This has been repeated on many many youtube videos (one of them has over 2.5 million views: ) under various titles but often with a "5 things" and "share" (never) theme. All five quotes are falsely attributed to Albert Einstein and… 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.
There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.
Attributed to Disraeli by Mark Twain in "Chapters from My Autobiography — XX", North American Review No. DCXVIII (JULY 5, 1907) . His attribution is considered unreliable, and the actual origin is uncertain, with one of the earliest known… Read the full notes
640 K ought to be enough for anybody.
When we set the upper limit of PC-DOS at 640K, we thought nobody would ever need that much memory. | Fawcette, James E. "Give Me Power" Infoworld (April 29, 1985) | Gates repeatedly denied saying it | I've said some stupid things and some… Read the full notes
[Pigeons are] rats with wings.
Although Ken Livingstone has used this phrase on many occasions (including at the Greater London Authority 'People's Question Time' on 24 October 2000: see Hugh Muir, "Ken vows no surrender in tube funding battle", Evening Standard… Read the full notes
I sincerely believe, with you, that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies... | Letter to John Taylor (1816) | The bank mania...is raising up a moneyed aristocracy in our country which has already set the government… Read the full notes
If it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.
Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, to William Gerard Hamilton, to George Bernard Shaw, to John F. Kennedy (who at any rate quoted it) and to Edmund Burke, it was actually said by Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland in a speech in the House of… Read the full notes
In good health we are ready to give advice to the sick.
Compare Terence, Andria 309 (tr. J. Barsby, 2001): facile omnes quom valemu' recta consilia aegrotis damus. We can all readily give good advice to the sick when we’re well. Read the full notes
There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.
Aldous Huxley, using the term "the doors of perception" which originated with William Blake in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. It is sometimes credited to Morrison because he cited it in interviews as the inspiration for the name The… Read the full notes
It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.
Reaction to the 1804 drumhead trial and execution of Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, on orders of Napoleon. Actually said by either Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe, legislative deputy from Meurthe — according to the Oxford… Read the full notes
Every crowd has a silver lining.
The first appearance of this quote in print was in the July 1908 issue of the journal Profitable Advertising under the heading "Modernized Maxims." It next appeared in the June 1911 issue of The Philistine where Elbert Hubbard labeled it… Read the full notes
Heroism is endurance for one moment more.
This was an old saying of mountaineers of the Caucasus which Kennan quoted in a 1921 letter to Henry Munroe Rogers, as quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations 16th Edition, and in Mental Disorders In The Social Environment : Critical… Read the full notes
They may mow down all the flowers, but they can't stop spring.
This line has been attributed to Neruda since the 1990s, but it is not in any of his published work. It appears to be a common saying in popular songs. Here is a citation from 1987 "Los grupos organizadores difundieron sus mensajes en… Read the full notes
Mere factual innocence is no reason not to carry out a death sentence properly reached.
These words, which have been widely attributed to Scalia, do not appear in any of his writings or statements. He nonetheless remarked in Herrera v. Collins (1993, concurring) that state courts had no obligation to review a death sentence… Read the full notes
A paraphrase of De Chardin's statement which has also become misattributed to Covey. Read the full notes
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Variously attributed also to Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain. The earliest known occurrence, and probable origin, is from a 1981 text from Narcotics Anonymous: "Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results." Cf… Read the full notes
I know, but it is no longer I.
Supposedly spoken by Augustine to his former concubine when she greeted him in the street, and when he ignored her said "Augustine, it is I!" Actually the quote (Sed ego non sum ego) is from De Poenitentia, Book II, Chapter 10 by Ambrose… Read the full notes
Go To statement considered harmful
Dijkstra sent a paper to Communications of the ACM under the title of "A Case against the GO TO Statement" (EWD215, PDF here). However the editor Niklaus Wirth decided to publish it as a letter to the editor to speed up publication. Wirth… Read the full notes
Many sources mistakenly attribute this quote to Santayana, and one even identifies the correct book, without realizing that George Santayana and Giorgio de Santillana are two different people Read the full notes
True genius without heart is a thing of nought - for not great understanding alone, not intelligence alone, nor both together, make genius. Love! Love! Love! that is the soul of genius. - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, entry in Mozart's… Read the full notes
A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, part VII: Time Regained, chapter III, "An Afternoon Party at the House of the Princesse de Guermantes" (French version and English translation). Read the full notes