
T. Kingfisher
#59. Nothing happens by mistake the universe has a divine plan ... Stay attuned to it.
Ziad K. Abdelnour
#60. Tragic to kill a friend in battle by mistake when there are so many enemies to go around.
Raymond E. Feist
#61. If our extinction proceeds slowly enough to allow a moment of horrified realization, the doers of the deed will likely be quite taken aback on realizing that they have actually destroyed the world. Therefore I suggest that if the Earth is destroyed, it will probably be by mistake.
Eliezer Yudkowsky
#62. Wooster: Wait a second; this white mess jacket is brand new.
Jeeves: I assumed it had got into your wardrobe by mistake, sir, or else it had been placed there by your enemies.
P.G. Wodehouse
#63. The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.
Umberto Eco
#64. With him, I didn't have to be afraid, not of what I could do intentionally or by mistake. I din't have to throw up every defence I possessed to keep my brain's wandering hands still, because Clancy was more than capable of keeping me out of his head.
Alexandra Bracken
#65. No brain at all, some of them [people], only grey fluff that's blown into their heads by mistake, and they don't Think.
A.A. Milne
#66. I've considered buying a gun. The idea keeps coming to mind even though I know guns are useless for my problem. Some intrinsic American reflex, I guess. I'd probably just shoot the pizza guy by mistake. I still have my katana, but unfortunately I can't take it grocery shopping.
Kera Emory
#67. I'm interested in other animals too though. There's the slug in "Mollusks", and I wrote a story about bees and one about a cat which got thrown out a window by mistake, but those never made it into the collection.
Arthur Bradford
#68. Take all that is given whether wealth, love or language, nothing comes by mistake and with good digestion all can be turned to health.
George Herbert
#69. You cannot really get married by mistake. You can only marry the wrong person.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
#70. I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
Judith Viorst
#71. He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
Albert Einstein
#72. O Josephine, face more than irregular, you would be charming were you not all askew. You have the air of a pretty face upon which some one has sat down by mistake.
Victor Hugo
#73. I think it was in Moscow last year and I got changed for training the day before we played Moscow, but the fact is they actually wanted to do John's, me and John were next to each other and they did mine by mistake. John had done them I think. So yeah it is true.
Frank Lampard
#74. Acting for screen is very different from acting on stage, and then obviously when you dance ... everything is a physical embodiment. But the discipline is the same approach. You have to take both things seriously; nothing well-crafted is by mistake.
Amanda Schull
#75. So I became a publisher by mistake - well, not quite by mistake, because I wanted to be an editor but I had to make sure the magazine would survive. The point is this: Most businesses fail, so if you're going to succeed, it has to be about more than making money.
Richard Branson
#76. Beauty by mistake'
the final phase in the history of beauty.
Milan Kundera
#77. It often seems, looking back, that the unexpected comes to define us, the paths we didn't see coming and may have wandered down by mistake. The older we get the more willing we are to follow those, to surprise ourselves.
Anna Quindlen
#78. Have you ever been in a pub where everyone goes armed? Oh, things are a little polite at first, I'll grant you, and then some twerp drinks out of the wrong mug or picks up someone else's change by mistake and five minutes later you're picking noses out of the beer nuts
Terry Pratchett
#79. I don't think God said we should all be soft. My job is to compete, and the best prevails. I will continue to play, and that's the way I'm succeeding in my life. If I hit you by mistake, all I can say is 'I'm sorry,' and I keep moving on.
Dikembe Mutombo
#80. That a man can take pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me despise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he needed.
Albert Einstein
#81. When a person can take pleasure in marching in step to a piece of music it is enough to make me despise him. He has been given his big brain only by mistake.
Walter Isaacson
#82. Roan tried not to stare, but the guard's head was almost perfectly egg shaped. He wanted to ask him if he'd ever had a hen sit on him by mistake.
Andrea Speed
#83. So fashion was, in a way, an accident. But this world opens you up to a lot of different avenues that interested me. I loved the idea of working in different countries. And I loved the idea of construction and working with imagery. But, yes, I fell into fashion a bit by mistake.
Christopher Bailey
#84. Is this the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kendall?" he asked, wondering whether he had arrived by mistake at a brothel that was throwing some sort of a party. "Oh
Marion Chesney
#85. Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the Forest that was left out by mistake.
A.A. Milne
#86. We are going to tickle some Aes Sedai under the chin, rescue a mule, and put a snip-nosed girl on the Lion Throne. Oh, yes. That's Aviendha. Don't look at her crosswise, or she'll try to cut your throat and probably slit her own by mistake.
Robert Jordan
#87. If heaven were by merit, it would never be heaven to me, for if I were in it I should say, "I am sure I am here by mistake; I am sure this is not my place; I have no claim to it." But if it be of grace and not of works, then we may walk into heaven with boldness.
Charles Spurgeon
#88. Be guided by the love of enjoyment, rather than the fear of making a mistake, when things are perfect, in a way, nothing has been learned.
Josephine Araldo
#89. The Providence that watches over the affairs of men works out of their mistakes, at times, a healthier issue than could have been accomplished by their wisest forethought.
James Anthony Froude
#90. Great men have been characterized by the greatness of their mistakes as well as by the greatness of their achievements.
Abraham Myerson
#91. People say to me all the time that I threw some money into some guy's coffee cup [by accident, thinking they were poor]. People do make the same sort of mistake. I've made attempts to volunteer that have been calamitous!
Nicole Holofcener
#92. The past can be a rudder that guides you or an anchor tha hinders you. Leave your mistakes with God and look to the future by faith.
Warren W. Wiersbe
#93. My philosophy is that all stocks are bad. There are no good stocks unless they go up in price. If they go down instead, you have to cut your losses fast Letting losses run is the most serious mistake made by most investors.
William O'Neil
#94. It is in quiet that our best ideas occur to us. Don't make the mistake of believing that by a frantic kind of dashing around you are being your most effective and efficient self. Don't assume that you are wasting time when you take time out for thought.
Napoleon Hill
#95. He makes a great mistake ... who supposes that authority is firmer or better established when it is founded by force than that which is welded by affection.
Terence
#96. I am deeply worried because we are seeing an unleashing of violence by 2,000 to 3,000 thugs who come to smash and loot. My objective is to avoid mistakes by the police, so that people can protest in safety.
Nicolas Sarkozy
#97. You come to God not by being strong, but by being weak; not by being right, but through your mistakes.
Richard Rohr
#98. Your biggest problem in ministry and in life isn't that you'll make a mistake, but that you'll be consumed by the fear of making a mistake.
Karl Vaters
#99. It is a mistake, that a lust for power is the mark of a great mind; for even the weakest have been captivated by it; and for minds of the highest order, it has no charms.
Charles Caleb Colton
#100. Anonymity is an abused privilege, abused most by people who mistake vitriol for wisdom and cynicism for wit.
Danny Wallace
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