Quotes
Lines people get wrong
12 famous lines that are quoted wrong, or credited to someone who never wrote them. Each one is checked word for word against the original text, with the source linked, so you can see what was actually written.
Overwhelmed
“Simplify, simplify, simplify!”
Thoreau on too many things: the actual passage from WaldenRestless
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
What Pascal actually wrote about sitting quietly in a roomRestless
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Did Emerson really say “Go where there is no path and leave a trail”?Restless
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
What Montaigne actually wrote about belonging to yourselfAnxious about what’s next
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
Did Marcus Aurelius really say “You have power over your mind”?Anxious about what’s next
“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
Did Lao Tzu really say “If you are depressed, you are living in the past”?Lonely
“What you seek is seeking you.”
Did Rumi really say “What you seek is seeking you”?Lonely
“Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.”
Did Aristotle really say “Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god”?Doubting myself
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Did Emerson really say “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else”?Doubting myself
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Did Aristotle really say “We are what we repeatedly do”?Angry
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
Did the Buddha really say anger is like “grasping a hot coal”?Taken for granted
“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”
Machiavelli: is it really “better to be feared than loved”?