Saidbook

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.

I will decide who is a Jew!

Hermann Göring Misattributed

Göring is stated to have said this in Non-Germans Under the Third Reich: The Nazi Judicial and Administrative System in Germany (2003) by Diemut Majer, p. 60, and in other works, but he might have merely been repeating or paraphrasing the… Read the full notes

"The evil was not in bread and circuses, per se, but in the willingness of the people to sell their rights as free men for full bellies and the excitement of the games which would serve to distract them from the other human hungers which bread and circuses can never appease."

Cicero Misattributed

From Ben Moreell, "Of Bread and Circuses", The Freeman, January 1956, pp. 29–32. The quotation is from the left column of p. 31 in the original publication. Moreell's piece makes no mention of Cicero, but opens with a correct attribution… Read the full notes

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn't get much higher.
Come on baby, light my fire —
Come on baby, light my fire —
Try to set the night on fire.

Jim Morrison Misattributed Light My Fire (1967)

"Light My Fire" (1967). Because Jim Morrison sang this as a breakthrough hit for The Doors and was the group's primary songwriter, this is often mistakenly thought to have been written by him. It was actually written by guitarist Robby… Read the full notes

The first consideration in immigration is the welfare of the receiving nation. In a new government based on principles unfamiliar to the rest of the world and resting on the sentiments of the people themselves, the influx of a large number of new immigrants unaccustomed to the government of a free society could be detrimental to that society. Immigration, therefore, must be approached carefully and cautiously.

Thomas Jefferson Misattributed

This misattribution seems to have originated as improper quoting of an actually site-created preamble to an online page of Jefferson's quotes or paraphrases at the site Family Guardian — self described as a "Nonprofit Christian religious… Read the full notes

First, we will take Eastern Europe, then the masses of Asia, then we will encircle the United States which will be the last bastion of capitalism. We will not have to attack. It will fall like an overripe fruit into our hands.

Vladimir Lenin Misattributed

If an apple, severed by the tempest from its native tree, cannot choose but fall to the ground, Cuba, forcibly disjoined from its unnatural connexion with Spain, and incapable of self-support, can only gravitate towards the North American… Read the full notes