They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions

by Paul F. Boller Jr., John George

Abraham Lincoln never said, "You can fool all the people all the time." Horace Greeley never said, "Go west, young man." This valuable debunking reference examines hundreds of misquotations, incorrect attributions, and out-and-out fabrications (ranging from harmless to blatantly malicious), outlining the origins of the quotes and revealing why they should be consigned to the historical trash can.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Reference, Trivia, Humor, Politics, Skepticism

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Amora · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should remind all students to be cautious when making a paper and using a popular quote from a historical figure. Quotes ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Vladimir Lenin are exposed as either being incorrectly attributed, grossly inaccurate, or sometimes straight-up fabricated. Historian Paul Boller and his colleague did a wonderful job distinguishing what they really said from fiction!

[moi, k.y.a.]

Kitabın adı ilgimi çektiği için öyle indirip ağır ağır karıştırmaya başlamıştım. Ünlü kişilere ait çarpıtılmış sözler ya da tamamen yanlış kişilere yapılmış atıflardan oluşan bir derleme diyebiliriz içeriğe.
İşin dalgası, eğlencesi bir yana bu çarpıtma yönteminin sosyolojik bir yanı da var bana kalırsa. İnsanların saygı duydukları kişilere, onlara ait olmayan sözleri mâl ederek sevgiyi, saygıyı suistimal etme durumu da var.

tabii ben yine eğlence boyutuna döneyim, bizde benzeri bir çalışma olsa güzel malzeme çıkar gibime geliyor çünkü güncel olaylardan bkz: Atam Engin Altan Düzyatan:

son büst olayını apayrı bir yere koyuyorum zaten. ha bir de hatırlıyorum, benim ergenlik yıllarımda da yaşıtlarım güzel her sözün altına Bob Marley’in ismini yapıştırmayı çok severdi. bu örnekler o kadar çoktur ki aslında 😂

[trestitia ⵊⵊⵊ deamorski · Rating 3 out of 5]

i'm sorry but this was fucking disaster.
good job, that's for sure, but me as an apolitical as much as possible, reading got worse and worse for me. I read it with zero interest. I'm giving three stars just to respect their effort. It was boring.

This is a sort of compilation I guess. In the notes there are many other 'they never said it' books.

these are the topics:
1. united states of america (and their presidents)
2. russia (and their presidents)
2. antisemitism-jews
3. communism
4. capitalism
5. christianity
6. hollwood people

what I was hoping was reading more writers, philosophers, painters... and there are so many people who I never heard of (my bad?).

the good thing is, as I always embrace the thought of you can not trust, and shouldn't, any kind of historical people, beliefs, events, or todays, so that's why i'm so have no truck with politics and history. you gonna see how other people put words in the person's mouth which stand up for, or for themselves, or people can bend and copy and steel those words. you gonna see how situations and people can be exaggerate and ennoble, and dramatize to fool and steer public.

I'm adding my notes here with more words. no more reviews from here.

♦ Worst thing I learned from this book is, god i'm so sad, Ezra Pound is a antisemitic actually (no, I'm not jewish, I'm a muslim but I hate every kind of anti).

♦ Second worst thing that break my heart is Galileo never said "and yet it moves."

♦ I dont know why people are so obsessed about 'play it again, Sam' btw.

♦ 'I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat, and tears' was not originally said by Churchill but Henry James; I'm damn happy. this beautiful words don't belong to a politician.

♦ Cervantes' "Along the streets of by-and-by, we come to the house of Never" is originally "in the street of the by-and-by stands the hostelry of never" from English poet William Ernest Henley. can't decide which one is more dramatically beautiful.

♦ The quote "the Guards dies but do not surrender" is originally "the Guards, it does not surrender", well,,, I can see the difference, I guess?

♦ When I read the "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" I was like:

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

THEY NEVER SAID IT is a collection of "fake quotes, misquotes and misleading atributions" compiled by Paul F. Boller Jr and John George. The authors were troubled by references to prestigious dead men to score political points without caring about the veracity of the quotation:

"Using quotations is a time-honored practice. There have always been people who liked to liven up what they were saying with appropriate statements from the writings of others. Today, however, quotations tend to be polemical rather than decorative. People use them to prove points rather than to provide pleasure. Quotemen (and quotewomen) do not simply quote; they quote in order to score points, usually of a political nature, and thereby throw their opponents off balance. Sometimes they merely quote a highly esteemed authority -- Jefferson, Lincoln, Emerson -- in order to bolster their own position."

One finds many quotations that have become set phrases in English, such as Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake,", Jimmy Cagney's "You Dirty Rat", and Galileo's "Eppur si muove". Others were part of McCarthy-era polemics about Communist intrigue.

As this is not meant to be an exhaustive compendium of spurious quotations, but rather somewhat light entertainment, the datedness of the work makes it less enjoyable than it might have been upon its 1990 publication. So many of the quotes date from postwar anti-Semites or John Birch Society figures, but these groups' rhetoric is increasingly forgotten. Samuel Goldwyn gets a long list of quotations that no one remembers any more, but Yogi Berra's similar sayings are not mentioned at all. For the book to be truly commendable, these quotations would have to not only be apocryphal, but persist in contemporary society. Still, there are enough fake quotations here that continue to circulate that reading this book can still be a profitable experience, but I can't recommend buying it.

[Christian Banes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good book on the common quotes we hear that are totally fake. Their are some flaws preventing it from perfection such as lacking in detail and being slightly america centric.

[Matheus Fronza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a book that has been floating around on my shelf and I really just never got to it. And now just seemed like the time.

They Never Said It explores various well-known quotes known around the time of the book's publication while exploring their supposed origin, when they were supposed to come out to the public eye and sometimes exploring the actual sources or context that these same quotes may have been taken out of from the original source. And unfortunately in many cases the information isn't known so the information kind of waffles with some more filler information before wrapping up the entry including sometimes even providing full quotes that the actual mentioned person has said on a subject whether it seems to relate or not.

The book presents the information in an entry format that organized alphabetically the last name or the institution's whole name. It then provides the reader with a brief summarized description of said quote before providing the whole quote to the reader. Afterwards the reader is then provided with a paragraph or sometimes more to explain the aforementioned information that was included in the entry although this information isn't fully copied in all of the other entries.

Most names only have just one quote and others have quite a bit more while Lenin followed by Lincoln were the most abundant. Unfortunately due to Lenin's role in history most of his were quite similar so after a while it got to be quite repetitive.

Given the age the majority of subjects that are tackled in these quotes may seem to be as unrelatable to our own age although change the subject to modern worries while they quickly do become a bit more relevant to us.

All in all it was a decent read although a bit dry one that provides the reader with some deep thinking about the might of words, especially in our own day and age where they are under attack.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, there really is such a thing as fake history. One of the worst viruses is attributing false quotes to famous figures to render them malicious, ridiculous or ex post facto racists, sexists and every kind of fill-in-the blank phobe. Paul Boller, author of the marvelous PRESIDENTIAL ANECDOTES and PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ANECDOTES volumes here assumes the mantle of a judge granting amnesty for misattributed quotes. Josef Stalin never said "One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic", nor did Lenin pronounce "the capitalists will sell us the rope by which we shall hang them". Clemenceau hated the Germans, but never proclaimed "I love Germany so much I wish there was more than one Germany". Admiral Yamamoto did not say after Pearl Harbor "I fear all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible vengeance". Louis XIV did not pontificate, "I am the state!" Lest you think women are immune from this curse, Marie Antoinette never said "let them eat cake!" It is, of course, quite possible no historical figure ever said anything eloquent or of value to history, but I await further evidence.

[Steven Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fake news is not new. Most legends are born out of fictionalized versions of events, embellishment of facts, or in the age of Trump: “Truthiness,” “Truthful Hyperbole,” or “Alternative Facts.” The Russians had a term that I love: Statecrafting.

[Ishmael Soledad · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the end this is a disappointing read, even as a "reference" book.

Very USofA centred, and most of the so-called 'commonly used' phrases are actually no such thing.

There are far better, and far broader, books of this type out there.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a lot of fun. There was a good mix of near misses, quotes misremembered etc. and quotes that were flat out invented. Most of those seemed directed at misleading conservatives and Christians.

[Pinko Palest · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting, but very american-centered. An updated european version would be very handy

[yórgos]

είπες, δεν είπες, κάτι θα μείνει.

[Todd Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

People sometimes resort to dishonest tactics when arguing for something they believe in. The fake quote is one such approach and it can be done in two different ways.

Either put a quote in support of your argument in the mouth of a trusted figure.

‘Briefs are the most sublime form of male undergarment. They lift the spirit while lifting the testes.’
- Albert Einstein

Alternatively, you can assign a derogatory quote to a hated enemy.

‘The German army’s progress across Europe cannot be thwarted by boxer-clad soldiers who's marching is impeded by their droopy sacks.’
- Adolf Hitler

Unsurprisingly enough, the people who do this most often are intellectually dishonest ideologues and demagogues who know that they can’t argue their case on its merits (the John Birch Society, Joseph McCarthy and other right wing organizations comes up frequently in the book in this regard).

As to the book itself … meh … it’s not that great. Most of the quotes were obscure/obsolete to begin with, so their debunking didn’t come as much of a revelation.

[Chris Cutler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Neither as interesting as I expected nor as entertaining as I hoped, this collection of "spuriosities" is well researched but poorly organized and oddly focused. The quotes are arranged by the person to whom they are attributed, rather than by topic or by degree of authenticity. Slightly mis-worded or paraphrased statements sit side-by-side with misattributions and malicious inventions.

I discovered this book while searching for the true author of a quote commonly misattributed to Charles Dickens, but that gem doesn't actually appear in this collection. Rather, over half the entries are fabrications apparently invented for the anti-Communist and anti-Semitic movements. While it is valuable to recognize that George Washington never advocated eradicating Jewish Americans, I had only encountered a fraction of the quotes before so I never felt enlightened by the revelation that one of them was false. In fact, most of the Cold War political figures mentioned were people I had never heard of. This 1989 book started out middling, but is now well past its expiration date.

[Erin O'Riordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in a used bookshop (Selected Works on Michigan Ave. in Chicago) because I thought a lot of the misquoted persons discussed herein would probably be literary. I love a good literary anecdote. There are some in here: Mark Twain, Miguel de Cervantes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lillian Helman, Robert Frost, and Samuel Pepys are some of the writers mentioned in this book. However, it has much less to do with literature and much more to do with politics. A surprising number of these misquotes, mis-attributions, and misleading attributions were done intentionally for polemic purposes, to give the impression that a well-known name either supported or opposed one's position. This book was first published in 1989, but disgustingly enough, some of these fabrications are still making the rounds of the Internet (and talk radio shows, and YouTube videos, et al.) in 2016. This book is very much still worth a read. Fans of Ronald Reagan might want to check it out so you can see how often your hero "quoted" authorities with words made up by his speechwriters. Politics has always been dirty, dirty business.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a book of misquotations almost as much as I love a book of good quotations. Although some are humorous lines wrongly ascribed to people known to say funny things, many are reworkings so that the gist of an idea makes sense out of its original context.

[F · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I could agree on some things the authors opine there are others that seem plausible to have been said. Just because the authors could not authenticate it does not mean it was not said. Seems they had a slight agenda.

[Rozonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enlightening, this book shows how easy it is to fool and mislead the public with false , corrupted or out-of-context quotes.