Misattributed quotes

"Don’t threaten us with cutting off your aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid."

Begin's own recount of the exchange, at "acerbic" visit to the US Congress in 1982 (during the Lebanon War, to which Reagan himself reportedly referred to as "holocaust" [Ottawa Citizen, Aug 30, 1982]), as found in the official statement… Read the full notes

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it comes and sits softly on your shoulder.

J. Richard Lessor, motivational posters in the 1970s produced by Argus Communications. Read the full notes

When anyone says he’s a country boy, put your hand on your wallet.

While Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said this (or a variation), it was not original to him. See barrypopik.com and Texas, A Modern History: Revised Edition. Read the full notes

Politics is the art of the possible.

Franklin says this line in the HBO miniseries John Adams, but it is actually a quote of Otto von Bismarck. Read the full notes

I am not concerned that you fall; I am concerned that you arise.

Attributed in Deborah Gillan Straub (1996), Native North American Voices Read the full notes

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

It has also been attributed by Doug Rosenberg and Matt Stephens (2007) Use Case Driven Object Modeling with UMLTheory and Practice p. xxvii as well as Walter J. Savitch, Pascal: An Introduction to the Art and Science of Programming (1984)… Read the full notes

What's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, & Understanding?

Though Costello's cover became a hit, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding", was actually written by Nick Lowe. Read the full notes

Not only are the riches of friends common property, but their wisdom and forethought also ought to be so.

False fragment created by Grotius due to a misreading of Suda κ 2549 (Meineke 1823:8); cf. frg. 13 K.-A. (tr. C. T. Ramage, 1864) Read the full notes

I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

This quote is often attributed to William Penn, but there are no records of it before the 19th century, and its actual source seems to have most likely been another prominent Quaker, Stephen Grellet. Read the full notes

Defy the law! – Write the heartbroken poetry of the World!

This appears not to be a Kerouac quote. It has not been found in any of Kerouac's published work. Read the full notes

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.

Attributed in Evan Esar (1949), The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations Read the full notes

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

According to the Jefferson Library, this is among the many statements misattributed to Jefferson. Read the full notes

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.

Sir Joshua Reynolds. Edison liked the quote and posted it around his factory. Read the full notes

War is a series of catastrophes which result in victory.

This is more commonly attributed to Georges Clemenceau, and the earliest published attribution to Pike is in 2008, without citation of sources. Read the full notes

Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.

Attributed to Bonhoeffer on the internet, but this is from a remark about him, not by him, in Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (2010), p. 486 Read the full notes

To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

Confucius, as quoted in Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau, Ch. 1 Read the full notes

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.

D. Goleman (1985). Vital lies, simple truths. New York: Simon & Schuster, p. 24. Read the full notes

Islamophobia: a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.

Additional information Read the full notes

Art is on the side of the oppressed. Think before you shudder at the simplistic dictum and its heretical definition of the freedom of art. For if art is freedom of the spirit, how can it exist within the oppressors?

Nadine Gordimer, "The Essential Gesture: Writers and Responsibility", The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, University of Michigan (12 October 1984), p. 9 Read the full notes

Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Already Taken.

Anonymous advertising copywriter for Menards chain of hardware stores (2000), according to Quote Investigator Read the full notes