In May 1897, the great American humorist, novelist and social critic Samuel Clemens — best known by his pen name, Mark Twain — was in London. It was one of…
Category: Misquotes
“Greed is good!” – the famous movie misquote and it’s real life inspiration
On December 11, 1987 Oliver Stone’s film Wall Street was released in U.S. theaters. The movie stars Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, a mega-rich, ethically-challenged Wall Street investor who specializes…
“Yonder lies the castle of my fodder.” The famous movie “quote” that Tony Curtis didn’t say…
When actor Tony Curtis died at age 85, in September 2010, many obituaries and tributes mentioned what is widely believed to be one of his most famous movie lines. In…
“We will bury you!” (Or something like that.)
On November 18, 1956, Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev, the head of the Soviet Union, attended a party at the Polish Embassy in Moscow. At that event, he made some boasting…
“When you call me that, SMILE!”
When the groundbreaking Western novel The Virginian by Owen Wister was first published on May 28, 1902, no one could have known that it would become so famous — or…
“Any man who hates dogs and babies can’t be all bad.”
To paraphrase Firesign Theatre, everything most people know about some famous quotations is wrong. A notable example is the famous line “Any man who hates dogs and babies can’t be…
“Too cheap to meter” – the infamous nuclear power misquote…
In the annals of the long, still-ongoing debate over nuclear power, the most infamous words are undoubtedly “too cheap to meter.” The origin of this phrase is a speech given…
Is Nathan Hale’s legendary line “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country” a true quote, a misquote or pure fiction?
On September 22, 1776, during the Revolutionary War, a former school teacher named Nathan Hale was hanged by the British for being a rebel spy. According to legend, Hale uttered…
First they came for the Communists – or was it the Industrialists?
On October 14, 1968, Congressman Henry S. Reuss of Wisconsin made some remarks on the floor of Congress that included what became a very famous quotation – or, more accurately,…