Talk:List of famous misquotations

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In re: 208.187.51.xx's comment that 'Actually, "Play it again, Sam" is from a movie by Woody Allen, 1972. But if you want to claim that the movie is neither a parody nor satire.... :-),' what I'm saying is that the misquote was common well before Woody Allen's film, and that it is a corruption of the actual quote, regardless of Woody Allen's movie. And yes, Allen's movie is clearly a parody. That is, however, beside the point. Koyaanis Qatsi, Monday, April 1, 2002

Thanks for correcting the C/M typo.  :-) Koyaanis Qatsi

If the attributed quote is actually rather close to what the person said, I'd like to see that on this page. I don't mind if it goes on the person's page as well, but for quick reference it should be here as well.

For example, the Casablanca quote is: "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By'" and "If you can play it for her, you can play it for me." Or words to the effect. The exact phrase play it again does not appear, of course. Ed Poor

I've just realized that we have some duplication; there is a similar list of misquotations on Wikiquote. Also, I'm thinking that some of these verge dangerously close to nitpicking; the Mae West "Come up and see me sometime" versus "Come up sometime and see me", Richard Nixon "I am not a crook" versus "I'm not a crook", etc. To me, it seems more important to list the misquotes that differ significantly in meaning or context from the actual quote. -- Wapcaplet 00:39, 28 Apr 2004 (UTC)

The "Money is the root of all evil" quotes from the Bibles are both the same. What are they supposed to be? Spottedowl 01:03, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

My bad. Copy/paste mistake. Fixed now. -- Wapcaplet 03:11, 9 May 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] The death of one man is a tragedy

We need to fix this that I've just pulled from the main page:

  • "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." -- Joseph Stalin [M]
    • This probably has its basis in the computer game Red Alert

This does not come from Red Alert - I heard this whilst at School - before Red Alert even existed. I've taken this off the article page because it looks a bit stupid us attributing a very famous quote to Red Alert - in fact a search on Google for ["The death of one man is a tragedy" "red alert"] yields only the wikipedia pages! Do we have any evidence that this is a mis-quotation - if so why did it come into existance?Tompagenet 11:04, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)

  • Hi, I'm the person who inserted that particular entry into the page. I only ever heard the quote from RED ALERT and was immediately suspicious of its veracity when it was claimed to be an actual quote (see the Stalin page). Notice that I used the word "probably" - I'm not absolutely certain that Red Alert made the quote up. After searching the internet I could not find any absolute evidence that Stalin actually used that phrase so I honestly believe that it is a "non-quotation". As far as hearing it during your school days... Red Alert was released around 1996-97 so were you in school then? The fact that you may have heard the quote as being attributed to Stalin at school does not necessarily mean that Stalin actually said it. Let's work together on this one. One Salient Oversight 23:23, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)
    • One more thing. Perhaps one of the natural guidelines for this article is whether or not to include a quote that has yet to formally attributed to the individual. In other words, if there is no evidence to prove that Stalin (or whoever) ever said this phrase should the phrase be included on the list? Alternatively should only quotes that have been proven to be erroneous be included? This is an interesting one. What do you think? One Salient Oversight 23:37, 5 Sep 2004 (UTC)

A couple things: I'm certain I've heard that quote, or variants of it, long before Red Alert came around. If it is a misquotation, it is not because of the computer game. Also, if the quotation's mere presence in a computer game is your basis for believing it to be a misquotation, then I don't think that's enough to go on. The Joseph Stalin article, prior to your additions, stated fairly simply that the quote was in response to Churchill at the Potsdam conference. I would like a more solid source for this, but unless you have a good reason to believe it's a misquote, I think we should leave it out (and put the Stalin article back the way it was). -- Wapcaplet 17:04, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Agree with Wapcaplet. The reason I removed it from the main page is because when I was in my third year of school (which was 1995/96 for those who are interested) I remember hearing the quotation, attributed to Stalin, in a history lesson. I took the quote off the main page because I'd never heard of it being false, and although this is obviously not a good reason for me to take stuff off Wikipedia, the fact that someone thought it came from Red Alert (1996) is. I *know* that this is false, so I got rid of this. I thought it best to bring it to the discussion page so someone who could vouch for the veracity (or lack there-of) of the quote could do so and we could settle the matter. A search for ["The death of one man is a tragedy" misquote] on google yields two hits - one this page, and another which doesn't say that the quoute is incorrectly atributed. I can't find any evidence to say these are not Stalin's words.Tompagenet 17:54, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Ah... BUT... I can't find any evidence either that they ARE Stalin's words. This is the quandry that I was mentioning above. If it can't be proved that they are Stalin's words then there should at least be a qualification in the Stalin article and perhaps they should also be recorded here as well.
I think there is a very good reason why the quote isn't from Stalin - it is far too obvious in its callousness. The quote shows Stalin making a joke about his own purges. I'm not sure that he found his purges amusing - he was an evil madman to be sure but he made those purges because he was genuinely afraid. Moreover he wouldn't have made such a statement public.
And, of course, WAS Red Alert released while you were at school Tompagenet? Command & Conquer was released in 1995 but the Wikipedia page on Red Alert does not give a date. If it was released in 1995 as well then perhaps the quote you heard MAY have come from the computer game. Hey - I'm a school teacher myself and I know that my fellow teachers can sometimes teach furphies (unintentional lies)! One Salient Oversight 23:01, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

The quote is all over the internet; searches for it turn up thousands of results. The computer game was not that influential. I can't place dates, but I'm sure I heard some variant on that quote well before 1995. Of course, I would be skeptical about any quotation, no matter how prevalent, simply because misquotation is so rampant. Unless someone can pin down an accurate source for the quote (such as a transcript of the Potsdam conference in which Stalin is supposed to have said it), I don't think it should be mentioned at all (here or in the Stalin article); by the same token, unless there is reliable evidence that he did not say it (namely, a reliable reference on what he actually said, or conversely, who, if not Stalin, did say it), I don't think it should be listed as a misquote or non-quote either. -- Wapcaplet 00:00, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I'm beginning to believe you're right - that Red Alert was not the source. However I think it would still be good to keep some form of quote in both the Stalin and non-Quote articles, just so that people won't add them in the future. How about This quote has popularly been attributed to Stalin, but there is no firm evidence as to where and when, and may be, in fact, a famous non-quotation. One Salient Oversight 01:59, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Red Alert was definitely not the source. I do agree very much with OSO that it shouldn't just be removed from the article - I think proving that JS did say it will be pretty hard - it is alleged to have been a remark made to Churchill - I doubt such things were recorded in any form of official minutes. However, if there is not sufficent evidence for people to be satisfied then a caveat like the one OSO proposes would seem the best bet. On a historical note I wonder what Stalin was referring to in his quote (supposing he did say it). Perhaps he was talking about the losses the Russians suffered in WWII, and comenting rather biterly that a single man dying is tragic, but when we talk of the millions of russians who died in the war, they can only be thought of as a statistic as there are too many to comprehend. Just a thought - that would fit in with the whole Potsdam venue - the conference was called after the victory in WWII of the allies and each had paid a terrible price. Remember that Russia, or the USSR as it was at the time, lost more people than any other country, or any other group. In total, our own article World War II casualties lists the USSR as having 25.5 million casulties - to be honest, I can't even begin to understand a number like that and it goes back to being a statistic - a number on a web page.Tompagenet 13:27, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I've changed both this article and the Stalin article to reflect our discussion here. One Salient Oversight 23:12, 7 Sep 2004 (UTC)
And now User:Everyking has reverted that change on the Stalin page! I have directed him to view these articles first. I hope it is just a small misunderstanding. One Salient Oversight 06:00, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)

For what it is worth, Encarta cites Stalin and I first encountered the quote at school in the early 1980s. I doubt that will convince Marilyn Manson and Red Alert fans, but there you go. Alec Muffett

Hi. The only authenticated version I've heard of this quote comes from Milovan Đilas, from his book "Conversations with Stalin.":

"The death of one soviet soldier is a tragedy. The death of one million is a statistic."


Those of you who thought it came from red alert? You all should be ashamed of yourselves! Read more obscure books! Play fewer alternative history computer games! I'd suggest changing the page here to reflect this actual quote. -Damien


Ok, aside from the fact that Red Alert is not th eonly computer game that i've seen that wuote in (also in Call of Duty), whatever made you think that a COMPUTER GAME would quote an actual person of saying something that they did not? Actually, it IS a real quote. Those of you who thought Red Alert invented it should probably think about what you said, place your hand on the side of your face, and slap yourself. The quote is also on several quotation websites, which DO NOT take quotes from computer games

This may be my imagination, by I sort of recall this quote in the context of some great russian poet, writer or something who was a friend of Stalin and who died during the period of the 5-year plans and the millions dieing under the Soviet regime in the 1930s, and that a state funeral was held on his behalf which may be the context of this quote

[edit] John Maynard Keynes

Keynes, the famous economist whose views are the basis for that Paul Samuelson textbook most college graduates seem to have in the attic, is often alleged to have said "the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."

Did he really say that? Anyone know a primary source for it? I haven't been able to find one. Generally its quoted to caution against the delusion, "I have a rational system that's bound to make me money soon if I keep trading on it." Its good to caution against such notions, of course, but the citation is always considered so notorious that no specific source for the statement has to be given. Always a suspicious situation. Any of wikipedia's editors in the know on this?

[edit] Caesar quote

Regarding "Et tu, Brute?" - Past revisions have stated that there is no evidence that Caesar said anything at all when he was killed, but a recent contributor added that "some historians" believe he said "You too, son?" We should probably state who these "some historians" are, and remove the "no evidence" remark if there actually is evidence. -- Wapcaplet 20:51, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Inventing the Internet

I don't see what was wrong with the prior version of the explanation for the Al Gore misquote. The revision(s) have quotation marks; if this is an actual quotation, please reference it. Meanwhile, I'm reverting to the prior (more correct) version. -- Wapcaplet 02:54, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

This isn't a misquote or a corruption; he actually said "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet" (which the version I've seen on every list of forwarded quotes). See the transcript at the CNN web site.

[edit] Page move

Moving Famous non-quotation to List of famous misquotations for the following reasons:

  • The article is a list
  • "non-quotation" is a neologism that does not seem to appear outside Wikipedia and its derivatives.

--Tabor 17:40, 15 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Richard III

I don't think "Now is the winter of our Discontent" deserves to be on there, seeing as that may only be half of the line, but he still says it.

It'd be like saying just "Angels and minsters of grace" would be a misquote of Hamlet's speech when he see's the ghost of his father.

Agreed. I'm dropping it.

[edit] mis-attributions

it would nice to know, whenever possible how, when, where, why, and by whom famous misquotes were generated. the "let them eat cake" (or more correctly "brioche") of marie-antoinette, for example, is a long-standing and much repeated error, but no information as to how the mistake arose seems to be available

[edit] Forrest Gump

If screenplays that differ from their source novels are misquotations, I'll eat my cake!

Agreed. I'm removing it. Powers 17:22, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ricky Ricardo

  • I have a feeling that Ricky Ricardo, on I Love Lucy, never said the exact phrase "Lucy, you've got some 'splainin' to do." Can anyone confirm this? --CrazyLegsKC 19:38, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
    • It's very difficult to confirm that someone never said something. =) Powers T 00:31, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Missintterpretations

"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)." Had been here but I guess someone took it out 'cause its a missinterpretation and not a missquotaton, thus I propose for someone to make a list of famous missinterpretations (Kangaroo for example)... 14/10/2006 —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 200.121.144.52 (talk • contribs) .

[edit] One small step

This edit added Armstrong's "One small step" line as a misquotation, but it was my impression that general consensus is that he did indeed forget the "a" when he spoke the line. He's practically admitted as much in recent years, and it explains the signficant pause between the two clauses. I don't think this is a misquotation. Powers T 23:33, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is this article right for Wikipedia?

I got here after List of misconceptions was put on AfD, and I thought to myself, why is a list of misquotations on Wikipedia, especially when Wikiquote has an article on the exact same subject? I'm not quite ready to propose this for being transwikied, but I'd like to get some feedback on the idea. Mister.Manticore 13:59, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

If this article should be here, I at least think that these quotes should have the correct quote listed with them, otherwise it's just confusing. Dallas 10:02, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Drink the Kool-Aid

I just revised the the Drink the Kool-Aid article because of the mistake that Kraft Foods-made Kool-Aid brand was used during the Jonestown massacre. In fact, it was Flavor Aid used. I think this deserves to be included somewhere in famous misquotations, even though it's difficult to pinpoint the first person to ever use it. Suggestions? studio60onthesunsetstrip

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