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That Wasn’t Mark Twain: How a Misquotation Is Born

68 points by tysone 10y ago

danso 10y ago
Quote Investigator has basically trained me to reflexively assume that if a quote is pithy and timeless, then it probably didn't originate from someone famous. One of my favorite quote investigations: whether Stalin said, "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/ http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/
- kinkrtyavimoodh 10y ago
  My metric is—if that quote sounds fancy or profound only because a famous name is tagged to it, it probably did originate from that name. Quotes that sound nice irrespective of the origina are probably apocryphal.
- c3534l 10y ago
  Same thing with etymologies: if it has a funny story and not "from the PIE kwa* or possible borrowed during the late 5th century meaning basically the same thing" then it's probably false.
- sohkamyung 10y ago
  My reflex is to go the Quote Investigator first whenever I see a quote I would like to share. If I don't find it there, then I rather not reshare it. Yes, the site doesn't cover all quotes. But the large number of mis-attributed quotes I've seen shared has made me conservative in what quotes I reshare.
andrewclunn 10y ago
"I'd fap to that." - Abraham Lincoln
- sctb 10y ago
  We've asked you numerous times not to post like this, so we've banned the account. We're happy to unban accounts if you email us at hn@ycombinator.com and we believe you'll stop breaking the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - AndrewOMartin 10y ago
    Yeah, and anyway, the actual Abraham Lincoln quote is "I haven't said half the shit attributed to me on the internet".
  - interfixus 10y ago
    The andrewclunn character has some spiky opinions and a sometimes edgy tone, but certainly doesn't appear to sabotage any discussions here, give or take the odd misplaced facetious comment. More than once, he has initiated long perfectly readable subthreads, meaning his input has got someone thinking. So here's my one worthless vote to reinstate him ASAP.
    - dang 10y ago
      It's pretty easy for someone to get unbanned if really they want to use the site as intended. Failing that, the vouching system gives banned users' good comments a fair shot at being restored, so even the worst case isn't that bad.
      - wapz 10y ago
        Can you tell me what the vouching system is? Is that another word for giving upvotes to comments?
        DanBC 10y ago
        In your options there's one called "showdead". That allows you to see any comments that have been killed by the HN software or by user flags. If you then click the timestamp of a dead comment you'll see a [vouch] link. If enough people click that it'll change the post from dead to live. Mods get to see vouches, and people who get enough vouches I think get converted from banned to unbanned. I think there's a karma threshold four vouching, but I don't know what that is.
brlewis 10y ago
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” This is my favorite Mark Twain misquote because it's self-referential.
- theoh 10y ago
  As someone who has quoted it on HN recently, I don't think that misattributing it is going to get anyone into trouble. What's going to get them into trouble is not having any life experience that validates the sentiment.
- mastazi 10y ago
  Some background about the mis-quote parent is talking about: https://newrepublic.com/minutes/126677/it-aint-dont-know-gets-trouble-must-big-short-opens-fake-mark-twain-quote https://newrepublic.com/minutes/126677/it-aint-dont-know-get...
vonnik 10y ago
One of the most famous fake Twain quotes is: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Or in other words: "The most famous sentence Mark Twain ever put to paper was written by anonymous."
praneshp 10y ago
This is a great book on such quotes: https://www.amazon.com/They-Never-Said-Misleading-Attributions/dp/0195064690 https://www.amazon.com/They-Never-Said-Misleading-Attributio...
TwoBit 10y ago
People attribute quotes to famous people because that gives the quote more weight.
- reillyse 10y ago
  Yes, and people want to be listened to and attributing what you are saying to someone with better credentials is essentially a way of increasing the power of what you are saying.
scandox 10y ago
A previous analysis in Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/quote_websites_are_frequently_inaccurate_but_we_use_them_anyway.html http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/quote_...

68 points by tysone 10y ago

danso 10y ago

Quote Investigator has basically trained me to reflexively assume that if a quote is pithy and timeless, then it probably didn't originate from someone famous. One of my favorite quote investigations: whether Stalin said, "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/ http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/05/21/death-statistic/

kinkrtyavimoodh 10y ago
My metric is—if that quote sounds fancy or profound only because a famous name is tagged to it, it probably did originate from that name. Quotes that sound nice irrespective of the origina are probably apocryphal.
c3534l 10y ago
Same thing with etymologies: if it has a funny story and not "from the PIE kwa* or possible borrowed during the late 5th century meaning basically the same thing" then it's probably false.
sohkamyung 10y ago
My reflex is to go the Quote Investigator first whenever I see a quote I would like to share. If I don't find it there, then I rather not reshare it. Yes, the site doesn't cover all quotes. But the large number of mis-attributed quotes I've seen shared has made me conservative in what quotes I reshare.

andrewclunn 10y ago

"I'd fap to that." - Abraham Lincoln

sctb 10y ago
We've asked you numerous times not to post like this, so we've banned the account. We're happy to unban accounts if you email us at hn@ycombinator.com and we believe you'll stop breaking the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- AndrewOMartin 10y ago
  Yeah, and anyway, the actual Abraham Lincoln quote is "I haven't said half the shit attributed to me on the internet".
- interfixus 10y ago
  The andrewclunn character has some spiky opinions and a sometimes edgy tone, but certainly doesn't appear to sabotage any discussions here, give or take the odd misplaced facetious comment. More than once, he has initiated long perfectly readable subthreads, meaning his input has got someone thinking. So here's my one worthless vote to reinstate him ASAP.
  - dang 10y ago
    It's pretty easy for someone to get unbanned if really they want to use the site as intended. Failing that, the vouching system gives banned users' good comments a fair shot at being restored, so even the worst case isn't that bad.
    - wapz 10y ago
      Can you tell me what the vouching system is? Is that another word for giving upvotes to comments?
      - DanBC 10y ago
        In your options there's one called "showdead". That allows you to see any comments that have been killed by the HN software or by user flags. If you then click the timestamp of a dead comment you'll see a [vouch] link. If enough people click that it'll change the post from dead to live. Mods get to see vouches, and people who get enough vouches I think get converted from banned to unbanned. I think there's a karma threshold four vouching, but I don't know what that is.

brlewis 10y ago

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” This is my favorite Mark Twain misquote because it's self-referential.

theoh 10y ago
As someone who has quoted it on HN recently, I don't think that misattributing it is going to get anyone into trouble. What's going to get them into trouble is not having any life experience that validates the sentiment.
mastazi 10y ago
Some background about the mis-quote parent is talking about: https://newrepublic.com/minutes/126677/it-aint-dont-know-gets-trouble-must-big-short-opens-fake-mark-twain-quote https://newrepublic.com/minutes/126677/it-aint-dont-know-get...

vonnik 10y ago

One of the most famous fake Twain quotes is: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Or in other words: "The most famous sentence Mark Twain ever put to paper was written by anonymous."

praneshp 10y ago

This is a great book on such quotes: https://www.amazon.com/They-Never-Said-Misleading-Attributions/dp/0195064690 https://www.amazon.com/They-Never-Said-Misleading-Attributio...

TwoBit 10y ago

People attribute quotes to famous people because that gives the quote more weight.

reillyse 10y ago
Yes, and people want to be listened to and attributing what you are saying to someone with better credentials is essentially a way of increasing the power of what you are saying.

scandox 10y ago

A previous analysis in Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/quote_websites_are_frequently_inaccurate_but_we_use_them_anyway.html http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/quote_...