Misattributed quotes

It is inconceivable that a Roman Catholic president would not be under extreme pressure by the hierarchy of his church to accede to its policies with respect to foreign relations in matters, including representation to the Vatican.

Formal statement of the committee of 150 Protestant clergymen he represented, opposing the candidacy of ‪John F. Kennedy‬‎ for US President in September 1960, quoted in The Religious Issue: Hot and Getting Hotter in Newsweek (19 September… Read the full notes

The only question with wealth is, what do you do with it?

Though attributed to John D. Rockefeller, Sr. in I Want to Make Money in the Stock Market : Learn to Begin Investing Without Losing Your Life (2006) by Chris M. Hart, p. 169; this is clearly a statement of his son, John D. Rockefeller Jr… Read the full notes

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

The earliest citation yet found does not attribute this to Roosevelt, but presents it as a piece of anonymous piece folk-wisdom: "When one reaches the end of his rope, he should tie a knot in it and hang on" (LIFE magazine (3 April 1919)… Read the full notes

Man alone, of all the creatures on earth, can change his own patterns. Man alone is the architect of his destiny. The greatest revolution in our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives ... It is too bad that most people will not accept this tremendous discovery and begin living it.

Other forms: "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." This is also misattributed to Albert Schweitzer. | James did say: "As life goes on, there is a constant… Read the full notes

(We) are seeking to assist the white race toward the elimination of the unfit (blacks).

Actual quote: "Like the advocates of Birth Control, the eugenicists, for instance, are seeking to assist the race toward the elimination of the unfit." Read the full notes

That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next.

John Stuart Mill, as quoted by Stevenson in Call to Greatness (1954), p. 102; this has also been misquoted as "That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in another." Read the full notes

Deng is commonly quoted with this phrase in western media but there is no proof that he actually said it

However, this phrase in Chinese is more accurately translated as "wealth is glorious," where wealth can have a very general meaning, including knowledge, personal relationships, family: anything of value. Understood this way, the quote is… Read the full notes

Called or uncalled, God will be present.

This is actually a statement that Jung discovered among the Latin writings of Desiderius Erasmus, who declared the statement had been an ancient Spartan proverb. Jung popularized it, having it inscribed over the doorway of his house, and… Read the full notes

Anyone who hates children and dogs can't be all bad.

Although very commonly attributed to Fields, this is derived from a statement that was actually first said about him by Leo Rosten during a "roast" at the Masquer's Club in Hollywood in 1939, as Rosten explains in his book, The Power of… Read the full notes

Call no man happy till he dies.

Deem no man happy, until he passes the end of his life without suffering grief | Many very wealthy men are not happy, while many who have but a moderate living are fortunate; and in truth the very rich man who is not happy has two… Read the full notes

The biggest danger to our rights today is not from government acting against the will of the majority but from government which has become the mere instrument of that majority. Think about it. That's where the abuse of power comes from. Not the tyranny of the King but the tyranny of the majority. Wrong will be done as much by an all-powerful people as by an all-powerful Prince.

This appears to be a manufactured quote for a PBS documentary on the American Revolution, created by condensing, rewriting, and paraphrasing portions of a lengthy letter James Madison wrote to Thomas Jefferson on 17 October 1788, about the… Read the full notes

Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.

Alledgedly from a speech to the Illinois House of Representatives (18 December 1840) its called "a remarkable piece of spurious Lincolniana" by Merrill D. Peterson: Lincoln in American Memory. Oxford UP 1995, books.google. Cf.Spurious… Read the full notes

An army of sheep, led by a lion, is better than an army of lions, led by a sheep.

Attributed to Napoleon in Napoleon (1941) by Yevgeny Tarle, this is a variant of an ancient proverb often attributed to many military and political figures, including Alexander the Great, and the even earlier figure Chabrias (Χαβρίας). Read the full notes

God buries his workmen, but carries on his work.

Charles Wesley, as quoted in Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (1889). This appears with two quotes of John Wesley on the monument to both men in Westminster Abbey, and is commonly attributed to John. Read the full notes

We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.

Analyzed by Snopes fact checkers | Omits words from a letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble Sanger proposing the "Negro Project", where Sanger wrote: "The ministers work is also important and also he should be trained, perhaps by the [Birth… Read the full notes

Slavs, Latin and Hebrew immigrants are human weeds ... a deadweight of human waste ... Blacks, soldiers and Jews are a menace to the race.

John George, in American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists & Others (1992), p. 415, describes this quote as "evidently concocted in the late 1980s". | Debunked by Snopes fact checkers Read the full notes

The cities of Italy are now deluged with droves of these creatures [tour groups], for they never separate, and you see them, forty in number, pouring along a street with their director — now in front, now at the rear, circling them like a sheep dog — and really the process is as like herding as may be.

Charles James Lever, Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men and Women and Other Things in General (Blackwood's Magazine, 1864-1865): "Continental Excursionists" [Adamant Media Corporation, 2001, ISBN 0-543-90729-5], p. 243. Quoted by Boorstin in The… Read the full notes

The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose. Do not like, do not dislike; all will then be clear. Make a hairbreadth difference and heaven and earth are set apart; if you want the truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between "for" and "against" is the mind's worst disease.

In "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" by Bruce Lee (1975, compiled and published posthumously) and also in Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living (2000) edited by John Little, this is attributed to Lee, perhaps because it was found… Read the full notes

Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see.

This particular quote was attributed to Jefferson on the Internet starting from 2008 and first appearing in print from 2013 but while he may have grown hemp, he never actually smoked it. According to the Jefferson Library this is not a… Read the full notes

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

Note, “Bill” is a common salutation for “William.” Read the full notes