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Issues with Quotes
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Merges and Corrections for Quotes of the Day (corrections for goodreads' staff member)
Another Flaubert one (don't think it's been noted previously), both versions of which have been QotDhttps://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1522...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2579...
"Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live."
No specific book as it comes from a June 1857 letter to Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie, but probably The Letters, 1830-1880.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2885...I don't know who said this first, but it's definitely NOT George Carlin.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/06/...
Sophie wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2885...I don't know who said this first, but it's definitely NOT George Carlin.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/06/..."
"Those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music"
Not a QotD but that one has been discussed here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Ayn RandThe question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2209...
This might be described as a paraphrase of a passage in The Fountainhead but the actual text is considerably different.
The original text, taken from the 2005 Centennial Edition (the italics are in the original):
“Do you mean to tell me that you’re thinking seriously of building that way, when and if you are an architect?”
“Yes.”
“My dear fellow, who will let you?”
“That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
Edit: the correct version (minus the italics) is here
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2359...
Dorothy L. Sayers "Facts are like cows. If you look them in the face long enough, they generally run away."
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7101...
Can we add the source, Clouds of Witness.
And why is this QotD, from Clouds of Witness, introduced with a reference to a completely different work, The Nine Tailors?
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
July 5, 2015Bill Watterson
"It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept."
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2575...
It might not be denial, but it is most certainly wrong. The correct quotation is (missing word in bold), "It's not denial. I'm just very selective about the reality I accept."
Here is the original daily strip.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/...
Dorothy Parker"The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue."
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1886...
Not hers, it belongs to Oscar Levant and is wrong anyway. This is the original version:
“First I brush my teeth and then I sharpen my tongue.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5825...
Mahatma Gandhi“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/739-...
This is from the movie. There seems to be no source for Gandhi actually using the quotation.
The relevant piece of the script (Gandhi is in bed and is starving himself):
Gandhi signals her down to him. She bends so she is looking
at the floor and he is speaking almost into her ear.
GANDHI
(hoarse, strained)
When I despair, I remember that all
through history the way of truth and
love has always won.
We intercut their faces, very close, as he speaks.
GANDHI
There have been tyrants and murderers,
and for a time they can seem
invincible. But in the end they always
fall. Think of it -- always... When
you are in doubt that that is God's
way, the way the world is meant to
be... think of that.
This is the script on Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
The screenwriter, John Briley
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
August 21, 2015A.A. Milne, attributed to Winnie-the-Pooh
“Some people care too much. I think it's called love.”
QotD
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5143...
It is not in Winnie the Pooh or The House At Pooh Corner.
August 23, 2015Nelson DeMille
“The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you are finished.”
QotD
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9443...
Firstly, the quotation is from Plum Island
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Secondly, the quotation is also incorrect:
(It occurred to me that) the problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you’re finished.
Thirdly, there are another 200+ likers on this other version of the quote
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4322...
George Bernard Shaw“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8727...
Please add the tag "attributed-no-source"
Virginia WoolfAnon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5140...
This abbreviated QotD version of the quotation has 1,000+ likes.
The full(er) version, after combining a number of variants and totally wrong versions has 20,000+ likes
I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1858...
Yogi Berra“Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.”
QotD
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1709...
Berra is on record, to William Safire of The New York Times, as denying he ever said this.
The book, The Youth of the Period by James Frederick Shaw Kennedy AKA J.F. Shaw Kennedy, was published in 1876 and contains the line:
“if I don’t attend other people’s funerals they won’t come to mine.”
This is shown in the Amazon Look-Inside:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Youth-Period-...
on page 232 (search for "funeral mine" without the quotation marks)
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7136...
Please add a period at the end of this thing which is trying to be a sentence.
An alarming number of your Quotes of the Day lack periods, although they are pretending to be sentences.
Is punctuation not taught anymore?
November 10, 2015 Neil Gaiman
Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.
QotD
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2149...
A good quotation but it has been 'topped and tailed'. The missing parts, in my opinion, add to the overall meaning of the quote.
Missing text shown in Bold
It's my pleasure. Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent. Welcome to the storytelling clan.
November 21, 2015 Voltaire
"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers."
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6885...
This is another quote that don't appear to have a definite source. The original French version is fairly certainly NOT by Voltaire. Il est encore plus facile de juger de l'esprit d'un homme par ses questions que par ses réponses (trans: It is easier to judge the mind of a man by his questions rather than his answers) is by Pierre-Marc-Gaston Lévis and is from his 1808 work, Maximes et réflexions sur différents sujets de morale et de politique.
It can be seen here:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=b...
November 24, 2015Frances Hodgson Burnett
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
Attributed to The Secret Garden
QotD
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4947...
No. Wrong. Not in my edition of the book nor in the Gutenberg text
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17396/...
and not by Frances Hodgson Burnett either. It is the last line of the 1993 movie so should be attributed to Caroline Thompson
November 27, 2015Saul Bellow
“People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7569...
Firstly, the text should be (my bold):
Human beings can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.
Secondly, it is from Him with His Foot in His Mouth collected in Him With His Foot in His Mouth and Other Stories
December 3, 2015Agatha Christie
"Very few of us are what we seem."
QotD
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6669...
How about adding the source?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
A Tommy and Tuppence short story.
rivka wrote: "That I can do."Yay! Much better.
Anne Frank“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/676-...
Can we add the source which is Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex
December 12, 2015Sophie Kinsella
“There’s no such thing as ruining your
life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
We have an unwanted extra linebreak.
John Lennon"Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears."
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5744...
Not by John Lennon. An early occurence of the quote is from 1927, 13 years before Lennon was born.
(my bold)
Count your garden by the flowers,
never by the leaves that fall;
Count your days by golden hours
don’t remember clouds at all!
Count the night by stars, not shadows
Count your life with smiles—not tears
And with joy on today’s birthday,
count your age by friends—not years!
an attributed to Dixie Lee Crosby.
George Carlin“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. ”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1081...
Can we add the source? Brain Droppings
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
And remove the extra space after the full stop?
There are another 400+ likers over here
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1365...
January 14, 2016Hugh Lofting
"Some people you will always have about you whom you can trust, and no man these days can boast of more than that. Remember them; forget the others."
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7445...
Can we add the source?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
The correct attribution is used here but I suppose combining them...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/6701...
February 6, 2016Michael Pollan
“You are what what you eat eats.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7606...
This has been truncated by one word. The full version is (my bold):
You are what what you eat eats too.
Since the sentence needs to be read several times in order to make sense it makes little sense to leave out the final word. In my opinion.
February 15, 2016Matt Groening
“I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense to me.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/2842...
Assuming that this quotation is based on Lisa's remark in the Simpsons episode Bart vs. Australia then there are two problems.
Firstly, Matt Groening didn't write that episode, it was Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein.
Secondly, the actual quote is (errors in bold): "I know those words, but that sign makes no sense" not “I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense to me.”
Here is a video of the quote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq0XN...
February 29, 2016Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
“Nothing lives long
Only the earth and mountains”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7052...
Come on, people! This quotation in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is spoken by the Cheyenne chief White Antelope as he sang the Cheyenne death song whilst he and his people were being slaughtered at Sand Creek in 1864.
The full section reads:
Medicine Calf Beckwourth, riding beside Colonel Chivington, saw White Antelope approaching. “He came running out to meet the command,” Beckwourth later testified, “holding up his hands and saying ‘Stop! stop!’ He spoke it in as plain English as I can. He stopped and folded his arms until shot down.” Survivors among the Cheyennes said that White Antelope sang the death song before he died:
Nothing lives long
Only the earth and the mountains.
March 3, 2016Thomas Otway
“Clocks will go as they are set, but man, irregular man, is never constant, never certain.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7533...
The text is either moderised or simply wrong. Original wording (changes are underlined and the spurious comma after "but man" needs to be removed)
[C]locks will go as they are set: but man
Irregular man's ne'er constant, never certain.
Finally, how about adding the source? Venice Preserved
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
March 10, 2016Johanna Lindsey
“Do for yourself, for no one else will.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3734...
That phrase appears in an advert from 1953 when Johanna was nearly two years old.
Original text (my bold)
"If you are a productive worker, a skillful farmer or a good businessman and you save some of your income regularly as you receive it, you can gradually build up security for yourself and your family with self-respect. It is something you must do for yourself, for no one else will do it for you."
The advert can be seen here
March 21, 2016Jean Paul Friedrich Richter
“Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1515...
Missing a word (in bold):
“Music is the moonlight in the gloomy night of life.”
And another 150+ like on this correct version of the quote.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5944...
Finally, the source is Titan
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
March 24, 2016Mary Berry
“Cakes are healthy too, you just eat a small slice.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7149...
Slightly wrong. Should be thin not small. From the original 2012 interview (my bold/italics)
(Question):Given the amount of cake you eat, why aren't you the size of a house?
It's all about things in moderation. I do eat a good portion all the way through the Bake Off, because they've taken the trouble to make something, their parents are watching, and they want to see me have a proper slice. The next day I'm pretty careful. I do try to eat lots of salads and healthy foods. But cakes are healthy too, you just eat a thin slice. There's a lot of cheer in a cake.
The complete interview:
http://www.theguardian.com/theobserve...
March 30, 2016Anna Sewell, attributed to Black Beauty.
“It is good people who make good places.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3619...
This is so wrong that it is funny. It is certainly not in Black Beauty in the form cited. The nearest match in my edition (and on Gutenberg) would be:
"Good places make good horses"
No mention of people at all.
The relevant piece of text. The speaker is Merrylegs:
No, no! you never had a good place where they were kind to you, and so you don't know, and I'm sorry for you; but I can tell you good places make good horses.
April 7, 2016Iris Johansen, attributed to Countdown
"If your feet are firmly planted on the grount you'll never be able to dance".
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/292438
Firstly, a SPELLING mistake. Should be ground not grount.
Secondly, this quote is truncated and the words are shuffled.
The original text with shuffled and missing words in bold
"My roommate, Pat, always told me that if your feet are planted firmly on the ground then you’ll never be able to dance."
Mod
rivka wrote: "Corrected spelling."Nice one. Thanks.
April 8, 2016Nnedi Okorafor, attributed to Who Fears Death
“Flawed, imperfect creatures! That's what we both are, oga! That's what we ALL are!”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5239...
This is the original text. The two sets of italics are in the original and are, I think, required for emphasis.
["I was shouting now.] Flawed, imperfect creatures! That's what we both are, Oga! That's what we ALL are!"
Oga is used as a title or honorific and should be capitalized.
May 10, 2016Barbara Taylor Bradford
“The past was always there, lived inside of you, and it helped to make you who you were. But it had to be placed in perspective. The past could not dominate the future.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3447...
There are two missing words in bold.
The past was always there, lived inside of you, and it helped to make you who you were. But it had to be placed in its own perspective. The past could not dominate the future.
May 20, 2016Douglas Preston, from The Monster of Florence
“We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5436...
The attribution is certainly wrong. Firstly, the quotation in the book is spoken by Preston's co-author, the Italian journalist Mario Spezi and HE is quoting from his own, Spezi's, written notes the words of Brother Galileo Babbini. So it does not belong to either of the authors on the cover.
They added, “Nobody understood evil better than Brother Galileo,” he told me, referring to the Franciscan monk turned psychoanalyst he had turned to for help when the horrors of the Monster case began to drag him under. Brother Galileo had since died, but Mario credited him with saving his life during the time of the Monster’s killings. “He helped me understand what is beyond understanding.”
May 23, 2016Ken Jennings
“Trivia is mainstream. 'Nerd' is the new 'cool.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7657...
Before this became the QotD it had the correct attribution as from:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7...
so why remove it?
June 17, 2016Jeph Jacques, attributed to Questionable Content Vol. 1
“You ought to expect better of people. It encourages you to be a better person yourself.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5369...
As a fan of Questionable Content since Day One I was pleased with the QC quote but the specific attribution is wrong. The quote appeared in 2011 in the strip:
http://www.questionablecontent.net/vi...
but none of the printed volumes have reached that far so the attribution to Questionable Content Volume One is misleading.
Also, Marten Reed works in the Smif College library, not an office.
June 20, 2016Robert Crais
“There isn't so much love in the world that you can turn it away when it's offered.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes_of_t...
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4196...
add the source, L.A. Requiem volume 8 of his Elvis Cole series
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Washington Irving:QotD:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1151...
Other:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4405...
(Merged the three more versions into the non-QotD version). The Other version linked is a more complete version. Also, it's a misattribution to Washington Irving of an unknown author (appears from 1880s to WI, but to "Dr. Johnson" prior to that).
this should be mergedhttps://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1161...
with
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1161...
It would be nice if the tag "antinatalism" could be added. Thanks!
Giorgi wrote: "this should be mergedhttps://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1161...
with
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1161....
It would be nice if the tag "antinatalism" could be added. Thanks! "
Both done although there seems to be no source for the quote. Do you know of a book or anything that contains it?
Banjomike This website http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php... states that its from "Essays and Epistles" (1967), but I don't have any way of checking because I'm not sure it is translated in English. This is a quite famous quote among Antinatalist though...
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Books mentioned in this topic
Winnie-the-Pooh (other topics)Anne Frank's Tales from the Secret Annex: A Collection of Her Short Stories, Fables, and Lesser-Known Writings (other topics)
Him With His Foot in His Mouth and Other Stories (other topics)
The Secret Garden (other topics)
The Letters, 1830-1880 (other topics)
More...
There is no place like home.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4055...
The best thing to say about the Baum quotation is that he is paraphrasing, VERY slightly, the earlier work (1822) by John Howard Payne.
(Bold/italics added):
'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which sought through the world is ne'er met with elsewhere.