Some of the most-shared quotes were never said by the people they are credited to. Here are the ones Wikiquote lists as misattributed, with what is known about where they really came from.
We rely on the notes and sources recorded on Wikiquote and show them next to each quote. “Misattributed” means the evidence points away from the credited person — it does not always tell us who did say it.
If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.
Earliest attribution located is The Yogi and the Commissar by Arthur Koestler (1945), p. v. Koestler prefaces it with "My comfort is what Einstein said when somebody reproached him with the suggestion that his formula of gravitation was… Read the full notes
Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.
This statement has often been attributed to Jefferson and sometimes to English theologian William Tyndale, or Susan B. Anthony, who used it, but cited it as an "old revolutionary maxim" — it was widely used as an abolitionist and feminist… Read the full notes
There are no indications that Jefferson ever stated anything like this; slight variants of this statement seem to have become widely attributed to Jefferson only since its appearance in three books of 2004: The Adventures of Jonathan… Read the full notes
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
1950: "An-eye-for-an-eye-for-an-eye-for-an-eye … ends in making everybody blind" in The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer (1950), though Fischer did not attribute it to Gandhi and seemed to be giving his own description of Gandhi's… Read the full notes
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
An earlier version from 1975, spoken during a public talk by Osho | "The mind is always asking you to do something over again, something you have already done so many times before. And every time you see that by doing it nothing is… Read the full notes
There is no way to happiness; happiness is the way.
The source is likely to be either modern Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, or Calvinist clergyman Abraham Johannes Muste. The phrase appears in Thich Nhat Hanh's writings; but it also appears in a volume of US senate hearings from 1948, when… Read the full notes
It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog.
It is not the size of the dog in the fight that counts, but the fight in the dog that matters. | "Stub Ends of Thoughts" by Arthur G. Lewis, a collection of sayings, in Book of the Royal Blue Vol. 14, No. 7 (April 1911), cited as the… Read the full notes
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write. | I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it. | Another possible source for the… Read the full notes
As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
μοι νυνὶ γέγονεν ἐκ τοῦ διαλόγου μηδὲν εἰδέναι· ὁπότε γὰρ τὸ δίκαιον μὴ οἶδα ὅ ἐστιν, σχολῇ εἴσομαι εἴτε ἀρετή τις οὖσα τυγχάνει εἴτε καὶ οὔ, καὶ πότερον ὁ ἔχων αὐτὸ οὐκ εὐδαίμων ἐστὶν ἢ εὐδαίμων. | Hence the result of the discussion, as… Read the full notes
The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.
This quote was probably attributed to Stalin for the first time on January 30, 1947 in an article by the columnist Leonard Lyons in the Washington Post. Lyons wrote that Stalin, referring to the dead of the Holodomor, said in 1933: If only… Read the full notes
A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.
Dr. Tanay is perhaps unaware of — in any event, he does not cite — other passages more relevant to his argument. In these other passages Freud associates retarded sexual and emotional development not with gun ownership, but with fear and… Read the full notes
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.
If what your country is doing seems to you practically and morally wrong, is dissent the highest form of patriotism? | Dissent is the highest form of patriotism, Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia | Other form by historian Howard Zinn Dissent… Read the full notes
When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything.
This quotation actually comes from page 211 of Émile Cammaerts' book The Laughing Prophet: The Seven Virtues and G. K. Chesterton (1937) in which he quotes Chesterton as having Father Brown say, in "The Oracle of the Dog" (1923): "It's the… Read the full notes
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
This purported quote bears a resemblance to the narrated theme of Sergei Bondarchuk's Soviet film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, produced in 1966. In it the narrator declares "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for… Read the full notes
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.
Although Rick Warren's quote in 2002 is the one most often misattributed to Lewis, two very similar quotes predate Warren's: (1) "People with humility don’t think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less” (Ken Blanchard… Read the full notes
Lighthouses are more useful than churches.
The bell ringing for church, we went thither immediately, and with hearts full of gratitude, returned sincere thanks to God for the mercies we had received: were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel… Read the full notes
Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.
This statement was widely used as an abolitionist and feminist slogan in the 19th century and has sometimes been attributed to Anthony, who famously used it, but cited it as an "old revolutionary maxim"; it has also frequently been… Read the full notes
The earliest known appearance of this basic statement is a paraphrase of Darwin in the writings of Leon C. Megginson, a management sociologist at Louisiana State University. [] Megginson's paraphrase (with slight variations) was later… Read the full notes
James Anthony Froude, in the lecture "The Science of History" (5 February 1864); published in Representative Essays (1885) by George Haven Putnam, p. 274; Lord Acton quoted Froude in an address "The Study of History" (11 June 1895), which… Read the full notes
Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.
Unless we are governed by God, we shall be ruled by tyrants. (1949 speech by Norman Vincent Peale) | If men do not find God to rule them, they will be ruled by tyrants. (Roy Masters, How to Conquer Suffering Without Doctors, 1976, p. 50) |… Read the full notes