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.
1. You can't win. 2. You can't break even. 3. You can't even get out of the game.
Several publications attribute the quote to Ginsberg, probably the first one is The Coevolution Quarterly in 1975 [Google books https://books.google.it/books?id=MylJAQAAIAAJ&q=%22ginsberg%27s+theorem%22&dq=%22ginsberg%27s+theorem%22&hl=en&s… Read the full notes
Spirituality author Sarah Ban Breathnach writes, in her 1996 Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude: "Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we… Read the full notes
This quotation circulated in American anti-communist propaganda during the years after Khrushchev's September 1959 visit to the United States, typically attributed as something he said three and a half months before the visit. A… Read the full notes
The inmates have taken over the asylum!
David Robinson In Charlie Chaplin: Comic Genius (1996), p. 57, also asserts that a disgruntled film distributor said "The lunatics are taking over the asylum." Read the full notes
Taylor Caldwell in her novel based on the life of Cicero, A Pillar of Iron (1965), p. 451 | Antonius [i. e., C. Antonius Hybrida] heartily agreed with him [sc. Cicero] that the budget should be balanced, that the Treasury should be… Read the full notes
I don't have a photograph. I'd give you my footprints, but they're upstairs in my socks.
From at least as early as 1977 (e.g. "Comedy's King Leer," Newsweek, 29 Aug 1977, p. 44), this has frequently been characterized as a real-life response given by Marx himself to enquiring reporters; in fact, it's a slight variation on this… Read the full notes
This quote is frequently attributed to Epictetus, e.g. by Brigid Delaney, Six ways to make your life easier and more peaceful – by using stoic principles, The Guardian, 22 November 2023. This quotation originates from the 1995 book: The… Read the full notes
The heaviest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine.
Film producer Alexander Korda asked Churchill in 1948 if he had made the remark, he replied | No, I didn't say it; but I'm sorry I didn't, because it was quite witty ... and so true! | Quoted in Nigel Rees, Sayings of the Century p. 105. Read the full notes
I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race.
Originally a statement about Obama by Steve Sailer from "Obama's Identity Crisis", The American Conservative (), recast into first-person as if said by Obama | And yet, at least through age 33 when he wrote Dreams from My Father, he found… Read the full notes
Misattributed to Lincoln by several authors since about 2000. Source of quote: General Douglas MacArthur is quoted as saying, "Like Abraham Lincoln, I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet… Read the full notes
The price of peace is eternal vigilance.
There is an imperialism that deserves all honor and respect — an imperialism of service in the discharge of great duties. But with too many it is the sense of domination and aggrandisement, the glorification of power. The price of peace is… Read the full notes
James Burgh, in The Dignity of Human Nature, Or, A Brief Account of the Certain and Established Means for Attaining the True End of Our Existence (1754); this is very widely misattributed to Mann, appearing at least as early as the… Read the full notes
It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself
A translation of chorus lines in a classical tragedy by Seneca the Younger, Thyestes, lines 401-403, appearing in Essays, Civil and Moral by Francis Bacon, part XI, Of Great Place. The original lines in latin are Illi mors gravis… Read the full notes
Thank God! we are in the full enjoyment of all these privileges. But can we be taught to prize them too much? or how can we prize them equal to their value, if we do not know their intrinsic worth, and that they are not a gift bestowed… Read the full notes
Francis de Sales, quoted in Vie de saint François de Sales, évèque et prince de Genève by André Jean Marie Hamon (Librairie Victor Lecoffre, Paris, 1896), Vol. II, Book VII, Ch. V: Son amour pour Dieu Read the full notes
So live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts
The origin of this quote is often misattributed to Cicero; however, it is from Line 135-136 of Book 2, Satire 2 by Horace, "Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus." The English translation that most closely… Read the full notes
Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, as quoted in The London Medical Gazette Vol. V (1847), p. 1118; and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: His Life and His Works (1878) by Helen Zimmern, p. 443 In "Grand dame of letters who's not going quietly", The Times… Read the full notes
Politicians are like diapers: they should be changed often, and for the same reason*
A 1993 newspaper humor column attributes this saying to Reader's Digest: "Picking it up from a Reader's Digest fan, Willie, our ex-shoe shine boy, says some politicians are like diapers. They both need changed often ... and for the same… Read the full notes
cite web | The Web version of the ad uses a longer misquote: "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, "well, it must be because I was just so… Read the full notes
Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.
The phrase "the only source of knowledge is experience" is found in an English-language essay from 1896: "We can only be guided by what we know, and our only source of knowledge is experience" (Arthur J. Pillsbury, "The Final Word"… Read the full notes