Einmal ist keinmal

Einmal ist keinmal is a German phrase which translates roughly as "once is never" in English, essentially meaning that a single event is not statistically significant or that one can be forgiven the first time one makes a mistake (but, implicitly, not the second time). It is the title of an East German film, released in 1955.

The phrase was also significant in the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera. In this book, the adage encapsulates the "all-or-nothing" cognitive distortion that the protagonist (Tomas) must overcome in his hero's journey, namely "If we only have one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all," and specifically his initial fallacy, "Was it better to be with Teresa or to remain alone? There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison."

External links

• Einmal ist keinmal at the Internet Movie Database