7 thoughts on “None are so fallible”

  1. This aphorism makes perfect sense to me. The dictionaries define “fallible” as “liable to error” which I interpret to mean “likely to err”. Everyone may be fallible, but some are more fallible than others.

    When I was young and my mind had not yet broken, I was an honors math student and won prizes and scholarships in mathematics. But that was because my mind was quick and I was never sure of myself, so I tried to solve every problem several different ways before I committed to an answer. I never equated knowing math with being sure of an answer, only with being willing to check and recheck.

    In fields beyond math, I have found that those who check, recheck, and question tend to be less fallible than those who seize on the first plausible solution.

    The progress of science seems to be tied to skepticism, not certainty. 19th C. physicists were sure Newtonian mechanics were right. Einstein was not so sure. At least that is my bit of experience.

  2. Here’s the trouble with aphorisms: they often make no sense.

    1. The word “fallible” means being able to make an erroneous judgment. It doesn’t mean that one already has made an erroneous judgment. Everyone is fallible: the proof is that we all have made erroneous judgments.

    2. If Strunk meant by someone being “so fallible” that that person has judged erroneously, then Strunk misused the word. But let’s give him a pass and say that he meant to say, “None are so in error as those who are sure they’re right.”

    3. There surely are people (we all have been among them, at one time or another) who are “sure they’re right” but happen to be in error about a particular thing. But are people who “are sure they’re right” more likely to be wrong than those who don’t think themselves to be right?

    4. Let’s say your neighbor isn’t sure he has done a math problem correctly. You’re sure you have. Whose answer is more likely to be right? If you’re sure you’ve answered the problem correctly, it’s probably because you’re proficient at math and, yes, can answer math problems correctly. Your neighbor, if he’s unsure, probably isn’t good at math and often makes math mistakes.

    5. But Strunk’s seemingly-clever comment would lead people to think that those who know math and thus tend to be sure of their math answers are wrong (“fallible”) more often than those who aren’t sure whether they can answer math problems correctly.

    Aphorisms can be great fun but often are wrong.

    (That’s my aphorism.)

Comments are closed.