To err is human; to forgive, infrequent.

Franklin P. Adams (1881–1960) was an American newspaper columnist and humorist, best known for his long-running New York column “The Conning Tower,” where he specialized in epigrams, light verse, and satirical twists on familiar sayings. “To err is human; to forgive, infrequent.” belongs to that tradition: a wry, modernized riff on Alexander Pope’s famous line “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Adams’s version reflects early-20th-century urban newspaper wit—skeptical about human generosity and quick to puncture moral platitudes by replacing lofty ideals with an observation about everyday behavior.

The quip works by deflating a well-known moral maxim. Where Pope elevates forgiveness as a near-divine virtue, Adams substitutes “infrequent,” implying that while mistakes are universal, forgiveness is comparatively rare in real social life. The humor is dry and slightly cynical: it suggests that people readily acknowledge human fallibility in the abstract but are reluctant to extend mercy when personally wronged. As an epigram, it also comments on the gap between ethical ideals and ordinary conduct, using the familiar cadence of the original to make the reversal feel both inevitable and biting.