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43rd out of 94 books
—
18 voters
They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions
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 t...more
Paperback, 188 pages
Published
April 1st 1990
by Oxford University Press, USA
(first published May 18th 1989)
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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 polemic...more
"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 polemic...more
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 Dicken...more
I discovered this book while searching for the true author of a quote commonly misattributed to Charles Dicken...more
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.
Very enlightening, this book shows how easy it is to fool and mislead the public with false , corrupted or out-of-context quotes.
Entertaining, but the amusement quickly subsides.
I love trivia books, and at first I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one. Then, I realized I’d never heard of most of these quotes and only had a passing acquaintance with their supposed authors. I was reduced to skimming until I found a quote or a person I recognized.
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