Guess Who Didn't Say it? Bonus Points for Knowing the True Story

[phinds]

I think that was Oscar Wilde...?

*google*google*google*

George Bernard Shaw. So I was right, after all - Wilde didn't say it.

Actually, as I pointed out earlier in the thread, there were several people who didn't say it (that is, there are several to whom it has been attributed).

 

[Galteeth]

"Beam me up Scotty."

This was never said on the original Star Trek.

 

[Galteeth]

It's most often attributed to Mark Twain... plus to Abraham Lincoln, Confuscious, George Eliot... and any of them could have said it in private conversation, or something very similar, but none of them said this in any of their published works.

Its source probably comes from this:

"Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." -- Bible, 'Proverbs' 17:28

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/17/remain-silent/

 

[Galteeth]

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Benjamin Disraeli

 

[Borek]

Benjamin Disraeli

Or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics

 

[jedishrfu]

"mark twain"

 

[BobG]

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. "

Nelson Mandela. It doesn't surprise me that he wouldn't be the originator of the quote, since a famous person quoting a less famous person tends to link the quote to the person people remember (just like songs - how many people know the songwriter?). What surprises me is that he apparently never used this in a speech at all.

Who did say it? Marrianne Williamson in her book, "A Return to Love".

Williamson reveals how we each can become a miracle worker by accepting God and by the expression of love in our daily lives. Does that quote sound different based on who its attributed to and based on its context?

Just by coincidence, I was watching a movie called "Coach Carter". The coach repeatedly asks players on his team what their deepest fear is, with the players asking each other, "Why does he keep saying that?"

Finally, during one climactic scene, one of the players, Timo Cruz, answers his question with this quote.

 

[BobG]

Okay, one that a famous politician actually did quote, even though the quote is not attributed to him (the politician also attributed it to the wrong person, which actually isn't surprising knowing the politician).

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

This quote is usually attributed to Alexander Tytler (sometimes with the last name misspelled). Alexander Tytler was a Scottish historian in the 1700's. A real quote from Tytler:

"Patriotism always exists in the greatest degree in rude nations, and in an early period of society. Like all other affections and passions, it operates with the greatest force where it meets with the greatest difficulties ... but in a state of ease and safety, as if wanting its appropriate nourishment, it languishes and decays." ... "It is a law of nature to which no experience has ever furnished an exception, that the rising grander and opulence of a nation must be balanced by the decline of its heroic virtues

So the cynicism is true to his general attitude about democracy, governments, and nations in general, but he never actually said the paragraph about people voting themselves gifts from the government. Earliest known use is in a letter to the editor in an Oklahoma newpaper in the 50's.

None the less, Ronald Reagan loved this quote and wanted to use it in a speech supporting Barry Goldwater's run for President. I'm not sure of the reasoning that went into the use of that quote. One could almost imagine someone telling Reagan that the quote was bogus; that Tytler never actually said that. But he really wanted to use that quote, bogus or not. So he not only used it, but doubled down and invented a reference for the quote as well - "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic".

Except Tytler never wrote a book with that title! How fitting - a quote that never existed referenced to a book that never existed. And, in a way, less deceptive than just using the quote alone. I mean, after all, it was Ronald Reagan, who was a pretty decent actor long before he became a politician.

 

[Galteeth]

Or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lies,_damned_lies,_and_statistics

Isn't the game who DIDN'T say it?

 

[Borek]

Isn't the game who DIDN'T say it?

Well, that makes you right.