Errors are not in the art but in the artificers.

The aphorism distinguishes between a discipline (“the art”) and the people who practice it (“the artificers”). It suggests that when outcomes are flawed, the fault often lies not in the underlying method, craft, or body of knowledge, but in the practitioner’s execution—through misunderstanding, carelessness, or misuse. Attributed to Newton, it is frequently read as a defense of rigorous method: sound principles can still yield wrong results if applied incompetently. More broadly, it functions as a caution against blaming a field (science, mathematics, engineering, even religion or governance) for failures that stem from human error, bias, or inadequate skill.