An aversion to attributing a quote to the wrong person.

There are a lot of famous quotes that have been made by now historically famous people. However some of these historic figures never said some of the quotes they are thought to have said.

As mentioned in the previous article there is no reason this should be happening in the 21st Century with the correct information literally at our fingertips.

Attributing certain quotes to historic figures really needs to stop, and the history books need to be rewritten with the correct information.

Here are some classic examples:

People think Voltaire said: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." He never made this statement. The quote was made by Evelyn Beatrice Hall a century later.

Another misquoted person is Mark Twain. He is thought to have said "The only two certainties in life are death and taxes." When in fact he never made this statement. Different versions of the quote were written both by Christopher Bullock and Edward Ward.

Another is this quote: "There’s a sucker born every minute" thought to have been made by PT Barnum. The quote was made by one of his competitors.

When people attribute quotes to historic figures they need to get their facts straight and make the person actually made the statement.


Previous articles in the series:
An aversion to using historic quotes for financial gain.
An aversion to incorrectly stating historically famous quotes.

An aversion to incorrectly stating historically famous quotes.

People often like to state a famous historic quote to emphasize a point. While this is usually OK, unless the quote is being used for financial gain, far to often people state the quote incorrectly.

This should never happen, especially in the 21st Century. This is a time where information is literally at our fingertips. People can literally look up the famous quote they want to use in a matter of minutes if not seconds from their smartphone, tablet, and other portable devices. Most people carry at least one type of these devices with them everywhere they go. The demographic that now use these devices range from 80+ yr old grandparents to a 5yr old child.

Some classic examples are these quotes, correctly stated in this article, (the correct quote is in italics):

" Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." This was stated by George Santayana. The most common incorrect quote used is this one: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

Another incorrectly stated quote is this one: "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country." This was stated by Nathan Hale before he was executed by the British during the American Revolution. When people use this quote they leave entire words out and add words that are part of the original quote which can change its meaning.

Previous articles in the series:
An aversion to using historic quotes for financial gain.