As promised, here’s the follow up to yesterday’s post about misquotations. The difference? While yesterday focused on misattributed or incorrect movie quotes (with some debate, I realize), today will focus on real people. Let the debate begin!

1. “Billions and billions.” Carl Sagan never said this, and he even explained that he never said it in the first chapter of his book… which, incidentally, was titled Billions & Billions. You can’t say the guy didn’t have a sense of humor. The quote actually originated from Johnny Carson’s impression of Sagan.

2. “The British are coming!” was very likely never shouted by Paul Revere. It was in the poem about his journey (Paul Revere’s Ride), though. The thought is that most of the people in the colonies still considered themselves British, plus the whole mission was cloaked in secrecy – running through the village shouting may have thrown off the plans a bit.

3. “Let them eat cake!” has been attributed to the tragic Marie Antoinette for centuries, but she didn’t say it. A similar quote was said by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his autobiography Confessions: “I recalled the make-shift of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread and who replied: ‘Let them eat brioche’.” But he wasn’t talking about Marie Antoinette. He was talking about an incident that happened 10 years before she was even born. The twisted quote was attributed to her probably to turn the country against her even more. Apparently, it worked.

4. “Houston, we have a problem.” Not quite, not quite. When things went awry on Apollo 13, Fred Haise started with, “OK, Houston,” and was then interrupted by Jim Lovell with, “I believe we’ve had a problem here,” followed by “Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a main B bus undervolt.”

5. “Can’t we all just get along?” The context of Rodney King’s famous quote is right, but what he actually said was, “”People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?”

6. “I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree.” George Washington may have been honest, but he never said this statement. One of his many biographers, Parson Weems, made up the quote in the 1800s.

7. “You, sir, are no Jack Kennedy.” This is another one that’s close, but not quite accurate. What U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen actually said to Dan Quayle was “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

8. “Pride comes before a fall.” Well, if you’re quoting the Beatles, that’s right. But if you’re quoting the Bible, the saying is, “: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

9. According to WinstonChurchill.org, the quote “The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash,” was never actually said by him. His assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne, said that Churchill wished it was his quote.

10. Finally, Mark Twain. Check out Snopes – it’s full of misattributed Mark Twain quotes. They talked to the author of Nice Guys Finish Seventh, a book about our Quick 10 subject for the past two days. He said that any time a quote is anonymous, droll, and sarcastic, people pretty much automatically assume that Mark Twain said it. Here are just a couple that he never said (or they were misquoted):

• “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.” He did quote this in his autobiography, but attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli.
• “To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did. I ought to know because I’ve done it a thousand times.”
• “So I became a newspaperman. I hated to do it, but I couldn’t find honest employment.”
• “Whenever I feel the urge to exercise, I lie down until it goes away.”