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

By John George and Paul F. Boller Jr.

Book Overview

Abraham Lincoln never said, "You cannot fool all the people all the time." Thomas Jefferson never said, "That government is best which governs least." And Horace Greeley never said, "Go west, young man." In They Never Said It, Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George examine hundreds of misquotations, incorrect attributions, and blatant fabrications, outlining the origins of the quotes and revealing why we should consign them to the historical trashcan.
Many of the misquotes are quite harmless. Some are inadvertent misquotes that have become popular (Shakespeare actually said, "The best part of valor is discretion"), others, the inventions of reporters embellishing a story (Franklin Roosevelt never opened a speech to a DAR group with the salutation, "My fellow immigrants"). But some of the quotes, such as Charles Darwin's supposed deathbed recantation of evolution, falsify the historical record with their blatant dishonesty. And other chillingly vicious ones, filled with virulent racial and religious prejudices, completely distort the views of the person supposedly quoted and spread distrust and hatred among the gullible. These include the forged remarks attributed to Benjamin Franklin that Jews should be excluded from America and the fabricated condemnation of Catholics attributed to Lincoln.
An entertaining and thought-provoking book, They Never Said It covers a great deal of history and sets it right. Going beyond a mere catalog of popular misconceptions, Boller and George reveal how rightists and leftists, and atheists and evangelists all have at times twisted and even invented the words of eminent figures to promote their own ends. The ultimate debunking reference, it perfectly complements handbooks of quotations.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195064690
• ISBN13: 9780195064698
• Release Date: June 1990
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and valuable

Popular culture is packed with events and quotations that everyone is familiar with-- but which are fictional. This book is a collection of quotations that weren't actually said by the people they are attributed to. The book is interesting, mostly because of the way that the authors tell the stories of how the quotations came to be accepted as real. Sometimes, the reasons are as simple as misunderstandings, poor transcriptions of speeches, and the like. Sometimes, the reasons are less innocent. A significant number of the false quotations in this book are simply inventions of people with political or religious axes to grind. For example, Lenin never said that "The first step in overthrowing a government is to establish a firearms registration law," even though many gun rights organizations regularly use that quotation to "prove" that gun control is a commie plot. Similarly, Darwin didn't make his often-quoted deathbed retraction of the Theory of Evolution; rather, a variety of religious conservatives have put those words into his mouth, in an effort to somehow "prove" that the theory is false. It's valuable to have these spurious quotations corrected. Today, in part due to the Internet, misinformation can spread literally at the speed of light. The only way to combat this misinformation is with the truth, and this book is an important source for that truth. This is a valuable, entertaining book, and I recommend it highly.

Spoiling a good story

It may well be true, as Roy Howard never said (p. 51) that "too much fact checking has ruined many a good news story." But the many misquotations listed here, some very well known, often have fascinating stories in themselves. In a day when, thanks to the Internet, misquotations, urban legends, and dubious "facts" fly faster and farther than ever, this book is a very valuable resource to have around.My major complaint with this book is that I wish it had been much longer -- for example, there are numerous quotes attributed to Winston Churchill (like the one about being a liberal when you're 25) that could stand to be debunked alongside the two included in this volume. Still, though, it's very helpful to be able to demonstrate to folks that Lenin never said anything about "useful idiots" (p. 76), that Lincoln never made the long statement beginning, "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift..." (p. 82), or that Voltaire never "defend[ed] to the death your right to say it" (p. 124). For those reasons alone, I would recommend this book be kept and studied by anyone who cares about truth, accuracy, and stomping urban legends to the death they deserve.

Dr. George is amazing

He's my professor in college at UCO, and he's an amazing man.This work is just an extenstion of his personality -- exacting, intelligent, and focused on what's really true rather than just what people say.If you're at all interested in accuracy, or if you're a big fan of quotations (like I am), than this is a wonderful book for you!