Misattributed quotes

I was not a little surprised to find that out of ten words in Du Perron’s Zend Dictionary, six or seven were pure Sanskrit.

In Har Bilas Sarda, Hindu Superiority, 3rd ed. (1922) p. 168. Paraphrasing Works, vol. 1 (1799) p. 83 Read the full notes

Are they heroes or mere dreamers?

David R. Slavitt, The Voyage of the Argo: The Argonautica of Gaius Valerius Flaccus (1999), Book I, lines 98–99 (p. 3). There is no corresponding text in the Latin (cf. Argon. 1.79–80). Read the full notes

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. The saying goes you live by the sword you shall die by the sword...It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

This statement by an unknown author has also been wrongly attributed to Julius Caesar, as well as to Shakespeare's play on his assassination and its aftermath, but there are no records of it prior to late 2000. It has been debunked at… Read the full notes

Hey Ballmer, suck my yellow balls

"Microsoft's Ballmer beat off Asian genital challenge" ~ The Register (7 January 2005) | "Nintendo Responds to Fake Interview" ~ Advanced Media Network (8 January 2005) Read the full notes

When a child turns 12, he should be kept in a barrel and fed through the bunghole, until he reaches 16 ... at which time you plug the bunghole.

Attributed to Twain but never sourced, this quotation should not be regarded as authentic. Read the full notes

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

George Bernard Shaw never said these words, but Charles F. Brannan did. Read the full notes

A lot of what acting is, is paying attention.

Robert Redford, as quoted in Hollywood's All-Time Greatest Stars : A Quiz Book (2003) by Andrew J. Rausch, p. 216 Read the full notes

Men use care in purchasing a horse, and are neglectful in choosing friends.

Attributed to John Mair, not John Muir, in Toasts and Tributes, edited by Arthur Gray (Rohde and Haskins, New York, 1904) page 154. Read the full notes

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, drew a circle with a piece of red chalk and said: "When men, even unknowingly, are to meet one day, whatever may befall each, whatever the diverging paths, on the said day, they will inevitably come together in the red circle."

Director Jean-Pierre Melville made it up for the epigraph of Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle). Read the full notes

One man with a gun can control 100 without one.

Not found in Lenin's Collected Works. Began to surface on the internet in the mid-1990s. Read the full notes

Of Every One-Hundred Men, Ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are nothing but targets, Nine are real fighters... We are lucky to have them... They make the battle. Ah but the One, One of them is a Warrior... and He will bring the others back.

Attributed to "Hericletus c. 500 B.C." [sic] in The Tactical Rifle (1999) by Gabriel Suarez; no earlier source has been found. Read the full notes

When we've been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.

These lines were not written by Newton. They have often been accreted to various hymns, including "Amazing Grace", since the mid-nineteenth century. Read the full notes

Water is the soul of the earth.

Also attributed to Lucy Larcom: "150 Quotes About Water", positivethinkingmind.com (n.d.) Read the full notes

"寧贈友邦,不與家奴." or 宁予於外盗, 不予於家贼. (We would rather give our state to "neighboring friends" (foreigners), not to our household slaves ̈(Han Chinese).)

The anti-Qing reformer Liang Qichao accused Gangyi of saying this after the failure of the 1898 Hundred Days Reform, not Cixi. This was never attributed to Cixi by any historian or person until anti-Qing Han nationalists started posting… Read the full notes

""Admiral, asked McCrea, "is this story true that I hear about?" "Well, John, I don't know," replied King, deadpan. "Which story is it?" "They tell me," McCrea went on, "you were heard to say recently, 'Yes, damn it, when they get in trouble they send for the sons of bitches.'" King couldn't help but smile. "No, John, I didn't say it. But I will say this: If I had thought of it, I would have said it.""

Conversation between Captain John L. McCrea and King in 1942, shortly after the latter's appointment as Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet. As quoted in The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy and King- The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the… Read the full notes

We want to fight ferociously against the fanatical, unconscious and snobbish religion of the past, which is nourished by the evil influence of museums. We rebel against the supine admiration of old canvases, old statues and old objects, and against the enthusiasm for all that is worm-eaten, dirty and corroded by time; we believe that the common contempt for everything young, new and palpitating with life is unjust and criminal.

Sometimes attributed to Marinetti as on this page, the quote is actually from the "Manifesto of Futurist Painters" (11 February 1910) whose primary author was Umberto Boccioni, with additional contributions from Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà… Read the full notes

Audacity, audacity, always audacity!

We must dare, dare again, always dare! | Georges Danton, speech, Assemblée legislative, Paris (1792-09-02), reported in Le Moniteur (1792-09-04) Read the full notes

Taxation without representation is tyranny.

Attributed as a statement by Otis in court in 1761, but no record of the remark has been found prior to the 16th century Read the full notes

Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.

This statement by an unknown author has also been wrongly attributed to William Shakespeare, but there are no records of it prior to late 2001. It has been debunked at Snopes.com Read the full notes

The marriage-bed is the most degenerating influence of the social order.

Alice Groff, "The Marriage Bed", The Woman Rebel, V.I No. 5, p. 39 (edited by Margaret Sanger) Read the full notes