It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
— Winston Churchill
When the going gets tough, the tough post quotes.
Many folks I follow on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn are forever posting these pith-packets, proving our appetites for the keenly-said are insatiable.
Ward Farnsworth, dean of the U. of Texas law school, calls quotations "little triumphs of rhetoric."
"Quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts," Churchill said.
In a study of 280 people, behavioral scientists at the University of Regina presented subjects 10 randomly generated "pseudo-profound bullshit statements" (faux quotations attributed to Deepak Chopra, such as, "Imagination is inside exponential space time events”). They asked them to rate each statement's profundity on a scale of 1 to 10. The study concluded that, the more gullible we are—the higher the profundity score we give the fake statements—the higher our "bullshit receptivity.”
When General Anthony McAuliffe was asked to surrender his command at Bastogne, he purportedly sent that one-word reply to his German counterpart; but in fact he replied, "Bullshit." Newspapers couldn't print a profanity in 1944.
But what if a quote is bullshit?
Can it still inspire?
The answer is: yes, it can inspire, at least, some of us.
Highly gullible people, according to the study, are not only susceptible to bullshit, but are "less reflective, lower in cognitive ability, more prone to ontological confusions and conspiratorial ideas, more likely to hold religious and paranormal beliefs, and more likely to endorse complementary and alternative medicine."
You need not be gullible, however, to be taken in by a fake muse. Lots of quotations are counterfeit.
Here are my own 10 randomly generated samples:
"Nuts."
"Follow the money."
Deep Throat never advised Woodward and Bernstein this way. Screenwriter William Goldman invented the quotation for "All the President's Men."
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein never said this. It comes from AA.
“I have just begun to fight.”
Eyewitnesses indeed heard John Paul Jones shouting at the British, "No quarter!" from his perch on the BonHomme Richard. But never this. A writer invented the quotation 50 years after the fight.
"Play it again, Sam."
Rick Blaine (played by Humphrey Bogart) never uttered these words in the 1942 film "Casablanca." Woody Allen fabricated the line when titling his 1969 play.
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
Sigmund Freud smoked 20 cigars a day and would never have bad-mouthed the habit. The quotation comes from another psychoanalyst's footnote to a 1950 article he wrote for the journal Psychiatry.
Albert Einstein never said this. It comes from AA.
“I have just begun to fight.”
Eyewitnesses indeed heard John Paul Jones shouting at the British, "No quarter!" from his perch on the BonHomme Richard. But never this. A writer invented the quotation 50 years after the fight.
"Play it again, Sam."
Rick Blaine (played by Humphrey Bogart) never uttered these words in the 1942 film "Casablanca." Woody Allen fabricated the line when titling his 1969 play.
“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
Sigmund Freud smoked 20 cigars a day and would never have bad-mouthed the habit. The quotation comes from another psychoanalyst's footnote to a 1950 article he wrote for the journal Psychiatry.
"Let them eat cake."
Jean Jacques Rousseau, not Marie Antoinette, said this. He wrote it in his diary when the future French queen was only 13, single, and living in Austria. Rousseau attributed the line to Maria Theresa of Spain, who a century earlier had been told by her advisors the local peasants had no bread. "If they have no bread, let them eat cake," she replied. But the Jacobins laid the quote on Marie Antoinette at her trial.
“Nice guys finish last.”
Leo Durocher was asked by a sportswriter what he thought of the 1946 New York Giants. Durocher said, “Take a look at them. All nice guys. They’ll finish last. Nice guys who'll finish last.” The reporter omitted "who'll."
"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."
Vince Lombardi liked to say, "Winning isn't a sometime thing; it's an all-the-time thing," a motto he stole from another football coach, "Red" Sanders. Reporters always tightened the statement.
"The harder he works, the luckier he gets."
Donald Trump never said this—about himself or anyone else. Sam Goldwyn said, "The harder I work, the luckier I get," paraphrasing an adage he saw in Reader's Digest.
So I hope you're inspired to question everything. In the immortal words of Buddha:
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
By the way, Buddha never said that.
NOTE: Read a bit more about the faux quotations editors call "quilt quotes."
Jean Jacques Rousseau, not Marie Antoinette, said this. He wrote it in his diary when the future French queen was only 13, single, and living in Austria. Rousseau attributed the line to Maria Theresa of Spain, who a century earlier had been told by her advisors the local peasants had no bread. "If they have no bread, let them eat cake," she replied. But the Jacobins laid the quote on Marie Antoinette at her trial.
“Nice guys finish last.”
Leo Durocher was asked by a sportswriter what he thought of the 1946 New York Giants. Durocher said, “Take a look at them. All nice guys. They’ll finish last. Nice guys who'll finish last.” The reporter omitted "who'll."
"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing."
Vince Lombardi liked to say, "Winning isn't a sometime thing; it's an all-the-time thing," a motto he stole from another football coach, "Red" Sanders. Reporters always tightened the statement.
"The harder he works, the luckier he gets."
Donald Trump never said this—about himself or anyone else. Sam Goldwyn said, "The harder I work, the luckier I get," paraphrasing an adage he saw in Reader's Digest.
So I hope you're inspired to question everything. In the immortal words of Buddha:
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
By the way, Buddha never said that.
NOTE: Read a bit more about the faux quotations editors call "quilt quotes."
