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.
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Also in What Time Is It? You Mean Now?: Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All, Simon and Schuster, 2003, ISBN 0743244532, p. 33 | Berra says this is part of driving directions to his house in Montclair, New Jersey. There is a… Read the full notes
Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.
"Integrity means doing the right thing at all times, without hesitation" is found in a 1943 syndicated newspaper column. Elsie Robinson, "Listen, World!", Evening News (Harrisburg, PA), 1943-02-24, p. 10. | "Integrity means doing the right… Read the full notes
The utmost extent of man's knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.
These words, sometimes attributed to Addison, are not found in his works, but in The Spectator, no. 54, he translates the following words of Socrates, as quoted in Plato's Apology: "When I left him, I reasoned thus with myself: I am wiser… Read the full notes
The truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose and it will defend itself.
The Word of God can take care of itself, and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it. See you that lion. They have caged him for his preservation; shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes! See how a band of armed… Read the full notes
No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.
This quote is often misattributed to Hubbard. He helped popularize the quote, but never wrote it himself. The earliest instance that Quote Investigator could locate was in an article from The Boston Cooking-School Magazine titled… Read the full notes
Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
Attributed to Emerson in The Gift of Depression: Twenty-one Inspirational Stories Sharing Experience, Strength, and Hope (2001) by John F. Brown, p. 56, no prior occurrence of this statement has been located; it seems to be derived from… Read the full notes
Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!
Spoken by George C. Scott in the film Patton, portraying his defeat of what he thought were forces under the command of Erwin Rommel; however, the book portrayed in that film is purely fictional — Rommel never finished the book he was… Read the full notes
If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.
Not attributed to Jefferson until the 21st century. May be a loose paraphrasing of a passage from Declaration of Independence (1776): "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to… Read the full notes
This is a variant expression of a sentiment which is often attributed to Tocqueville or Alexander Fraser Tytler, but the earliest known occurrence is as an unsourced attribution to Tytler in "This is the Hard Core of Freedom" by Elmer T… Read the full notes
Also attributed to Marx by Rand Paul in "The Long Stand," ch. 1 of Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America (New York, N. Y.: Center Street, 26 May 2015), p. 5. | This version is attributed to Sir Ernest Benn (Henry… Read the full notes
Quantity has a quality all its own.
Stalin may have said that way before World War II, there is evidence in his Russian-language books, for example here. Read the full notes
Watch a man at play for an hour and you can learn more about him than in talking to him for a year.
You can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. | Attributed to Plato in Food Is the Frosting-Company Is the Cake (2007) by Maggie Marshall | You learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a… Read the full notes
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle. Plato? Philo of Alexandria? Read the full notes
The truth will set you free — but first it will make you miserable.
Attributed without citation to Mark Twain as well as Garfield in recent years, this may have arisen sometime in the 1970s. The earliest discovered citation is a poster in a residential treatment program for alcoholics in Syracuse, New… Read the full notes
The further backward you look, the further forward you can see.
The attribution of the mistaken form of the quote to Churchill dates from at least 1959. Read the full notes
It is better of course to know useless things than to know nothing.
Seneca, Epistle 88, as seen in the following: "You may sweep all these theories in with the superfluous troops of 'liberal' studies; the one class of men give me a knowledge that will be of no use to me, the other class do away with any… Read the full notes
The U.N. is as effective as its member states allow it to be.
The United Nations is an inter-governmental body. It is made up of member states, and it can only be as effective as its member states allow it to be. | A variant was also prominent in Ch. 6 of the Preventing Deadly Conflict : Final Report… Read the full notes
We will hang the capitalists with the rope that they sell us.
Often attributed to Lenin or Stalin, less often to Marx. According to the book, "They Never Said It", p. 64, the phrase derives from a rumour that Lenin said this to one of his close associates, Grigori Zinoviev, not long after a meeting… Read the full notes
This quote is frequently attributed to Epictetus, e.g. by Brigid Delaney, How not to panic during the coronavirus pandemic: welcome hard times like a Stoic, The Guardian, 17 March 2020. The quote is also frequently attributed to Epicurus… Read the full notes
This text is commentary (not a quotation of Dewey) that was added to this page at [//en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=John_Dewey&diff=prev&oldid=896209 05:36, 2 February 2009 (UTC)]; the text was later removed from this page but not… Read the full notes