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.
Worry is interest paid on trouble before it falls due.
Attributed to Inge in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993), which cites the London Observer, 14 February 1932. However, this aphorism was in circulation decades earlier, e.g., it features in an advertisement in The Grape Belt, 2… Read the full notes
This is actually a quotation from a character named Socrates in Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book that Changes Lives, by Dan Millman. Read the full notes
This quotation is not known to exist in Plato's writings. It apparently first appeared as a quotation attributed to Plato in The Pleasures of Life, Part II by Sir John Lubbock (Macmillan and Company, London and New York), published in 1889. Read the full notes
The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
According to The Veterinarian (Monthly Journal of Veterinary Science) for 1851, edited by Mr. Percivall, this is Ben Jonson's "satirical definition of physic". Read the full notes
Tax and Tax, spend and spend, elect and elect.
On the other hand, in an exchange of letters published in the New York Times on November 24, 1938, Harry Hopkins wrote to the Times insisting he never said this quotation but Arthur Krock, a writer for the Times, countered that he had… Read the full notes
Donald Ernest and Vesta West Mansell, Sure As the Dawn (1993) p. 194 — Various sources attribute this saying to Rumi, although never to a specific work or correspondence. It may be a misquote of Sathya Sai. Read the full notes
Atheism is a disease of the soul, before it becomes an error of the understanding.
Misattributed to Plato in Laws by Conservapedia. Actual source: William Fleming, as quoted in Prose Quotations from Socrates to Macaulay by Samuel Austin Allibone, 1816–1889. Read the full notes
If you have a message, call Western Union.
The popular attribution to Goldwyn is false according to his biographer in A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn: A Biography (1998). The earliest known print attribution is to Moss Hart in Van Wert (Ohio) Times Bulletin (26 August 1954) as cited in Fred… Read the full notes
The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.
Widely misattributed in print and on the internet, this is actually Hugh Walpole, in Reading : An Essay (1926) Read the full notes
Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
According to The Quote Investigator, this phrase first appeared on PIMA’s North American Papermaker: The Official Publication of the Paper Industry Management Association, in an article by Bill Moore and Jerry Rose. The year was 2000… Read the full notes
From the book The Demon-Haunted World Sagan quoting from Kenneth V. Lanning, FBI Behavioral Science Research Unit, from an article Satanic, Occult and Ritualistic Crime in The Police Chief, Oct 1989 Read the full notes
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
Attributed to Reverend Theodore Hesburgh in Sol Gordon Let's Make Sex a Household Word: A Guide for Parents and Children (John Day Company, 1975), p. 79 Read the full notes
Religious wars are basically people killing each other over who has the better imaginary friend.
There is no known basis to attribute this saying to Napoleon. It is found (unattributed) in a Usenet post from July 1999. Read the full notes
A statement of Jeanne Larson which became widely attributed to Thompson after its appearance just below an actual quote and citation of Thompson in Seeds of Peace (1986), edited by Jeanne Larson, p. 261. Read the full notes
Actual source is New Thought author Elbert Hubbard in his magazine The Fra, volume 12, issue no. 6, on page 171: . See this Reddit post for more discussion Read the full notes
Manuel II Palaiologos, in the 7th of the 26 Dialogues Held With A Certain Persian, the Worthy Mouterizes, in Anakara of Galatia (1391), this quote became the subject of controversy when it was used by Benedict XIV in his lecture "Faith… Read the full notes
When the rich rob the poor, it's called business. When the poor fight back, it's called violence.
By the aut0nomist on Deviantart, August 10 2011 citation and subsequently referenced later by Alfred Remulla on Twitter (@alfredremulla_) September 10, 2011 citation. Read the full notes
What we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is its exact opposite.
This was not Wordsworth's viewpoint at all. The words are in fact those of Bertrand Russell in his Sceptical Essays (1928), p. 157 Read the full notes
"Work Me, Lord", from her album I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama! (1969) was written by her bandmate Nick Gravenites, whom she credits at the start of her famous performance of the song at the Woodstock Music Festival, as well as… Read the full notes
Keep government poor and remain free.
Attributed to Holmes in a speech by Ronald Reagan (June 15,1982); reported as a misattribution by Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 46-47. Read the full notes