Posted on 02/13/2019 9:16:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
We've all heard Albert Einstein's famous line: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." As it turns out, insanity might be crediting that quote to Einstein over and over again. He never said it.
Misattributions like this happen pretty often. One person quotes someone else without a shoutout, and all of a sudden, they become the original speaker. Or we just decide a quote sounds like something Mark Twain would say.
These 12 surprising examples are credited to people who never really said them.
1. "Let them eat cake." — not Marie Antoinette
Not only did Marie Antoinette not utter these words, if she had, everyone probably misunderstood her.
In Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Book 6" of his 12-volume autobiographical work, "Confessions," he writes, "At length I recollected the thoughtless saying of a great princess, who, on being informed that the countrypeople had no bread, replied, "Then let them eat pastry!" according to Phrase Finder.
Most people assume "great princess" refers to Marie Antoinette. But Rousseau wrote those words in 1767 — when Marie Antoinette was 12 years old. She also didn't marry Louis XVI until 1770.
Even if Marie Antoinette did utter the phrase, the original version in French, "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," means "Let them eat brioche" — a type of crumbly French pastry (not unlike cake but not totally the same) eaten by the upperclass. The misinterpreted quote portrays Marie Antoinette as a callous patrician, unconcerned with the plight of the poor. But she could have meant the wealthy should stop monopolizing food and share with the lower classes — if she said it.
Other sources credit Marie-Therese, Marie Antoinette's eldest child (and the wife of Louis XIV).
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
2. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." — not Voltaire
3. "I'm Standing on the shoulders of giants" — not Sir Isaac Newton
4. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure." — not Nelson Mandela
5. "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."— not Mark Twain/Jack Benny/Muhammad Ali
6. "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."— not Dr. Seuss
7. "Well-behaved women rarely make history."— not Marilyn Monroe
8. "There's a sucker born every minute." — not P.T. Barnum
9. "If you have to ask how much they are, you can't afford one."— not J.P. Morgan
10."If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain." — not Winston Churchill
11. "The ends justify the means."— not Niccolo Machiavelli
12. "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."— not Albert Einstein
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE ACTUAL HISTORY
“Everything you read on the internet is accurate.” - not Abraham Lincoln.
“Yes, move the cat.”
12 Famous Quotes That Always Get Misattributed - not posted by SeekAndFind
“I can see Russia from my house”
— NOT Sarah Palin
“Winning isn’t every thing; it’s the only thing” is misattributed to Vince Lombardi.
Name the quotee:
“Common sense ain’t common.”
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
“The business of America is business.”
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’”
LOL
“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.”
Not Donald Trump
“Play it again, Sam.”
“If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period!” - not misattributed to President Barry Soetoro.
Abortion should be rare - not Andy Cuomo
“...then I took an arrow to the knee”
“....makes me wish for a nuclear winter.”
“....the whole place is run by robots.”
“Beam me up, Scotty!”
“Let them eat cake”.
The way I heard it, “cake” was kind of a translation error. It wasn’t sweet dessert. In those days the huge pans that bakeries used, would build up a layer of crud and carbon and was thrown away. The bums and vagrants would eat it. So when (or if) Ms. Antoinette said that, it wasn’t naive, it was pretty mean spirited.
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