List of Misquotations - Wikiquote Page 1 of 22
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List of misquotations - Wikiquote Page 1 of 22 List of misquotations From Wikiquote This page consists of things that many people think are correct quotations but are actually incorrect. This does not include quotations that were actually blunders by the people that said them. See also: Quotations on misquotation. Contents ■ 1 Misattributed ■ 2 Unsourced, unverified, or other best guesses ■ 3 Commonly misquoted ■ 3.1 People ■ 4 Further reading Misattributed ■ "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[citation needed] ■ "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto.", Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (played by Judy Garland) ■ This phrase was never uttered by the character. What she really said was Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more. ■ "Oooh, Betty", Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (played by Michael Crawford) https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations 06-Mar-13 List of misquotations - Wikiquote Page 2 of 22 ■ He only said the line in one episode of the entire series. Most of the time, he would let out a quavering "Oooh!" ■ "Not a lot of people know that.", Michael Caine, British actor. ■ Peter Sellers said this whilst doing an impression of Michael Caine and he has become associated with the quote despite having not said it in the first place. http://www.metro.co.uk/film/858942-michael-caine-i-never-said-not- a-lot-of-people-know-that ■ “Nice guys finish last.” Leo Durocher (1906–1991), US baseball manager. ■ As reported in the biography, Nice Guys Finish Last, (by Leo Durocher, with Ed Linn, Simon & Schuster, 1975), Durocher’s remark was his reply to being asked his opinion of the 1946 New York Giants. He actually said “Take a look at them. All nice guys. They’ll finish last. Nice guys – finish last.” Elision of the subordinate conjunction in the final sentence turned an evaluation into a declaration that nice people are doomed to failure. ■ “The two most common elements in the Universe are Hydrogen and Stupidity.” Harlan Ellison (born May 27, 1934), US author. ■ Although stated by Ellison in a non-fiction essay in the mid-1960s, this quote has been frequently misattributed to Frank Zappa. In Zappa's autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989), on page 239, Zappa does make a similar comment: "Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe." ■ "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" Voltaire ■ Thought to be words of Voltaire, it was actually written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall. ■ "If I can't dance I don't want to be in (/a part of) your revolution." (also: "If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution") ■ Widely attributed to Emma Goldman but, according to Goldman scholar Alix Kates Shulman, instead the invention of anarchist printer Jack Frager for a small batch of Goldman T-shirts he printed in 1973. In her memoirs, Goldman does remember being censured for dancing and states: ■ "I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement should not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. 'I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things.'" – Living My Life (New York: Knopf, 1934), p. 56 https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations 06-Mar-13 List of misquotations - Wikiquote Page 3 of 22 ■ See Shulman, Alix Kates 'Dances With Feminists (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Features/dances_shulman.html) , Women's Review of Books, Vol. IX, no. 3, December 1991. ■ "Just the facts, ma'am." ■ This, the best known quote from the Jack Webb series Dragnet, was never said by Sgt. Friday in any of the Dragnet radio or television series. The quote was, however, adopted in the 1987 Dragnet pseudo-parody film starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks in which Aykroyd played Sgt. Joe Friday. ■ Correct versions: "All we want are the facts, ma'am." "All we know are the facts, ma'am." ■ ■ Mikkelson, Barbara and David P. (29 March 2002). Just the Facts (http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/dragnet.htm) . Urban Legends. snopes.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-18. ■ We trained hard . but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization. ■ Usually misattributed to Petronius Arbiter ■ Actually by Charlton Ogburn (1911–1998) from "Merrill's Marauders: The truth about an incredible adventure" (http://www.harpers.org/archive/1957/01/0007289) in the January 1957 issue of Harper's Magazine ■ Actual quote: "We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization." ■ see Brown, David S. "Petronius or Ogburn?", Public Administration Review, Vol. 38, No. 3 (May – June, 1978), p. 296 [1] (http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0033-3352(197805%2F06)38%3A3% 3C296%3APOO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z) ■ "Elementary, my dear Watson" – Sherlock Holmes https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations 06-Mar-13 List of misquotations - Wikiquote Page 4 of 22 ■ This phrase was never uttered by the character in any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's written works. Though "Elementary," and "...my dear Watson." both do appear near the beginning of The Crooked Man (1893), it is the "...my dear Watson" that appears first, and "Elementary" is the succinct reply to Watson's exclamation a few lines of dialogue later. This is the closest these four immortal words ever appear together in the canon. ■ The first documented occurrence of this quote appears in the P. G. Wodehouse novel, "Psmith, Journalist" (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2607) , which was serialized in The Captain magazine (1909-10) then published in book form (1915) and contains the following dialog: "That's right," said Billy Windsor. "Of course." "Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary," murmured Psmith. ■ The end justifies the means. ■ Often misattributed to Machiavelli's The Prince, in which the idea appears but not the phrase itself, and to many other writers who repeat this aphorism which is at least as old as Ovid, Heroides (c. 10 BC): Exitus acta probat. See also: Means and ends. ■ "There's a sucker born every minute." ■ While this is often attributed to P.T. Barnum, it seems to have been said by one of his competitors, commenting on one of Barnum's exhibits. ■ See: There's a sucker born every minute ■ On the whole, I would rather be in Philadelphia. ■ Misattributed to W.C. Fields ■ Actual quote: "Here Lies W.C. Fields: I would rather be living in Philadelphia." Presented as one of "A group of artists [writing] their own epitaphs" in a 1925 issue of Vanity Fair — which may or may not have been written by the figures whose names appear with the epitaphs. ■ see Amory, Cleveland, and Bradlee, Frederic, Vanity Fair: Selections from America's Most Memorable Magazine, a Cavlcade of the 1920s and 1930s, Viking Press, 1960, page 103. ■ "I invented the internet." ■ Misattributed to Al Gore. ■ In fact Al Gore did not claim to have "invented" the internet. This a distortion of statements in which Gore claims credit for his role within Congress in funding the internet's development. While popularized by Gore's political opponents as a quote from Gore, the initial use of the word "invented" in this context was by Wired News author Declan McCullagh, https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations 06-Mar-13 List of misquotations - Wikiquote Page 5 of 22 who in turn was paraphrasing House Majority Leader Armey's criticism of Gore's claims. The correct Gore quote from CNN's Late Edition: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." ■ Finkelstein, Seth (28 April 2006). Al Gore "invented the Internet" – resources (http://sethf.com/gore/) . sethf.com. Retrieved on 2011-6-16. ■ "Theirs but to do or die!" ■ This is a misstatement of a line from Tennyson’s “The Charge Of The Light Brigade”, which actually says “Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die”. ■ See http://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade_(poem) ■ "Far from the maddening crowd" ■ This is a misstatement of a line from Thomas Gray’s poem “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751): "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray." The line was later used by Thomas Hardy as the title of his novel “Far From The Madding Crowd”.