TOP 10 FAMOUS HISTORIC MISQUOTES
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| Winston Churchill |
Quote: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” (“Je désapprouve ce que vous dites, mais je defendrai à la mort votre droit à le dire.”)
What Voltaire actually said was, “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too,” from Voltaire’s “Essay on Tolerance.” That certainly doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
The misquote actually comes from a 1907 book called Friends of Voltaire, by Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
9. GEORGE WASHINGTON
Quote: “I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree.”
Washington never said this. In fact, the story was first told in the 1800's by biographer Parson Weems. In Weems’s book, the tree was not “chopped down.”
8. EDWARD MURPHY
Quote: “Anything that can go wrong, will.” (Murphy’s Law)
Edward Murphy did not say this. What he most likely did say is something along the lines of, “If there’s more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then somebody will do it that way.”
7. MARK TWAIN
Quote: “The only two certainties in life are death and taxes.”
This is more a problem of misattribution rather than misquotation. Mark Twain did not coin this phrase; it was actually coined by Benjamin Franklin in a letter written to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1879.
6. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Quote: “Gild the lily.”
This is a misquote from Shakespeare’s King John. The actual quote is, “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily.”
5. NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
Quote: “The ends justify the means.”
This is a very liberal interpretation of what Machiavelli actually said: “One must consider the final result.” Rather different meanings.
4. WINSTON CHURCHILL
Quote: “The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy, and the lash.”
Churchill did not utter this phrase at all; his assistant, Anthony Montague-Brown, did. What Churchill did say later was that he wished he had said it.
3. QUEEN MARIE ANTOINETTE
Quote: “If they have no bread, let them eat cake!” (“S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche!”)
Queen Marie Antoinette is still much maligned over this quote, and she never even said it! It was actually from the book Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in which he said: “I recalled the make-shift of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread and who replied, ‘Let them eat brioche.”’ The attribution to Queen Marie is no doubt anti-royal propaganda during a very troubled time in French history.
2. PAUL REVERE
Quote: “The British are coming!”
Revere’s mission depended on secrecy and the countryside was filled with British army patrols; also, most colonial residents at the time considered themselves British. The quotation is more likely based on (although not taken verbatim from) the later famous poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
1. PHILIP SHERIDAN
Quote: “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
What General Sheridan is alleged to have said is, “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.” He actually denied saying anything remotely like it.
From "The Ultimate Book of Top 10 Lists" Production manager: Judith Metzener, editorial staff: Jennifer Privateer, Lauren Harrison, Elyce Petker and Kate Kellogg, Ulysses Press, USA,2010. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.
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