Saidbook

Misattributed quotes

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.

Live for something! Do good and leave behind you a monument of virtue that the storm of time can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy on the hearts of the thousands you come in contact with, year by year, and you will never be forgotten. Your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind, as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds will shine as the stars of heaven.

Thomas Chalmers Misattributed P. 243. in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

P. 243. in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895). This is actually a quote from The golden chain; or, The Christian graces illustrated and enforced (1855) by John Harvey Read the full notes

Failure is not an option.

Eugene F. Kranz Misattributed Statement attributed to him in the film Apollo 13 (1995)

Statement attributed to him in the film Apollo 13 (1995), which he had not actually used in that crisis. He later used the phrase as the title of his autobiography. Read the full notes

I did not believe this when I heard about it. I watched your videos. I started a life in the ghetto... I banged like a fool 'till I woke up. I was not suppressed by any man or woman, white or black. I worked myself up from Compton High School to a scholarship at Stanford University and I did it myself. I take pride in what I have accomplished both as a black man, and an athlete. I could have stayed in L.A. and banged and used drugs and thought that it was all the white man's fault. But that would be a lie. We are who we want to be; that is what is great about America. We are all born with the same chances in life.. White or black, you choose to be a woman-abusing racist loudmouth. I would love to debate you on national T.V. And if you condone senseless black shootings of whites and police officers, you better make that a debate on Springer, so I can bitch-slap your ignorant ass!

Richard Sherman Misattributed

Posted on a website under the alias "RSherman25", quoted in "Richard Sherman Blasts 'Black Lives Matter' Activist" (14 September 2015), by Dylan Gwinn, NewsBusters (2015), Reston, Virginia: Media Research Center. Sherman has said that… Read the full notes

In the Colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Scrip. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers. In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay no one.

Benjamin Franklin Misattributed Money and Men by Robert McCann Rice (1941)

Quoted in Money and Men by Robert McCann Rice (1941) but no prior source is extant. Read the full notes