Popular Quotes That Everyone Gets Wrong

Napoleon never wrote or said, “the only thing necessary for evil men to triumph is good men to do nothing.” No record exists of this quote anywhere.

This summarizes Orwell’s themes, but Orwell did not write this.It was actually written.Long after his death, Orwell wrote this in a 1993 article inThe Washington TimesFilm critic Richard Grenier wrote this article. He put these words together, not quoting Orwell, but trying to generalize his philosophy.

This is another famous Dr. Seuss quote.He never wrote this.No one ever wrote or published this. People quote it without a source. Woody Allen, French actress Sarah Bernhardt, Gabriel García Márquez, and Luke Dawson also attribute it to them. It is probably just an anonymous saying.

The idea that the genius who painted the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, mastered human anatomy, and built the first flying machine would use “do some stuff” is laughable.

This Internet meme is falsely attributed to William Shakespeare. It lacks the Bard’s rhythm, meter, style, wit, and wordplay. It sounds like someone’s idea of a Shakespeare play.

This quote has a common attribution that is wrong. It isnowhereto be found in Nietzsche’s writings. There is no proof he ever said it.

This is often thought to come from the Italian theorist’s bookThe PrinceThis exact quote does not appear in the book, though similar ideas exist.

Often falsely linked to the Bard, this comes from the 1697 playThe Mourning BrideWilliam Congreve wrote this decades after Shakespeare died. It is almost always wrong. The actual quote is “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.”

Around 1789, after learning her French subjects lacked bread, Marie-Antoinette supposedly said, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche,” which means “Let them eat cake,” arguably one of the mostfamous quotes in historyHistorians do not believe she ever said this.She was generally intelligent and generous. She donated to many causes and showed great compassion for the poor in France.She actually said this. The French queen possessed intelligence and generosity. She donated to many causes and showed great compassion for the poor in France.

This spread on social media after Osama bin Laden died in May 2011. The longer version of the quote reads,Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy." Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night without stars. Light fights darkness; love fights hate.

There is.No evidence.Shaw never said this or anything like it. Different sources provide parts of this quote. These include an 1813 letter from Thomas Jefferson and a 1917...Chicago TribuneAn advertisement and a 1949 interview with US Secretary of Agriculture Charles Brannan show these parts.

Perhaps the greatest physicist of modern times, Einstein, said many brilliant things during his life.wasn'tThis is a mashup of two lines from a book by motivational speaker Wayne Dyer.You’ll See it When You Believe itDyer writes, "In my office I have two framed posters. One is a"picture of Albert Einstein, beneath which are the words 'Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.' The other poster reads: 'I am grateful to all those people who said no. It is because of them I did it myself.' Great thoughts!

This quote comes from Lewis’s 1935 novel.It Can’t Happen Here, except it is not in there. Lewis never said or wrote this. It appears in none of his published works. Former Louisiana governor Huey Long also claimed it, but there is no proof he said it.

In early World War I, Marshall Foch’s Ninth Army held the Marne River. Foch needed action to stop the German army from reaching Paris. During the crisis, Foch allegedly sent this message to another French general.

This famous quote seems to sum up Yamamoto's war pessimism with the United States. However, there is no record of him saying or writing it.There is no record.After the war, the quote was linked to a letter Yamamoto wrote to the high-ranking admiralty in Tokyo. The quote appeared in the 1970 film about the attack on Pearl Harbor.Tora! Tora! Tora!

This quote about religious hypocrisy often gets attributed without a source or date to theA Prairie Home CompanionThe mastermind likely got the quote from evangelist and Prohibition advocate Billy Sunday, who used it in a 1967 book on the media. GK Chesterton also frequently links it to this person.

Lennon’s March 1966 quote sparked protests, bannings, record burnings, and religious fights after appearing in an American teen magazine five months later. This controversy affected the Beatles for the rest of Lennon's life and may have influenced his death. Look at everything Lennon said to grasp the real meaning behind the misquote.

Christianity will vanish and shrink. I don't need to argue; I am right and I will be proven right. Rock 'n' roll or Christianity, I do not know which fades first, because we are more popular than Jesus now.

Gates expressed a similar idea here (about computer memory, not money), but his wording was actuallyBill Gates said, "640K ought to be enough for anyone." This quote appears in the list 'Popular Quotes That Everyone Gets Wrong'.than the quote usually credits him. This quote appeared in 1985, after computer memory already passed the 640K limit. His full quote, apparently given toInfoWorldWhen we set the PC-DOS upper limit at 640K, we thought nobody would ever need that much memory.

Creationists often use Charles Darwin’s deathbed change of mind and retraction as proof evolution is just a pointless theory. Darwin did not makethatretraction, and all surrounding quotes, including this one, likely came from an anti-evolution evangelist named Lady Hope.

As a young general in October 1795, Napoleon led a Royalist mob toward Paris’s National Assembly. He used all available cannons firing grapeshot—bags of deadly metal slugs—for maximum effect. With one order, his guns hit the Royalists, killing about 600. Napoleon's brutal action earned him a hero's reputation, a fast rise in the French command, and a famous quote.