Lincoln Said What? Bogus Quotations Take On A New Life On Social Media
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70% of statistics are made up on the spot.
- Abraham LincolnFor me other peoples pithy insights bring solace, a new way of looking at something, and a recognition that any struggles I may be going through are not unique to me.
Does the fact that some of them are wrongly attributed bother me? Only a little, I like to get it right. But the meaning behind the message is the main thing.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" -Lee Harvey Oswald.
I never write who the quotes are ascribed to. I don't believe that just because a specific person had an adage or said something means that it's right. Unless it's on a subject that someone is an expert on, it's just a weak appeal to authority.
For me, it's more that I already agree with what the quotes are saying, but they're generally worded better than what I could write.
Take Gertrude Stein's "a rose is a rose is a rose". Sounds pretty dumb on its own, but that was her style, and incidentally she was paraphrasing a Shakespeare line.
Hmmm, I think I kinda proved your point.
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" is a quote I have in my book. It's commonly attributed to Dr Seuss, but it's actually from a little known German poem.
The actual origin of the quote isn't important. Just because it was (or wasn't as is the case) said by Dr Seuss doesn't mean that it's any more powerful or authoritative.
Maybe it is a "trite aphorism", but I like it anyway, so in the book it went.
As for your specific quote, I've never heard of Gertude Stein, so the name itself has no significance to me. And to be honest, after reading the wikipedia article on the quote, it still has no significance to me. So I'm not going to write that quote in my book.