Listverse has published a couple of fine lists on misquotes from Shakespeare, movies and other subjects. What follows is a list of 15 of the more notable political and military misquotes. Sources I used were some books from my shelves, Snopes.com, the New York Times and good ol’ Google. Quote numbers 15-11 are usually attributed to the correct person, but the words are different or twisted. Numbers 10-7 are correct attributions but the person in question didn’t coin the phrase. Numbers 6-1 usually are attributed to the wrong person entirely.
Quote: “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.”
What he actually said: “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.” It means exactly the same thing, but the actual language is less poetic than the misquote.
Quote: “Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it.”
What he actually said: In “Life of Reason,” Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The differences are more than just subtle, because “history” implies a fixed set of events while “the past” refers to all of history.
Quote: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
What he actually said: “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” The subtle difference between the misquote and actual quote is akin to the difference between kinetic energy and potential energy. In the misquote, it’s implied that all power corrupts. In the real quote, it states that power has the potential to corrupt, but not automatically.
Quote: “Religion is the opiate of the masses.”
What he actually said: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.” The bastardized quote makes more sense when it’s placed in context with Marx’s poetic words.
Quote: “The business of America is business.”
What he actually said: “After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.” The full quote is much more meaningful than the misquote.
Quote: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
Where it came from: It’s probable that the brilliant Jefferson uttered or wrote these words, but they didn’t originate with him. John Philpot Curran, an Irish judge, said it first: “The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt.”
Quote: “Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Where it came from: While Ben Franklin definitely used the quote in his “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” it didn’t originate with him and first appeared earlier. Edward Ward in his 1724 “Dancing Devils” wrote “Death and Taxes, they are certain.” And Christopher Bullock wrote in his 1716 “Cobler of Preston” that “’Tis impossible to be sure of anything but Death and Taxes.”
Quote: “The Buck Stops Here”
Where it came from: Although permanently identified with my fellow Missourian, “The Buck Stops Here” most likely didn’t begin with Truman. He adopted this phrase in 1945, apparently after receiving a gift from El Reno, Oklahoma, bearing the words. As further proof, a Yale librarian discovered an El Reno newspaper photograph from 1942 that clearly displays the phrase on the desk of a colonel at the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, where the gift to Truman came from.
Quote: “Don’t fire ‘til you see the whites of their eyes!”
Where it came from: Usually William Prescott is credited with saying this at the 1775 battle of Bunker Hill: “Don’t fire ‘til you see the whites of their eyes. Then, fire low!” However, he wasn’t the first. Frederick the Great said it in 1755 during the Seven Years War, and a British officer named Sir Andrew Agnew said the first recorded instance at Dettingen in 1743. (A couple of sources claim that Andrew Jackson said this at the battle of New Orleans, but it’s probably apocryphal.)
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Quote: “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? … The end of living and the beginning of survival.” (Those are the opening and closing lines of a speech attributed to him.)
Who really said it: Not Chief Seattle. He never said that long speech in 1854 or any other time. Instead, a screenwriter named Ted Perry wrote the entire speech in 1971 for a 1972 ecological movie called “Home”—about 115 years after Seattle died. Nevertheless, the bogus speech has been treated as authentic by various authors, environmentalists and Al Gore.
Quote: “It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph.”
Who really said it: Who knows? Although this quote and its various iterations are almost universally attributed to the British statesman, the phrase never appears in any of Burke’s writings. See here for more information.
Quote: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Who really said it: Not Plato. Blame retired Gen. Douglas MacArthur for this one. In giving a speech, he attributed to Plato what George Santayana wrote thousands of years later in his 1953 book, “The Life of Reason.” Nevertheless, the phrase is wrongly associated with Plato even today.
Quote: “To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.”
Who really said it: Probably not Bismarck. An 1869 issue of The Daily Cleveland Herald quotes lawyer-poet John Godfrey Saxe as having said, “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.” The phrase didn’t come to be associated with the Iron Chancellor until the 1930s, well after his death. (It’s still true, though!)
Quote: “To the victors belong the spoils.”
Who really said it: Not Jackson, although he certainly agreed with the sentiment. An ally of Jackson, New York Gov. William Marcy, actually coined the phrase in 1828 to explain why the new president would be doling out offices and appointments to friends and supporters as he saw fit. The relevant part of the exact quote is: “When they are contending for victory, they avow their intention of enjoying the fruits of it. … They see nothing wrong in the rule that to the victor belongs the spoils.” Nevertheless, the quote is an accurate assessment.
Quote: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant.”
Who really said it: The screenwriters for the 1970 movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!” While it is true that the admiral believed that Japan could not win a *protracted* war against the United States, an actor uttered the famous phrase, not him. I own the definitive bio on Yamamoto (Hiroyuki Agawa’s “The Reluctant Admiral”) and the phrase does not appear there. The sleeping giant phrase started in 1970 and has been repeated ever since, even appearing in the (laughably stupid) “Pearl Harbor.”
The closest Yamamoto came to saying the “sleeping giant” quote came in early 1942 (quoted in that book): “A military man can scarcely pride himself on having ‘smitten a sleeping enemy’; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack.”
Contributor: STL Mo
47. astraya – I think that Anonymous must be one of the wisest people he has so many famous quotes out there…not to mention writing some very strange works of fiction.
#61- Anon may be pretty cool but can he name a deathmetal band ?
Yo I like this bigski dude. And I have a feeling he will like my list
54. bucslim,…ha! great…getting better all the time.
bigski: does slaughter make the list? or too girly?
Slaughter-O.K
Job for a Cowboy & Arch Enemy, How about that Tits?
This is for STL Mo.
Thanks for the list & thanks for noticing my post; it was only my second attempt.
As for the majority of those who “commented”,
GET A LIFE. At least read the “FAQ”.
What a sad & sorry lot most of you are. Why don’t you start focusing on Yahoo fashion articles instead?
New Zealand: Like Scotland, but further
“Those clothes weren’t from the 70′s. They were from New Zealand.”
#9. Mark Wrote:
“I’ve seen them make sausages and I still love a good snag. Probably something to do with the “Australian identity”, pork products FTW!!!”
Hey Mark. Have you seen this? http://rathergood.com/kraftwurst
25. oouchan : Weird? Eating haggis but not sausage? Oh yeah, that is rather left-field…
27. STL Mo : Don’t complain about prices, I live in Australia, you have any idea how much it would cost me to drop by for a game o.O
34. TEX : Fairly apolitcal? You do know there’s a section of politics related lists right….
39. General Tits Von Chodehoffen : If it’s substandard you shall know my wrath.
52. bucslim : Metal. Inconsequential…. Does not compute… Hey, buddy, there’s the door. Get out
57. bigski : If they were Death Metal I would probably agree with you, but I believe the term you were searching for was “Thrash”
60. General Tits Von Chodehoffen : Get out, or at least put Death Metal bands on a Death Metal list. I hope that Venom are number one if bloody Slayer made it on there. How about this, you keep suggesting that someone writes a Death Metal list and I’ll write one by the end of the week? A good one at that
69. Senor Shutter : Thanks for the link, I appreciate it. But the school censors my internets, so I can’t bloody watch it :’(. I haven’t seen it yet, can’t wait to get home so I can have a look.
“Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.” -George “Dubyah” Bush (Whacker)
—Not a misquote, unfortunately.
For the record, I didn’t vote for Bush…either time!
what about Marie Antoinette’s misquote, “Let them eat cake.” That saying was actually published in a journal a few years before she was rumored to have said it. Not taking her defense or anything- I think she was the Paris Hilton of the 18th century, but I think since she denied saying it then it’s just a rumor.
# 71 Schizotypical, there should be a list Top 10 Bush-ism’s!
where do you find out this information to prove it wrong? do get back to me please.
avie -see the introduction. Bottom line: I read a lot and am an avowed history nerd.
I see, what sort of books do you read? Perchance that ill read them..
avie – American 19th century history, especially between about 1840 ad 1890; 19th and 20th century miliary history; presidential bios; shipping, railroad and airplane history (military and civilian); some Chinese and Japanese history, and so on.
29. SuperHero3 – March 9th, 2009 at 10:42 am
“Remember the Alamo”…..
What was really said was: “Does anyone remember where the Alamo is? I can’t read this map and I think my horse is a little lost.”
LOL! Sorry, Whenever coffee squirts out of my nose I have to give credit where credit is due!
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STL Mo: Fascinating list!
Oh, and I agree. I list of top Bush-isms would be absolutely great! In fact, I think I have a book on that so I might write it myself!
“We have awaken a sleeping giant.” I first heard it from my 5th grade teacher in 1960. Who knows?
Eve,
I was told by my Wester Civilization teacher that Marie Antoinette never actually said “Let them eat cake.” Due to her (as you so accurately put it) Paris Hilton-ish ways, everyone believed it because it sounded like something she would say.
Here’s more on the Truman quote. It’s not about dollars or dead heads, but rather an old poker expression. The “buck” is a marker that indicates who the dealer is. (Today poker players call it the “button.”) As an avid poker player, Truman quite likely was familiar with “passing the buck” to the next player.
Source: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/buckstop.htm
(#26) dave4248 — You completely miss the point of this quote. It does not mean that the doer of evil deeds is not responsible; rather, it raises the point that those who consider themselves “good” but do not stand up for what is right are complicit in allowing evil to spread. Good is not merely the absence of evil-doing —- good is actively taking a part in what is right. Because evil is not neutral, neutrality is not a reasonable stance in fighting it. In other words, complacency and apathy allow evil to spread, so the truly good must actively fight evil.
“dont fire till you see the whites of their eyes”
a little variation was quoted by Muhammad S.A.W as well, like this..
“use stone first and arrrows last and dont use arrows till you distinguist the white of their eyes” while advising his companions in the battle at the Uhad mountain in 3rd year of Hijri. nearly 621 A.D approx.
His companions had less archers and very less arrows.
the reason he said “dont shoot till you see the whites of their eyes” is because of the guns and rifles men used to use in those days. Back then, the guns they used werent as narrow, properly aligned, and exact as the ones we use today. Those guns had bigger shafts and an opening that was curved out (The bullets would likely veer off center once they exited the shaft. They had the tendencies to be off target especially if you were far away. The reason a lot of men in battle said that is because within that range you were more likely to hit your enemy
Hate to join in so late but the original quote about death and taxes is believed to have come from a conversation between some priest and a french noble woman who was dying. I know I read it somewhere!
They forgot one: the Constitution of the United States, this whole argument of seperation of church and state, this is wrong, the first amendment says this and I quote: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I repeat: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there of. There is no so-called seperation of church and state. This was actually said in one of Thomas Jefferson said this in one of his many letters to John Adams, and even that is a perversion, he actually said, we have to separate church from state. Which their forefathers the pilgrims escaped England for. Again if you dispute this look at the first amendment again: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
There is no so-called seperation of church and state…. If you dispute me, read it again carefully. And read the letters of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.