“Those that do not check their quotations are doomed to lose credibility.”
—Socrates (?)
Diane Bruce
On a daily basis on social media I see people ascribing quotations to people that the person in question never said. I am sure it is done in an attempt to bolster their feelings on the matter. “If someone famous and intelligent said it, it must be true!” But it only backfires if the quotation is erroneous.
The usual people chosen to misquote are those such as Rousseau, Voltaire, Socrates, Plato, Einstein, Mark Twain, George Washington — the list goes on and on. Personally I am more a fan of thinking for yourself. Hence, if someone happens to agree with me who is famous, that might be interesting and I may be onto something.
However, if you make a misquote, your audience may pick up on it and discount your knowledge of the subject, discrediting your argument. Similarly, if you misattribute a quote by someone diametrically opposed to your viewpoint, that definitely weakens your argument. This has happened on social media repeatedly with a quote attributed to Voltaire: “To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” The actual quote was from modern day white nationalist writer Kevin Alfred Strom.
If you really feel you must make a quotation, at least double check it. Yes you academics check, but you lot on social media really must do better.
Another highly misquoted source is philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Some people quote him as having said, “The only thing that you can possibly know the moment you awake in the morning is that you didn’t die in your sleep.” I doubt that Sartre ever said that, but the fun and games goes on.
Despite its misattribution the Strom quote has impact on its own, although Voltaire would have enhanced it. The sentiment is not new, it’s a bit like Bertrand Russell’s definition of sin, ( “That which is disliked by those who control education”, from his Dictionary of Mind, Matter and Morals) and “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” which is a quote often misattributed to Orwell. In fact, I thought it was his until I decided to fact-check it for this reply!
P.S., The progression of the Orwell misattribution, which became popular in 1982 (info. from Quoteinvestigator.com):
(1) “The truth! But it is just the truth that cannot be known of the multitude, for truth is revolutionary.” – “The Vote: The Organ of the Women’s Freedom League”. (1912)
(2) “To tell the truth, to arrive together at the truth, is a communist and revolutionary act.” Antonio Gramsci/Palmiro Togliatti, L’Ordine Nuovo, 21 , Vol. 1, No. 7. (1919).
(3) “To take up today the search for truth will involve discovering, as Gramsci did, that ‘truth is revolutionary.’” theologian Jürgen Moltmann invoking Gramsci, New York Times, (1968).
(4) A reference referred to the potentiality of a revolutionary act in Orwell’s novel 1984, but it was sexual: “And to Orwell’s simpleminded assertion, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, that sex could be a revolutionary act, Marcuse would counter, ‘Repressive desublimation!'”- the journal Commentary, (1970)
(5) “In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” As an epigraph attributed to G. Orwell in the book: Partners in Ecocide: Australia’s Complicity in the Uranium Cartel -Venturino Giorgio Venturini, (1982)