Misattributed quotes

A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.

Widely attributed to Erdős, this actually originates with Alfréd Rényi, according to My Brain Is Open : The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdős (1998) by Bruce Schechter, p. 155 Read the full notes

There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.

Sometimes attributed to Ackerman this actually originates with Nicolas Chamfort, as quoted in The Cynic's Breviary : Maxims and Anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort (1902) as translated by William G. Hutchison, p. 37 Read the full notes

We cannot seek or attain health, wealth, learning, justice or kindness in general. Action is always specific, concrete, individualized, unique.

Actually from one of John Dewey's lectures, reprinted in his Reconstruction in Philosophy (2004), p. 96 Read the full notes

Reality is in the observations, not in the electron.

A summary of Heisenberg's view by Paul Davies in his introduction to Physics and Philosophy Read the full notes

Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.

Quote is actually from Tom Peters: The Best Corporate Strategy? None, Of Course. Chicago Tribune July 11, 1994 Read the full notes

Life's cares are comforts; such by Heav'n design'd;
He that hath none must make them, or be wretched.

Another couplet from Edward Young: this time Night Thoughts, Night II, line 160 Read the full notes

Santayana, indeed, is the Moses of the new naturalism, who discerned the promised land from afar but still wanders himself in the desert realms of being.

John Herman Randall, "The Nature of Naturalism", epilogue to Naturalism and the Human Spirit (1944) Read the full notes

Unless Socialists are prepared openly and avowedly to profess that the satisfaction of the needs of each individual must be their very first aim; unless they have prepared public opinion to establish itself firmly at this standpoint, the people in their next attempt to free themselves will once more suffer a defeat.

This appeared in "The First Work of the Revolution" an article by an unidentified author in Freedom, Vol. 1, No. (11 August 1887), where another article had been written by Kropotkin. Read the full notes

England is a Nation of Shopkeepers.

This phrase is often attributed to Napoleon, though this claim is disputed and earlier occurrences exist, notably The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, section vii, by Adam Smith. Read the full notes

I've been around so long, I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.

Apparently said by Oscar Levant: "I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin" (as quoted in The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood (1972) by Max Wilk). Read the full notes

I have found it to be true that the older I've become the better my life has become.

Rush Limbaugh, as quoted in Old Age Is Always 15 Years Older Than I Am (2001) by Randy Voorhees Read the full notes

History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes

Often attributed to Mark Twain, without evidence. First occurrence was in 1970. Many similar versions by various people have occurred. Read the full notes

Business is the salt of life.

This is a proverb which can be found in Robert Codrington's "Youth's Behaviour, Second Part" (1672) and in Thomas Fuller's "Gnomologia" (1732) Read the full notes

There is no freedom without justice.

Although this maxim is associated with Wiesenthal (e.g. "Honoring Simon Wiesenthal", Congressional Record—House, Vol. 151, Pt. 15, 21 September 2005, p. 20804), he did not originate the quote, which appears in the context of the labor… Read the full notes

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

G. K. Chesterton, in "On Holland" in Illustrated London News (29 April 1922) Read the full notes

When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday.

Here, in Letter 36 "To Casulanus" (396 A.D.), Augustine is quoting Ambrose. | Origin of the phrase: "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Read the full notes

Our bodies are shaped to bear children, and our lives are a working out of the processes of creation. All our ambitions and intelligence are beside that great elemental point.

Sometimes attributed to Augustine, but is from Phyllis McGinley, The Province of the Heart, "The Honor of Being a Woman" (1959). Read the full notes

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song

Although it appears on U.S. postage featuring Angelou, this is actually a variant quote from the work of poet Joan Walsh Anglund. Read the full notes

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts not breaths; // In feelings, not in figures on a dial. // We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives // Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.

This is actually from the poem "We live in deeds..." by Philip James Bailey. This explains the strange pattern of capitalization. Read the full notes

Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.

Though she is quoted as saying this in a 1996 interview, she is also quoted as saying it is a maxim which she follows as a Christian Scientist; it comes from the Christian Science Hymnal, Hymn 249, "O, when we see God's mercy" by Vivian… Read the full notes