Monday, 1 November 2010

It’s All Greek to Me: To Err is Human, to Forgive Divine

Not A Fanatic


The expression ‘to err is human, to forigve divine’ is one that most people are familiar with. What they may not be familiar about is its origins. Another famous expression is ‘nothing is said that has not been said before’, in this case, there is much truth to that.

There are plenty of people out there who would attribute the expresion ‘to err is human, to forgive divine’ to Alexander Pope. It is true that Alexander Pope did use the phrase in his ‘An Essay on Criticism’ in 1711 and it is the first English version of the phrase. The truth is though, the expression can be dated to almost 16 centuries before that.

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13 comments:

  1. AAmir iqbal22 November 2010 at 01:20

    In this article I found very different things which are Very characteristic. I have never seen before.Thank you very much for sharing. you are very creative.




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  2. DivX full length movies29 November 2010 at 09:41

    I didn't know that the phrase was so old, I thought it was from the 18th century or so. Nice to know.

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  3. mobile casino29 November 2010 at 10:48

    Alexander Pope was one of the most important people of the 18th. Too bad that people like him do not live in our time...

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  4. Pest Control2 December 2010 at 11:02

    I always hear that kind of phrase around. Thanks for this article.

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  5. solar power systems7 December 2010 at 00:18

    That phrase was like born for a very long time ago already and it is still inside our head. I think that is immortal.

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  6. Generalpatton13 December 2010 at 06:20

    I never knew this either , you learn somthing new everyday

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  7. mobile coffee vans14 December 2010 at 00:06

    I can remember this quotes being mentioned always in the class. I forgot the philosopher who said that.

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  8. Audition.Asia14 December 2010 at 01:36

    Nice posting

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  9. find name by phone number19 December 2010 at 05:37

    I have heard it numeorus times but don't know the meaning myself.

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  10. Data Centers20 December 2010 at 22:35

    Thanks for sharing your insight. I have the same feeling when I remember the olden time mantra.

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  11. calgary show homes21 December 2010 at 00:16

    General patron, that phrase was taught to me long long years ago by my teachers in high school. Where are you from? It seems you havent heard of it. =) Good thing you learned something new.

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  12. Data Centers12 January 2011 at 22:37

    Thanks for sharing this classical thought. This is really memorable.

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  13. trico homes13 January 2011 at 00:16

    That came from Greeks? Well they are really an advance civilization, philosophy came from them.

    ReplyDelete

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