What is the English word for people who embrace their mistakes and flaws? It is to be used as a name for a team/group. I have thought of the word 'flawed' but it's kind of too literal. I'm looking for something that says the beauty of flaws in a more sophisticated way and with deeper meaning than just the word 'flawed'. It doesn't necessarily have to be a single word; a short phrase would suffice as well.
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Do you mean "ne plus ultra"?– MistiJan 21, 2015 at 20:37
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What kind of mistake do you want it to express? Physical or moral flaws?– AverageGatsbyJan 21, 2015 at 21:24
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@AverageGatsby kinda like mistakes one makes in life. Such as mistakes and flaws are part of life. I need a name for a group who view themselves as flawed but perfect in their own way.– VikkiJan 21, 2015 at 21:31
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1How about "realist"?– Hot LicksJan 22, 2015 at 8:36
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5 Answers
The phrase warts and all springs to mind. This was supposedly used by Cromwell to his portrait-painter to discourage a flattering representation.
It has come to be applied to something that should be accepted in its entirety, good points as well as bad.
answered Jan 21, 2015 at 20:54
Taking another cue from Nietzsche, "The All Too Humans" or just, "The 2/Too Humans".
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This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post.– Jimi OkeJan 22, 2015 at 22:30
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1OP requests a word or phrase--to be used as a name for a team/group--for people who embrace their mistakes and flaws and is not "too literal" My answer is an attempt to succinctly encapsulate the embrace of one's humanity with all its inherent propensity to err. But, then again, I could be wrong. :-)– user98990Jan 22, 2015 at 22:48
The term self-acceptance covers your initial request:
Self-acceptance is acceptance of self in spite of deficiencies.
However, making a meal of one's imperfections sounds like a perversion.
answered Jan 21, 2015 at 21:11
I can't find much which would sum up the love for the imperfect in a very sophisticated or "catchy"* way
*(I guess this is also something you aim for as it is supposed to be a name)
the only cryptic one I could come up with which metaphorically conveys a deeper meaning and beauty in itself is maybe this one:
Maybe Just maybe a mosaic(stones/shards) could please you. A full mosaic has it's cracks but is still something beautiful. The shard of a mosaic may not seem so impressive at first but maybe one has just seen it at the wrong place / wrong time.
Otherwise, here are 3 different approaches:
first off; the standart: Errare humanum est (to err is human)
Maybe one could also say "I err thus i am" as a mix of the first and "Cogito ergo sum"(I think thus I am) in latin though my latin skills are used up by the standart quotes. I could only guess (but never vouch for) this: "ego erro, ergo sum". But the message conveyed could miss the idea? Additionally the two quotes are only vaguely linked in this statement. If it shall be latin i would stay with "errare humanum est"Peccadillo: "a small unimportant thing that somebody does wrong" (OLD) I know it as a forgivable sin or fault.
a single word which describes the value of things that are different through it's own peculiarity. Also peculiarity/the peculiar is a possibility as welll.delicate frailty
(maybe a bit cheesy) it is a somewhat redundant expression since delicate and frail may mean the same thing: easily broken. At the same time delicate can describe something as "Pleasing to the senses, especially in a subtle way" and "exquisitly fine" (TFD). Frailty, on the other hand, can also mean morally weak.
I may come up with more, maybe you are pleased with one of these, think about the different approaches and tell me which one is closest to what you were thinking (even if it does not quite fit the taste). I'm going to bed now. Good night :)
It's not an English phrase, but one I'm partial to is amor fati, which is Latin for love of one's fate. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche explored it in his work Why I Am So Clever in Ecce Homo. As translated by R. J. Hollingdale:
[...] My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati; that one wants nothing other than it is [emphasis added], not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity. Not merely to endure that which happens of necessity, still less to dissemble it ... but to love it...
Wikipedia says:
[Amor fati] is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or at the very least, necessary—in that they are a part of the facts of one's life and existence, so they are always 'necessarily there' whether one likes it or not. Moreover, it is characterized by an acceptance of the events or situations that occur in one's life [emphasis added].
Although fate itself may include flaws and strengths, mistakes and achievements, Nietzsche emphasized in particular the acceptance of the negative, as this passage Wikipedia cites from The Gay Science shows:
I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse....
The person may still desire to change or atone for their mistakes, but they are content with these failures in a way that goes beyond mere resignation, as Wikipedia continues:
This acceptance doesn't necessarily preclude an attempt at change or improvement, but rather, this acceptance can be seen to be along the lines of what Nietzsche means by the concept of "eternal recurrence"—a sense of contentment with one's life and an acceptance of it, such that one could live exactly the same life, in all its minute details, over and over for all eternity [emphases added].