Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing

Written by George Bernard Shaw 1856–1950 · Irish playwright, critic & Nobel laureate
Verified Free to reuse

Shaw wrote this in the “Preface on Doctors” to his play The Doctor’s Dilemma, published by Brentano’s in 1911. It is confirmed verbatim in the full text of the preface ↗ — though Shaw’s original reads “a life spent in making mistakes.”

Last verified 7 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing” George Bernard Shaw, "Preface on Doctors," The Doctor's Dilemma (Brentano's, 1911)

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of George Bernard Shaw — Irish playwright, critic & Nobel laureate. Theme: "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work
The Doctor’s Dilemma (“Preface on Doctors”)
Author
George Bernard Shaw
Published
Brentano’s, New York, 1911 (pp. lxxxv–lxxxvi)
Play first staged
London, 1906

Attention and activity lead to mistakes as well as to successes; but a life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. The one lesson that comes out of all our theorizing and experimenting is that there is only one really scientific progressive method; and that is the method of trial and error. ↑ the popular version drops the “in” and adds a comma

The sentence sits in Shaw’s argument that even a democracy’s clumsy meddling beats passive neglect — his case for trial and error as the only genuinely progressive method.

Audio reading (Internet Archive)
Listen to the complete preface (audio) at the Internet Archive
Quote Investigator: full chronology and 1911 citation

How we verified this

  • Confirmed verbatim in the Project Gutenberg text of the preface ↗: “a life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
  • Quote Investigator ↗ traces it to the “Preface on Doctors,” Brentano’s 1911 edition, pp. lxxxv–lxxxvi.
  • The play The Doctor’s Dilemma premiered in London in 1906; the essay-length preface appeared with the 1911 Brentano’s edition (per Quote Investigator). The full play and preface are on Wikisource ↗.
Public domain

The text was first published in 1911 and is in the public domain in the United States. Shaw died in 1950, so the work may remain under copyright in ‘life + 70’ jurisdictions until the end of 2020 — it is now public domain there as well.

Fact-check

Correctly credited — but usually misquoted

The attribution to Shaw is sound. What circulates online is a lightly altered wording, not a wrong author.

“A life spent making mistakes…” wording

Popular quote sites render it without Shaw’s word “in” and add a comma after “honorable.” Shaw’s original text ↗ reads “a life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”

Bottom line: the words are genuinely Shaw’s, from his 1911 Preface on Doctors ↗ — just quote them with the “in.”

Context

Why he wrote it

The sentence is not a standalone aphorism but a step in an argument. Shaw is defending public scrutiny of the medical profession, insisting that even a democracy’s clumsy interference is better than leaving doctors to police themselves.

“Attention and activity lead to mistakes as well as to successes,” he grants — but the alternative, doing nothing, is worse. From this he pivots to his real claim: that trial and error is “the only really scientific progressive method.”

There is only one really scientific progressive method; and that is the method of trial and error.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Failure Courage Growth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: origin & 1911 citationquoteinvestigator.com

Traces the line to Shaw's Preface on Doctors, citing Brentano's 1911 edition, pp. lxxxv–lxxxvi.
The Doctor's Dilemma: Preface on Doctors (full text)gutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg's complete preface — contains the sentence verbatim.
Bernard Shaw's Doctor's Dilemma — complete preface (scan)archive.org

Internet Archive copy of the preface as prepared for publication.
The Doctor's Dilemmaen.wikisource.org

Wikisource edition of the play and preface, with publication history.
George Bernard Shawen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the author, including the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The author

About George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

1856–1950 · Irish playwright, critic & Nobel laureate

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic and polemicist whose plays — among them Pygmalion, Man and Superman and Saint Joan — made him the most significant British dramatist since Shakespeare. He was awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature. His plays typically carry long, argumentative prefaces; the one to The Doctor’s Dilemma is a broadside against the medical profession in which this sentence appears.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Shaw, Bernard. The Doctor’s Dilemma, with a Preface on Doctors. New York: Brentano’s, 1911, pp. lxxxv–lxxxvi.

MLA (9th ed.)

Shaw, Bernard. The Doctor’s Dilemma, with a Preface on Doctors. Brentano’s, 1911, pp. lxxxv–lxxxvi.

APA (7th ed.)

Shaw, B. (1911). The doctor’s dilemma, with a preface on doctors. Brentano’s.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-life-spent-making-mistakes-is-not-only-more-honorable-but

Copied