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It is one thing to make a mistake, and quite another thing not to admit it. People will forgive mistakes, because mistakes are usually of the mind, mistakes of judgment. But people will not easily forgive the mistakes of the heart, the ill intention, the bad motives, the prideful justifying cover-up of the first mistake.
Stephen Covey
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Admitting mistakes shows integrity, whereas hiding them reveals deeper issues.

This quote highlights the importance of acknowledging our mistakes, distinguishing between innocent errors and those stemming from poor intentions. It suggests that while people are generally forgiving of unintentional errors, they struggle to overlook those mistakes that arise from dishonesty or ill motives, emphasizing the necessity for honesty and humility in our interactions.

Themes

MistakesHonestyAdmissionForgivenessIntentions

In practice

Example use cases

A leader addressing a team about a failed project and taking responsibility.

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