We are, in other words, a state which controls all forces acting in nature. We control political forces, we control moral forces, we control economic forces, therefore we are a full-blown Corporative state. | The same document explains… 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.
I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.
Obama actually wrote, in The Audacity of Hope, p. 261 | In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from… Read the full notes
Two things inspire me to awe: the starry heavens and the moral universe within.
If Einstein said this, he was almost certainly quoting philosopher Immanuel Kant's words from the conclusion to the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), translated in Paul Guyer's The Cambridge Companion to Kant (p. 1) as: "Two things fill… Read the full notes
If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.
The earliest published attribution of this quote to Einstein found on Google Books is the 1991 book The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis by Raj Jain (p. 507), but no source to Einstein's original writings is given and the quote… Read the full notes
Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.
Not by Lincoln, this is apparently paraphrased from remarks about honoring him by Hugh Gordon Miller: "I do not believe in forever dragging over or raking up some phases of the past; in some respects the dead past might better be allowed… Read the full notes
How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg?
A very similar riddle about cow legs was also circulated by Edward Josiah Stearns' Notes on Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853), p. 46: '"Father," said one of the rising generation to his paternal progenitor, "if I should call this cow's tail a leg… Read the full notes
There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.
Possibly a paraphrase of Bertrand Russell in My Philosophical Development (1959): "This is one of those views which are so absurd that only very learned men could possibly adopt them." It is similar in meaning to Orwell's line from Notes… Read the full notes
These maxims originated in the late sixteenth century in France and were popularly circulated during Washington's time. Washington wrote out a copy of the 110 Rules in his school book when he was about sixteen-years old... During the days… Read the full notes
It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.
It is impossible to govern the universe without the aid of a Supreme Being. | (For the context see Paulding's anecdote given below in the section of quotations about Washington.) This is unattributed, and no source other than Paulding is… Read the full notes
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
And, my friends, in this story you have a history of this entire movement. First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you. And that, is what is going to… Read the full notes
The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists.
The Swiss author François Bondy attributed a similar quote to Ignazio Silone: This reminded me of what Ignazio Silone said in 1945 soon after he returned to Italy from his Zurich exile: "The Fascism of tomorrow will never say 'I am… Read the full notes
An empty taxi arrived and out of it stepped Attlee.
Mr Attlee is an honourable and gallant gentleman, and a faithful colleague who served his country well at the time of her greatest need. I should be obliged if you would make it clear whenever an occasion arises that I would never make… Read the full notes
Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.
Speech to the National Defense Executive Reserve Conference in Washington, D.C. (November 14, 1957) ; from Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957, National Archives and Records Service, Government… Read the full notes
An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.
This expression is widely misattributed to Emerson in journalism, tweets, and memes on the internet. This quotation in an earlier phrasing of Jared Eliot's statement “It used to be the Saying of an old Man, That an Ounce of Experience is… Read the full notes
Truths and roses have thorns about them.
This is commonly misattributed because Thoreau wrote it in his journal June 14, 1838, but it was not original. This was a popular aphorism in his day, appearing in several collections of proverbs during his lifetime. Its origin is unknown… Read the full notes
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
Attributed to Kierkegaard in a number of books, the earliest located on Google Books being the 1976 book Jack Kerouac: Prophet of the New Romanticism by Robert A. Hipkiss, p. 83. In the 1948 The Hibbert Journal: Volumes 46-47 the quote is… Read the full notes
Those who dance appear insane to those who cannot hear the music.
First recorded appearance: Germaine de Staël's On Germany (1813). ". . . sometimes even in the habitual course of life, the reality of this world disappears all at once, and we feel ourselves in the middle of its interests as we should at… Read the full notes
Overall there is a smell of fried onions.
Claimed to be written by James while intoxicated by nitrous oxide. Does not appear in his essay Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide. First attributed, not necessarily seriously, by Robert Anton Wilson in his Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy… Read the full notes
There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.
Reagan reportedly displayed a plaque with this proverbial aphorism on his Oval Office desk (Michael Reagan, The New Reagan Revolution (2010), p. 177). Harry S. Truman is reported to have repeated versions of the aphorism on several… Read the full notes
On Muhammad, in Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Noten und Abhandlungen zum West-östlichen Diwan (1958), WA I, 7, 32; translator unknown. Actual quotation in context: "He [Muhammad] vehemently asserts and protests that he is a prophet and not a… Read the full notes