# Why do people on the internet blatantly misattribute "inspirational"-type quotes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 2, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884 "2016-04-02T02:47:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/21 "2016-04-02T23:06:42Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Therefore war is other people. ~George S. Patton A lot of times, it’s guessing. If something isn’t in modern language, people attribute it to Shakespeare, which is why this, > [@](#): > > ``` > Oh, what a tangled web we weave > When first we practise to deceive! > > ``` which is Walter Scott, is attributed to Shakespeare all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/22 "2016-04-02T23:44:44Z")
It gives the glurge more credibility. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/23 "2016-04-03T04:38:31Z")
A recent instance of a frequent misattribution occurred when Emma Watson spoke before the UN about feminism. She said, " Statesman Edmund Burke said: ‘All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.’ " Burke made a statement that means roughly the same thing. But there is no record of him saying exactly or nearly that. It’s much closer to a statement by John Stuart Mill. [The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing – Quote Investigator®](http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/) You tell me why she didn’t verify the quote. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/24 "2016-04-03T05:35:10Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > " Statesman Edmund Burke said: ‘All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.’ " > > You tell me why she didn’t verify the quote. It may have been better to say, "It is said: ‘All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.’ " None of the historical quotes include “women” to start with and trying to succinctly change the attribution that everyone “knows” to be correct would cause that to become more important than it deserves to be. A bit of a quandary. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/25 "2016-04-03T05:51:15Z")
And that’s why this very board has such a hard-and-fast rule against tweaking the wording in quote boxes. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/26 "2016-04-03T21:26:56Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > A recent instance of a frequent misattribution occurred when Emma Watson spoke before the UN about feminism. She said, " Statesman Edmund Burke said: ‘All that is needed for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing.’ " > > Burke made a statement that means roughly the same thing. But there is no record of him saying exactly or nearly that. It’s much closer to a statement by John Stuart Mill. [The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing – Quote Investigator®](http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/) > > You tell me why she didn’t verify the quote. Long before the Internet, that statement was attributed (on motivational posters) to Robert Kennedy, and in newspaper stories to John F. Kennedy. JFK himself credited it to Burke; RFK used it in a speech, I don’t know if he credited Burke or just moved on. I remember a line like, “No matter who first said it, Dorothy Parker always got the credit.” Unfortunately, I can’t find a cite anywhere, so I’ll attribute it to Ogden Nash. That’s only fair. Dorothy Parker is often credited for, “Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker,” when that was actually written by Nash. See how it works? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2016, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/27 "2016-04-03T22:17:18Z")
However, Dorothy Parker did say “What fresh hell is this?” when the phone rang, and the writers of TBBT put it in the mouth of Sheldon Cooper. Now you see it all the time on T-shirts, variously attributed to “Sheldon Cooper,” and Chuck Lorre. ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/28 "2016-04-05T19:53:39Z")
There is a phenomenon known as Churchillian Drift in which a wise or witty saying is attributed to a more famous person than the originator . ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/29 "2016-04-05T20:51:47Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > Certain people were known for having a certain kind of wit, and so quotes of that style got attributed to them. It got to where I was suspicious of anything attributed to Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde or Dorothy Parker. It was a problem even in Dorothy Parker’s time: > [@Dorothy Parker](#): > > If, with the literate, I am > Impelled to try an epigram, > I never seek to take the credit; > We all assume that Oscar said it. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/30 "2016-04-05T23:30:10Z")
> [@Damfino](#): > > There is a phenomenon known as Churchillian Drift in which a wise or witty saying is attributed to a more famous person than the originator . Funny, it used to be known as Disraelian Drift. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/31 "2016-04-06T01:25:56Z")
We’re had various threads on the SDMB about the supposed Dorothy Parker quotation “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” We can’t find any proof that she wrote it. Here are some of those threads: > **[The 10,000 Year Explosion - a book review](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=605733)** > > In The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending argue just that: human evolution is advancing faster and faster. Cochran and Harpending are anthropology professors at the University of... > **[Missing Dorothy Parker Quote Still Missing](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=599661)** > > “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” Everybody knows Dorothy Parker said this. Everybody knows she wrote this in one of her terribly witty and catty Constant Reader reviews for the New Yorker. ... > **[What's your favorite Dorothy Parker quote?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=573759)** > > “Heterosexuality is not normal, it’s just common.” > **['A book to be thrown with great force'--actual source found?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=532756)** > > While googling something else, I came upon this archived thread from 2002, wherein a bunch of Dopers tried & failed to find the original use of the quote, “This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown aside with great... > **[On Dorothy Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=373511)** > > It is greatly accepted that Dorothy Parker made the following statement in response to her editor harping on her while she was on honey moon “Tell him I’m fucking busy, and vice versa” and I have not found a reputable source to tell me otherwise. ... ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/32 "2016-04-06T02:55:18Z")
Why? Because it’s like Shakespeare once said, “Bitches be crazy.” ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/33 "2016-04-06T13:59:01Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > You’re wrong there, sorry - I’m talking about quotes where it’s fairly obvious the quotee didn’t say the quote, but there’s no humorous effect intended (as in your example). > > Quotes with stuff like late 20th century syntax being attributed to people like Benjamin Franklin or Oscar Wilde (and who clearly didn’t speak in the style the quote is in) is the sort of thing I’m talking about. It isn’t obvious to people who have no prior experience reading texts written before the late 20th century, and / or haven’t read enough to develop instincts for language and writing style in general. (I’m reminded here of one of my students a few years back, who plagiarized from a nineteenth-century book about Shakespeare’s heroines that she found on Google Books, as if I wouldn’t notice that both the prose style and the attitudes about gender roles were as Victorian as they could be. Some people are basically tone-deaf to differences in style and register.) ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/34 "2016-04-06T14:17:43Z")
> [@Newtosite](#): > > In the early nineties, I created an inspirational quote and licensed it for use > on posters. A magnet company stole it, and misattributed it on their magnets. > They admitted their error, but now the quote has gone viral with the > other guy’s name attached to it. ☹ It’s nearly impossible to correct > a misconception on the internet! What was the quote? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/35 "2016-04-06T14:28:54Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > It gives the glurge more credibility. Yes. Glurge made by me and attributted to me by me has little staying power in my experience 🙂 “Nothing is easy” by Billfish678. Yep that sucks. “Nothing is easy” by Albert Einstein. Man what a powerful insight! And it’s SO true. And if anybody would know that it would be old Albert! See what I mean? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/36 "2016-04-06T15:08:09Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Yes. > > Glurge made by me and attributted to me by me has little staying power in my experience 🙂 > > “Nothing is easy” by Billfish678. Yep that sucks. > > “Nothing is easy” by Albert Einstein. Man what a powerful insight! And it’s SO true. And if anybody would know that it would be old Albert! > > See what I mean? [Jethro Tull _STOLE_ that from Albert Einstein?](http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jethrotull/nothingiseasy.html) That’s it. I’m throwing away my copy of _Aqualung_. I just can’t trust that [Tull](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jethro_Tull_%28agriculturist%29) guy any more… ---
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/37 "2016-04-06T20:41:24Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > Funny, it used to be known as Disraelian Drift. We must drift with the times 🙂 This particular coinage was by Nigel Rees ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/38 "2016-04-07T03:02:11Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Yes. > > Glurge made by me and attributted to me by me has little staying power in my experience 🙂 > > “Nothing is easy” by Billfish678. Yep that sucks. > > “Nothing is easy” by Albert Einstein. Man what a powerful insight! And it’s SO true. And if anybody would know that it would be old Albert! > > See what I mean? I thought it might be something like that, but had also hoped by now people would have enough of an idea that famous people really didn’t say all the things they’re alleged do. Silly me… ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884/39 "2016-04-07T03:58:18Z")
Are we sure that some people aren’t introducing these misattributions as a way to track how much “their” idea has spread? If I post on Facebook a correct quote from Jefferson, and then Google that, I’ll see it all over the place where other people have also used it. It’s hard to say whether my use of it went anywhere. But if I post “Just believe in yourself because you’re awesome” attributed to Thomas Jefferson, I now have a unique search phrase and a way to see how far my post went as other people repeat it. The million other boobs who like, reply, repost, plagiarize, retweet, etc. are not going to bother fact checking me and will simply be making an honest mistake. If the quote has legs, it eventually takes on a life of its own, and I’m sure I will feel quite special in seeing three million hits on Google for my little meme. This kind of thing was certainly a motivation for chain e-mails, and I haven’t seen a “forward this or you’ll have bad luck” e-mail in a very long time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-on-the-internet-blatantly-misattribute-inspirational-type-quotes/750884.md?page=1)