Quote of the Day: Orlando A. Battista on Life & Wisdom

We’re taught that being wrong is the real failure, that a misstep stains your record and your reputation. But what if the bigger danger isn’t the error at all, but the stubborn performance of certainty after the facts have changed? That’s the pressure point in Orlando A. Battista’s bracing line: “An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.”

An error is information. It’s the moment reality taps you on the shoulder and says, “Check your work.” In life, as in any serious craft, errors arrive as part of the tuition: the misread email, the rushed assumption, the tone that lands wrong. The only question is what we do next, whether we treat that tap as an invitation to revise, or as an insult to our ego.

Refusal is where the damage begins. When pride insists we double down, when fear tells us an apology will shrink us, when complacency whispers that it’s easier to let it slide, then an error hardens into a mistake with a longer shadow. Correction isn’t just technical; it’s moral. It rebuilds trust, sharpens judgment, and turns a moment of discomfort into a durable upgrade in resilience.

A renowned author and chemist, Orlando A. Battista understood that progress is rarely a clean straight line. His philosophical writing carries the laboratory’s ethos: test, observe, adjust, then move forward with clearer eyes.

On this late-September Friday, apply the quote like a practical instrument: name one thing you got wrong this week, and correct it while it’s still small, an email, a conversation, a decision. The habit isn’t self-flagellation; it’s courage with a calendar reminder.