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.
Normality is a well-paved street; it is good for walking—but no flowers will grow there.
In this post from The Quote Investigator, the earliest English version found was in a 2009 catalog for the exhibition "Vincent van Gogh: Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes" from the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland. It appeared there… Read the full notes
Apocryphal, originally featured Noël Coward and Randolph Churchill (Winston's son); attested 1946 (columnist Walter Winchell, attributed to anonymous United Press journalist in London). Originally only featured first half about lack of… Read the full notes
This quotation first appeared in Dreams Come Due: Government and Economics as if Freedom Mattered (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986), p. 312, written under the pseudonym of John Galt. It is there attributed to Jefferson, but is not found… Read the full notes
[Money should] fructify in the pockets of the people.
...ought we to appropriate in the present circumstances of the country 3 millions of money out of the resources and productive capital of the nation, to create an addition to the treasury of the state? Ought we to reduce our public debt by… Read the full notes
Very often attributed to Addison, this is apparently a paraphrase of a statement by Hugh Blair, published in Blair's Sermons (1815), Vol. 1, p. 219, where he mentions "men of pleasure and the men of business", and that "To the former every… Read the full notes
The earliest occurrence on Google Books of "Qui cantat, orat bis" is on page 4 of the 1554 book Cantiones Evangelicae: Ad Usitatas Harmonias... by Wenzel Nicolaides. Read the full notes
Time is nature's way to keep everything from happening all at once.
Wheeler quoted this saying in Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information (1990), p. 10, with a footnote attributing it to "graffiti in the men's room of the Pecan Street Cafe, Austin, Texas". Later publications, such as Paul… Read the full notes
War is sweet to them that know it not.
Though Erasmus quoted this proverb in Latin at the start of his essay Bellum [War], and it is sometimes attributed to him, it originates with the Greek poet Pindar ("γλυκύ δ᾽ἀπείρῳ πόλεμος [War is sweet to them that know it not.]"). See… Read the full notes
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why are they poor, they call me a Communist. | When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist. Read the full notes
The earth has music for those who listen.
This statement is commonly associated with Santayana, but no source or attribution can be found in his works or correspondence. This quotation is appropriately attributed to Reginald Vincent Holmes' poem "The Magic of Sound", published in… Read the full notes
Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings.
Dinner was soon followed by tea and coffee, a ten miles' drive home allowed no waste of hours; and from the time of their sitting down to table, it was a quick succession of busy nothings till the carriage came to the door, and Mrs… Read the full notes
There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.
Not found in Lenin's writings or recorded speeches, though he did write that in the Russian revolution, major developments took only days, weeks, or months, not decades. | The construction is traditional, present for example in 2 Peter 3:8… Read the full notes
Originates from a fabricated screenshot of a tweet allegedly posted on October 5, 2020, the same day Trump was released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center after his diagnosis of COVID-19. The fictitious quote likely refers… Read the full notes
The trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win.
This was quoted as an anonymous saying heard in Moscow around the time of the first Russian elections, in Voltaire, Goldberg & Others : A Compendium of the Witty, the Profound and the Absurd (2000), p. 201; it was later attributed to… Read the full notes
Sometimes ascribed to Robert Browning, this is in fact a misquotation from Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621): "They [i.e. ambitious men] may not cease, but as a dog in a wheel, a bird in a cage, or a squirrel in a chain, so… Read the full notes
John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation I will secede your head from the rest of your body.
However, Mark R. Cheatham, director of The Papers of Maritin Van Buren, reports that there is no original source verifying Jackson ever said this: Mark R. Cheatham, "Are These Andrew Jackson Quotes Accurate?" Jacksonian America: Society… Read the full notes
I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.
Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte. | Translation: I have only made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the opportunity to make it shorter. Read the full notes
In Desmond Tutu: A Biography (2004) by Steven Gish, p. 101; is clarified Tutu used it as a joke which was not of him. Read the full notes
As quoted in What Great Men Think of Religion (1972 [1945]) by Ira D. Cardiff, p. 245. Actually said by Edward Gibbonː "The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true… Read the full notes
An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding.
Attributed in Wisdom Through the Ages : Book Two (2003) by Helen Granat, p. 118; this actually is cited to Robert Louis Stevenson in The Law of Success (1928) by Napoleon Hill: "An aim in life is the only fortune worth finding; and it is… Read the full notes