wise men learn by other men's harms, fools by their own
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Intelligent people learn from others' mistakes, while foolish people learn from their own
Người thông minh học từ sai lầm của người khác, trong khi người ngu học từ sai lầm của mình
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Examples
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “wise men learn by other men's harms, fools by their own” mean?
Intelligent people learn from others' mistakes, while foolish people learn from their own
Is “wise men learn by other men's harms, fools by their own” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.