Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

Jones’s quip treats “experience” not as wisdom that prevents error, but as the belated awareness that arrives only after repetition. The humor lies in the inversion of a common expectation: we assume experience helps us avoid mistakes, yet in practice it often merely sharpens recognition while habits and circumstances still lead us to repeat them. The line also implies a modest, realistic view of learning—progress can be incremental and self-knowledge may outpace self-control. As an aphorism, it captures the gap between knowing better and doing better, making it a durable, widely quoted observation about human fallibility.

1) “Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”
2) “Experience is that wonderful thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”
3) “Experience is a marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”