The Only Real Mistake Is The

Wikiquote editors researching this attribution found no evidence that Ford said or wrote it during his lifetime; the earliest documented attribution to Ford appears in the Franternal Monitor in 1962, fifteen years after his death. The sentiment closely parallels Ford's first principle in My Life and Work (1922) — "Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again" — which may have led later writers to attach this pithy paraphrase to his name. Quote Investigator has traced the exact wording to a 1961 publication with no connection to Ford.