Were art to redeem man, it could do so only by saving him from the seriousness of life and restoring him to an unexpected boyishness. | José Ortega y Gasset, in "Art a Thing of No Consequence" in The Dehumanization of Art (1925) Read the full notes
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.
Those who can, do, those who cannot, teach.
However, the related quote, "Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach" likely originates from Lee Shulman in his explanation of Aristotlean views on professional mastery | Aristotle, whose works formed the heart of the medieval… Read the full notes
A variant is found in Irving Oyle's The New American Medicine Show (1979) on p. 163, where Oyle writes: 'There is a story about Albert Einstein's view of human existence. Asked to pose the most vital question facing humanity, he replied… Read the full notes
The best government is that which governs least.
Motto of United States Magazine and Democratic Review. First used in introductory essay by editor John L. O'Sullivan in the premier issue (October 1837, p. 6). Attributed to Jefferson by Henry David Thoreau, this statement is cited in his… Read the full notes
The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it.
Attributed in A Dictionary of Thoughts (1908) by Tryon Edwards; this is earlier attributed to Theodore Roosevelt in Life of William McKinley (1901) by Samuel Fallows, and could be derived from the remarks of Ulysses S. Grant in his First… Read the full notes
Translated from: Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein. | Source: Gutenberg-DE | Translation source: Hollingdale Read the full notes
I'd rather have a German division in front of me, than a French one behind.
Misattributed by former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger on Fox News. Patton commanded French troops, the 2nd Armored Division commanded by Philippe Leclerc, integrated in the Third Army, and had rocky but friendly relations with the… Read the full notes
Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
For cunningly of old was the celebrated saying revealed: evil sometimes seems good to a man whose mind a god leads to destruction. | Sophocles, Antigone 620-3, a play pre-dating any of Euripides' surviving plays. An ancient commentary… Read the full notes
The first citation appears in a 1946 translation of Leo Tolstoy's Recollections and Essays by Oxford University Press. The claim made that it is from Marcus Aurelius. Nothing closely resembling it appears in Meditations, nor does it appear… Read the full notes
Tell Hill he must come up … Strike the tent.
Reported as his last words. There are suggestions that Lee's biographer, Douglas Southall Freeman embellished Lee's final moments; as Lee suffered a stroke on September 28, 1870. Dying two weeks later, on October 12, 1870, shortly after 9… Read the full notes
Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
"The earliest instance located by [QUOTEINVESTIGATOR.COM] was printed in 1938 in a journal based in London and written for municipal and county engineers. The phrase was used comically to discount the criticisms directed at housing… Read the full notes
Your action, and your action alone, determines your worth.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte in The Vocation of Man [Die Bestimmung des Menschen] (1800), p. 94 : "You are here, not for idle contemplation of yourself, not for brooding over devout sensations — no, for action you are here; action, and action… Read the full notes
These types of mass shootings don't happen in other countries.
"At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency." citation | "We are the only… Read the full notes
It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.
Remarks on The Birth of a Nation attributed to Wilson by writer Thomas Dixon, after White House screening of the film, which was based on Dixon's The Clansman. Wilson later said that he disapproved of the "unfortunate film." Wilson aide… Read the full notes
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his… Read the full notes
I am not so much concerned with the return on capital as I am with the return of capital.
Forbes Guide to the Markets: Becoming a Savvy Investor (2009) by Forbes, LLC, Marc M. Groz | The National Underwriter, Volume 45 (1941), p. 12: "As Eddie Cantor put it years ago, after getting burned in the stock market, the life insurance… Read the full notes
Unsourced variant : Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. Read the full notes
According to research by Mark T. Shirey, citing Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations by Ralph Keyes, 1992, this quote was first uttered by mid-nineteenth century French historian and… Read the full notes
If a gentleman happens to be born in a stable, it does not follow that he should be called a horse.
The poor old Duke! what shall I say of him? To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse. | Daniel O'Connell, in a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Shaw's Authenticated Report of the Irish… Read the full notes
If we are alone in the Universe, it sure seems like an awful waste of space.
Sagan delivered this quote during the symposium on "Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man", held at Boston University (20 November 1972), published in Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man (1973) edited by Richard Berendzen; Life Beyond… Read the full notes