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Like George Washington
“I cannot tell a lie.” Except, of course, for that one. We’ve all heard the story about how young George Washington was bad enough to chop down a neighbor’s cherry tree, but not bad (or, perhaps, smart) enough to lie about it…but it turns out that the story itself is a big, fat fabrication. Washington’s first biographer, the questionable Anglican minister “Parson” Weems, cut the tale from whole cloth. It’s the most famous story from Weem’s saintly 1799 biography, conveniently published right after Washington died and could no longer defend himself.
Like Sherlock Holmes
”Elementary, my dear Watson.” Famous words, but not ones Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would have recognized. Doyle never quoted his literary creation, Sherlock Holmes, as saying that famous line. Instead, it came from a series of Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone. Which just proves what you learned in high school English class, watching the movie isn’t the same as reading the book.
Like the Bible
“Spare the rod and spoil the child.” You’ll be happy to know that the maxim cited by your parents right before they turned you over their knees is not Biblical in origin. In fact, its source is rather scandalous. Like a T.V. preacher caught in a seedy motel, “spare the rod” actually leapt from the brain of Samuel Butler, an English playwright who’s also known for his long poem Dildoides, which holds the distinction of being the only book-length poem written about a shipment of French dildos. In the poem, the dildoides are destroyed by British customs, but not before Butler can describe them in somewhat painful detail. Painful, like your bottom after a good spanking.
Comments (11)
Comment
actually, “spare the rod” IS in the Bible. just check out Proverbs 13:24
He who spares the rod hates his son,
but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
this is coming from the New International Version, but I’m sure that you could get a direct quote from a different translation.
posted by Ben on 1-30-2007 at 10:32 am
My favorite misquote is “Play it again, Sam”. Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) actually said, “Play it, Sam; Play ‘As Time Goes By’”. Later Rick (Humphrey Bogart) said, “If she can stand it, I can… Play it!”
Another is “Do you feel lucky?” Callahan (Clint Eastwood) actually goes on a long diatribe with his gun pointed at the perp, at the end he says, “The question you have to ask yourself is, ‘Do I feel lucky today?’ Well do you, punk?”
posted by n2y2 on 1-30-2007 at 10:50 am
“Beam me up, Scotty”
posted by Bryan on 1-30-2007 at 11:16 am
I was just going to chime in on the spare the rod thing, but Ben got there first. so i’m just going to mention a different misquote.
Alas poor Yorick, I knew him….
most people think it’s “I knew him well”
but it’s actually “I knew him Horatio”
posted by Melanie on 1-30-2007 at 1:18 pm
“Luke, I am your father.”
With a bunch of geeks, I’m surprised this wasn’t posted earlier! :-P
posted by Kate on 1-30-2007 at 9:36 pm
Like Emma Goldman:
QUOTE: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.”
ACTUALLY SAID: “At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause.
I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business. I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. “I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.” Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world — prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal.”
posted by Sara on 12-17-2007 at 4:54 am
Speaking of Shakespeare, it’s actually not a misquote, but “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” does not mean “where are you, Romeo,” but “WHY are you Romeo?”
posted by Li on 12-17-2007 at 7:15 am
“Lead on, McDuff!” is correctly quoted as “Lay on, McDuff” and has nothing to do with going first. It’s from Shakespeare’s “MacBeth” and fully quoted is “Lay on, McDuff, and damned be him who first cries ‘Hold, Enough!’”. Great way to issue a challenge!
posted by Alice on 12-17-2007 at 9:57 am
Preacher: “Without you, O Lord, we are but dust.”
Little girl:” Mommy! What is butt dust?”
posted by Scott on 12-17-2007 at 12:43 pm
How about the head over heels. Which was originally heels over head.
You head is always over your heels, but writers thought it sounded better than heels over head.
posted by Rachel on 12-17-2007 at 2:18 pm
And what about ‘Music soothes the savage beast” misquote. It is actaully “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak”
posted by JaneM on 12-17-2007 at 2:35 pm