List of famous misquotations

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A famous misquotation is a well-known phrase attributed to someone who, in fact, did not say it.

It may not be known how these phrases came about, but when possible their type of origin is noted in this way:

  • [P] Parody or satire of the original.
  • [C] A corruption or mistranslation of the original phrase, possibly accidental, which became better known than the original.
  • [M] A deliberate misquoting or made-up quote intended to discredit the alleged speaker.
  • [A] Attributed to a well-known person to improve the appearance of the phrase or the person.

Contents

[edit] Famous misquotations of actual persons

  • "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." ("Je désapprouve ce que vous dites, mais je défendrai à la mort votre droit à le dire") — Voltaire [A]
    • This line comes from the book Friends of Voltaire (1907) by Beatrice Hall. It resembles the actual quote "Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too" from Voltaire's Essay on Tolerance.
  • "Let them eat cake!" (" qu’ils mangent de la brioche.") — Marie Antoinette [M or A]
    • The original quote comes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions: "I recalled the make-shift of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread and who replied: ‘Let them eat brioche’. " ("Je me rappelai le pis-aller d’une grande princesse à qui l’on disait que les paysans n’avaient pas de pain, et qui répondit, qu’ils mangent de la brioche. "). He was referring to an incident in Grenoble, 1740, ten years before Marie Antoinette was born. It has been speculated that he was actually writing of Maria Theresa of Spain or one of various other aristocrats though no evidence has ever been offered for this. In the meantime, Marie Antoinette's attribution to the quote was current in her time in antiroyalist propaganda, most likely to hasten her way to the guillotine (An Underground Education, Richard Zacks, 1997).(Ask Yahoo, The Straight Dope)
  • "I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree." — George Washington [A]
    • Washington never said this statement, allegedly made when his father asked who had cut the tree.
  • "Judy, Judy, Judy!" — Cary Grant [P]
    • Grant never actually said that phrase in any of his movies. In Only Angels Have Wings, his character says "Oh, Judy," and "Come on, Judy," but that's as close as it gets.
  • "Houston, we have a problem." [C]
    • This is a misstatement of the actual communication between the Apollo 13 astronauts and Mission Control in Houston immediately after the explosion that aborted the intended mission. According to the transcript, (at 02 days, 07 hours, 55 minutes, 19 seconds), Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise starting a sentence "OK, Houston..." which was cut off by Commander Jim Lovell saying "I believe we've had a problem here.", followed fifteen seconds later by Lovell's "Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a main B bus undervolt."
  • "Football isn't a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that." — Bill Shankly [C]
    • The real quote was said by Liverpool F.C. manager Bill Shankly in 1981 on a Granada Television talk show called 'Live from Two' hosted by Shelley Rohde, and it was "Someone said 'football is more important than life and death to you' and I said 'Listen, it's more important than that'."
  • "Anything that can go wrong, will" (and variations on this theme) — Edward A. Murphy, Jr. [C]
    • Actual quote uncertain. Variously, "If that guy has any way of making a mistake, he will" and "If there's more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way". Murphy's law has been purposely misrepresented and sometimes simply misinterpreted to mean "something will always go wrong" or "nothing will ever work perfectly". This is actually a statement of Sod's Law. Murphy's Law is really a design principle: if something can be done in more than one way (such as inserting a two-socket plug the wrong way around), somebody will eventually do it. The solution is to design defensively - if the plug is asymmetrical, it simply can't be plugged in the wrong way around. There is evidence that Murphy himself didn't mean it this way when he said it, for more details, read the complete article.
  • "The only two certainties in life are death and taxes." — Mark Twain [C]
    • Although used by Twain, this quote originated in a 1789 letter from Benjamin Franklin to Jean-Baptiste Leroy. [1] Benjamin Disraeli is also sometimes incorrectly referenced as the origin of the quote, but Disraeli was not born until 1804.
  • "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." — Philip Sheridan [M]
    • Actual quote is said to be "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead," though Sheridan denied ever saying it.
  • "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." — Lord Acton [C]
    • Actual quote: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
  • "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." — Joseph Stalin [M]
    • This quote has popularly been attributed to Stalin, but, at this stage, there is no clear evidence as to whether it is genuine or not.
  • "Et tu, Brute?" — Julius Caesar [C]
    • Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar has Caesar saying these Latin words meaning "Even you, Brutus?"; a similar quote is mentioned by Suetonius, but in Greek ("καί σύ τέκνον?" meaning "Even you, my son?") rather than Latin. However there is no evidence that Julius Caesar actually uttered these words.
  • "We are the masters now." — Hartley Shawcross [C]
    • Actual quote: "We are the masters at the moment and shall be for some considerable time." In a 1945 debate to repeal the Conservatives' "Trade Disputes Act" of 1927 this followed a quotation from Through the Looking-Glass in which Humpty-Dumpty observed that the question of definitions of words depended upon who was master.
  • "Crisis? What Crisis?" — attributed to British Prime Minister James Callaghan [P]
    • "Crisis? What Crisis?" — was the headline in The Sun on January 11, 1979. Callaghan had been asked what his policy was in view of the 'mounting chaos' and replied "I promise you that if you look at it from outside, and perhaps you're taking rather a parochial view at the moment, I don't think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos." The Sun newspaper may have taken the phrase from the title of an album by Supertramp released in 1975.
  • "The ends justify the means." — Niccolò Machiavelli [C]
    • A more literal translation, according to Peter Bondanella and Julia Bondanella of Indiana University, is, "One must consider the final result."
  • "Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains." — Winston Churchill [A]
  • "Billions and billions." — Carl Sagan [A]
    • Carl Sagan insisted for years he never said it, as he explained in the first chapter of his book Billions & Billions, it was far too vague of an expression. The quote actually comes from Johnny Carson's impersonation of Carl Sagan.
  • "To get rich is glorious." — Deng Xiaoping [C]
    • Innumerable newspapers and other publications have attributed this quote to the late Chinese leader. It's supposed to be Deng's exhortation to the Chinese people at the start of his reforms. However, no one has ever been able to find an original source of this. See this Los Angeles Times article by Evelyn Iritani.
  • "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." — Benjamin Franklin [A]
    • A phrase commonly attributed to Franklin. This quote an excerpt from a letter written in 1755 from the Assembly to the Governor of Pennsylvania, and it may or may not have originated from Franklin. See Those who would give up Essential Liberty.
  • "Pride comes before a fall." [C]
    • Actual quote: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." From the Book Of Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 18, The Bible, King James version.
  • "I have seen the future, and it works." [M]
  • "Can't we all just get along?" Rodney King [C]
    • His actual quote, in the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"
  • "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Neil Armstrong [C]
    • Many people believe this is a famous misquotation, but it's actually a famous misspoken statement. The actual statement that Armstrong spoke when he first set foot on the moon was, in fact, missing an a before man. Without the a, the words man and mankind are interchangeable, thus obscuring the contrast between the two clauses of Armstrong's intended statement. At the time, NASA attempted to explain the missing article as having been lost in the original transmission due to the limitations of the technology of the time, which led to the common belief that Armstrong has been misquoted. There have been recent attempts (in 2006) to reveal the missing a through digital analysis of the audio recording, but the reports of the analysis have not been peer-reviewed. Explained at Snopes.com
  • "Astrology is a science in itself and contains an illuminating body of knowledge. It taught me many things, and I am greatly indebted to it. Geophysical evidence reveals the power of the stars and the planets in relation to the terrestrial. In turn, astrology reinforces this power to some extent. This is why astrology is like a life-giving elixir to mankind." Albert Einstein in the Huters astrologischer Kalender [A]
    • Actually, Einstein had a very negative thought about astrology.

[edit] Famous misquotations of fictional persons

  • "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn." -- Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind [4]. [C]
    • Actual quote: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
  • "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well." — Hamlet, by William Shakespeare [C]
    • Actual quote: "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy." Note that apart from the misquotation, the scene with the skull is wrongly and mostly remembered alongside with To be, or not to be monologue which occurs in a much earlier scene.
  • "Just the facts, Ma'am." — Jack Webb as Sgt. Friday on Dragnet. [C]
    • Actual quote: "All we want are the facts, ma'am." The famous quote comes from 1953 recording by satirist Stan Freberg — a recording called "St. George and the Dragonet", which was a Dragnet spoof.
  • "Zulus. Thousands of 'em." - from the 1964 film Zulu [C]
    • Actual quote: "Sentries have come in from the hill, sir. They report Zulus to the southeast. Thousands of them". It was not said by Michael Caine's character Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead, but by another character to him.
  • "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." — John Wayne in Hondo [P]
    • Actual quote: "A man ought'a do what he thinks is best."
  • "Dammit, Jim! I'm a doctor, not a...." Dr. Leonard McCoy on Star Trek [P].
    • On the TV series, the expletive dammit was never uttered by McCoy preceding this phrase.
  • "Play it again, Sam." — Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine in Casablanca [C]
    • Actual quote: Ingrid Bergman's character Ilsa Lund said "Play it, Sam. Play As Time Goes By" first; later, Rick says "You played it for her, you can play it for me!" The phrase "Play it again, Sam" is the title of a Woody Allen movie about a man who's a huge fan of Casablanca.
  • "Oooh, you dirty rat!" — James Cagney [C]
    • Actual quote: "Mmm, that dirty, double-crossin' rat," in 1931's Blonde Crazy.
  • "Elementary, my dear Watson." — Sherlock Holmes [C]
    • The complete phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" does not appear in any of the 60 Holmes stories written by Doyle. It appears for the first time at the very end of the 1929 film The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
  • "We are not in Kansas anymore, Toto" or "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." — Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) from the film The Wizard of Oz [C]
    • Actual quote: "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
  • "Do you feel lucky, punk?" — Dirty Harry. [C]
    • Actual quote: "...you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"
  • "Throw another shrimp on the barbie" — Paul Hogan in a series of Australian Tourist Commission commercials on American TV. [C]
    • Actual quote: "I'll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you."
  • "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" — Mae West as Lady Lou in the film She Done Him Wrong. [C]
    • Actual quote: "Why don't you come up some time, and see me?"
    • In I'm No Angel West's character says "Come up and see me sometime" [5] so this is not much of a misquotation.
  • "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille." — Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard [C]
    • Actual quote: "All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up."
  • "Get off your horse and drink your milk." — a character played by John Wayne. [C]
    • He never said it in any of his movies.
  • "Oh no, Mr. Bill!" - Mr. Bill skit from Saturday Night Live. [C]
    • Actual quote: "Oh no!"
    • What makes this corrupted quote strange is that Mr. Bill was the one who always said "Oh no!"
  • "Would you like to play a game?" — WOPR, through its "Joshua" program, in the 1983 movie WarGames. [C]
    • Actual quote: "Shall we play a game?"
  • "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory" - Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. [C]
    • Kilgore's actual speech is several sentences longer than this version. The "smell of napalm" sentence is contained verbatim in the speech, which actually ends, "it smelled like... victory."
  • "Why Can't I Quit You?" - Jack Twist in Brokeback Mountain [P]
    • This phrase is often used on the Russ Parr Morning Show by the host during his parodies of the movie. The actual line from the movie is "I wish I knew how to quit you."
  • "With great power comes great responsibility" — Benjamin Parker, in Spider-Man
    • The often-quoted Spider-Man theme of "with great power there comes great responsibility" is widely attributed to Uncle Ben. However, this was not initially true. In Amazing Fantasy #15, the phrase appears in a narrative caption in the comic's last panel, not as spoken dialogue. In fact, Ben has only two lines in the entire comic.
      However, later stories and flashbacks that took place when Ben was still alive retroactively made the phrase one of Ben's many homilies he would lecture Peter with. Recent reinterpretations of Spider-Man, such as the Spider-Man movie and the Ultimate Spider-Man comic, depict Ben as using this phrase while he is still alive.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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