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.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Source: Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers (1926), reprinted in Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, 1991, ISBN 0-671-73916-6], Ch. II: Aristotle and Greek Science; part VI… Read the full notes
A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there.
When I hear of an 'equity' in a case like this, I am reminded of a blind man in a dark room — looking for a black hat — which isn't there. | Lord Bowen, as quoted in "Pie Powder", Being Dust from the Law Courts, Collected and Recollected… Read the full notes
Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.
In George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman, act II, there is the following dialogue: TANNER: Let me remind you that Voltaire said that what was too silly to be said could be sung. STRAKER. It wasn't Voltaire: it was Bow Mar Shay. TANNER. I… Read the full notes
It is very remarkable, that in France, where there is but one religion, the sauces are infinitely varied, whilst in England, where the different sects are innumerable, there is, we may say, but one single sauce. Melted butter, in English… Read the full notes
Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.
La solitude est certainement une belle chose, mais il y a plaisir d'avoir quelqu'un qui sache répondre, à qui on puisse dire de temps en temps, que c'est un belle chose. (Solitude is certainly a fine thing; but there is pleasure in having… Read the full notes
A lie can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.
Though widely quoted from his speech in the House of Commons, (1 November 1976) published in Hansard, House of Commons, 5th series, vol. 918, col. 976.; this is actually a very old paraphrase of a statement of the 19th century minister… Read the full notes
If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
There has been a lot of talk lately about the burdens of the Presidency. Decisions that the President has to make often affect the lives of tens of millions of people around the world, but that does not mean that they should take longer to… Read the full notes
Similar assertions have often been attributed to Barry Goldwater. Some of the inspiration for such expressions may lie in "The Criminality of the State" by Albert Jay Nock in American Mercury (March 1939) where he stated: "You get the same… Read the full notes
You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.
In the context of the Soviet Union, Time magazine attributes it to Lazar Kaganovich. | Walter Duranty associated with Stalin in The New York Times. | "But – to put it brutally – you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, and the… Read the full notes
From Jane Soames’s authorized translation of Mussolini’s “The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism,” Hogarth Press, London, (1933), p. 20. Soames knew left from right in Italian, translating “Left” correctly on page 7 “a Left… Read the full notes
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
My father taught me many things here. He taught me in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close but your enemies closer. | Niccolò Machiavelli, who is also sometimes credited, wrote on the subject in The Prince | It is easier for… Read the full notes
Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.
Cf. James William Norman, A Comparison of Tendencies in Secondary Education in England and the United States (New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1922), [//books.google.com/books?id=qrmgAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA140 p. 140] (emphasis… Read the full notes
Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.
Georges Duhamel in THE HEART'S DOMAIN (1919). As it was composed in French, the wording in English may vary in translation. Theodore Geisel Dr. Seuss was born in 1904, and would have been about 15 years old at the time that it was… Read the full notes
You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.
Investigating the source of the quote, Zachary G. Augustine, 2017 Read the full notes
Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.
This is not a quote by Kerouac. It's a quote by CBS broadcaster Charles Kuralt who used to present a TV news segment called 'On the Road' (which is probably how the confusion arose). This particular statement by Kuralt was made in May 1996… Read the full notes
If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made. | Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made. | Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made. | Laws are like sausages. You… Read the full notes
If you're going through hell, keep going.
True origin unknown. Finest Hour described it as "not verifiable in any of the 50 million published words by and about him" (Finest Hour, The Journal of Winston Churchill, Number 145, Winter 2009–10, p. 9). A similar quotation: "If you're… Read the full notes
Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.
Earliest source located that attributes this to Einstein is the 1975 book The Nature of Scientific Discovery: A Symposium Commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Birth of Nicolaus Copernicus edited by Owen Gingerich, p. 585. But long… Read the full notes
This has commonly been attributed to Orwell but has not been found in any of his writings. Quote Investigator found the earliest known appearance in a 1993 Washington Times essay by Richard Grenier: "As George Orwell pointed out, people… Read the full notes
We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.
The earliest evidence for quotes of this type comes from the "Love Project", an initiative begun at 1970 at a high school in Brooklyn, New York by teacher Arleen Lorrance. According to the project's website, "Be the change you want to see… Read the full notes