“To make an error and not correct it—this is what it means to err” appears in the Wei Ling Gong chapter of the Analects. The chapter records only this saying by Confucius, without a specific conversational setting. The same word, guo, first names an error that has occurred and then an error that has been allowed to persist. The Tang-dynasty Analects Commentary and Subcommentary reads the line simply as an admonition to correct one’s faults; standard editions do not differ materially in punctuation.
The sentence does not excuse the first mistake. It shifts attention to what happens after the mistake becomes known. In judging whether a person or institution is dependable, counting failures is not enough: we should also ask whether they acknowledge the fault, correct it and reduce the chance of repetition. Correction does not erase consequences already caused, but it can stop an error from remaining a choice.
https://ctext.org/lunyu-zhushu/wei-ling-gong/ens
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