Reported by Representative Martin Dies as having been said in a conversation at the White House, in the Congressional Record (September 22, 1950), vol. 96, Appendix, p. A6832. Reported as "exceedingly dubious" in Paul F. Boller, Jr… Read the full notes
Misattributed quotes
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.
The above statements have been widely published in the above format as lines of verse attributed to Brooks, usually as a poem titled "Corners on the Curving Sky" — but one website indicated that she declared she did not write them. The… Read the full notes
Hate the sin and love the sinner.
This is variant of a traditional Christian proverb; ie: "Hate the sin, but love the sinner" in Sermons, Lectures, and Occasional Discourses (1828) Edward Irving, and similar expressions date to those of Augustine of Hippo: "Love the sinner… Read the full notes
If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you have not planned enough.
In Quote, Unquote (1977) by Lloyd Cory, p. 6, this statement was simply attributed to the Meggido Message which is the name of a publication by the Meggido Church, but immediately following a quote by Hale. This may have led to it being… Read the full notes
The whole of National Socialism is based on Marx.
"I have learned a great deal from Marxism, as I do not hesitate to admit," Hitler went on. "I don't mean their tiresome social doctrine or the materialist conception of history, or their absurd 'marginal utility' theories and so on. But I… Read the full notes
It does not seem to have been attributed to Einstein until the 1990s (e.g. here). Read the full notes
The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.
Elizabeth Longford in Wellington — The Years of the Sword (1969) states he "probably never said or thought anything of the kind" and Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington in a letter published in The Times in 1972 is quoted as stating… Read the full notes
It appears President Barack Obama started this misattribution. I can find no reference to this quote on the Internet prior to his May 15, 2016 commencement address at Rutgers State University… Read the full notes
There is a great danger for the United States of America. This great danger is the Jew.…
Claimed by American Fascist William Dudley Pelley in Liberation (February 3, 1934) to have appeared in notes taken at the Constitutional Convention by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney; reported as debunked in Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John… Read the full notes
John D. Barrow, Between Inner and Outer Space: Essays on Science, Art and Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-192-88041-1, Part 4, ch. 13: Why is the Universe Mathematical? (p. 88). Also found in Barrow's "The Mathematical… Read the full notes
I think my life is of great importance, but I also think it is meaningless.
Attributed to Camus on social media, this sentence was taken from the Wikipedia article on Camus: "In Le Mythe, dualism becomes a paradox: we value our own lives in spite of our mortality and in spite of the universe's silence. While we… Read the full notes
You become what you give your attention to.
This quote has been attributed to Epictetus since around 2016. (e.g. in this thephilosophyofeverything blog.) Sometimes appears in an extended form, e.g. by The Daily Stoic: "You become what you give your attention to. If you yourself… Read the full notes
Never have children, only grandchildren.
This was said by Vidal's maternal grandfather, Thomas Pryor Gore, as recalled by Vidal: "My grandfather, Senator Gore ('I never give advice') was suddenly Polonius; he also changed his usual line from 'Never have children, only… Read the full notes
In peace, prepare for war. In war, prepare for peace.
Sometimes erroneously prepended to the opening line "The art of war is of vital importance to the State", but appears to be a variation of the Roman motto "Si vis pacem, para bellum". It is not clear who first misattributed this phrase to… Read the full notes
Not found in any of Thomas Jefferson's writings. This may be a conflation of Jefferson's "chains of the Constitution" comment with Ayn Rand's statement in her essay, Man's Rights: "There are two potential violators of man’s rights: the… Read the full notes
Misattributed to Kelvin since the 1980s, either without citation or stating that it was made in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1900. There is no evidence that Kelvin said this, and the quote is… Read the full notes
Edward Everett Hale in a statement published in A Year of Beautiful Thoughts (1902) by Jeanie Ashley Bates Greenough, p. 172; This has been misattributed to Keller in published works since at least 1980. Keller and Hale were good friends… Read the full notes
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Commonly misattributed due to Benjamin Jowett's popular idiomatic translation (1871) of Plato's Republic, Book II, 369c as "The true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention." Jowett's translation is noted for injecting… Read the full notes
Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.
According to The American Chesterton Society, this quotation is actually a paraphrase by John F. Kennedy of a passage from The Thing (1929) in which Chesterton made reference to a fence or gate erected across a road: "The more modern type… Read the full notes
Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.
Accursed be all that learning which sets itself in opposition to the cross of Christ! | This has appeared in the paraphrased form since at least 1845; how it came to be attributed to Madison is unknown. Read the full notes