So said Eleanor Roosevelt. Although it's not clear that she actually did. I dunno, it's a bit like Einstein being credited with saying "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.". He didn't, and if you keep on saying it, that's insane.
He also didn't say:
“Education is that which remains, if one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
Or:
“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
But it's a fun aphorism; great at parties.
Is misquoting famous people a modern phenomenon? Maybe twitterstorm, internatter, wikieverything? Well no. Eighteenth century French citizens were so hacked off with the French royal family that they attributed "let them eat cake" to Marie Antoinette. It had actually been said earlier by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Confessions. But never let the truth get in the way of a good story (I wonder who said that?) - Marie said it! Execute her! So they did. Rousseau got away with it.
We know who said "Brexit means Brexit" but how many times did Theresa May do so? Maybe nowadays with 24 hour rolling news it's not likely that misquotes would be allowed to get into everyday understanding, but Twitter is a great spreader of fake news. And we definitely know who said that. Or do we?
In the 13th century BC, Rameses the Great spread lies and propaganda portraying the Battle of Kadesh as a stunning victory for the Egyptians; the battle was actually a stalemate. FAKE NEWS!
In the American colonies, Benjamin Franklin wrote fake news about murderous "scalping" Indians working with King George III in an effort to sway public opinion in favour of the American Revolution. FAKE NEWS!
Maybe, in 100 years, students will be writing essays on Jeremy Corbyn saying "Brexit means fake news".
I’m sure they will. I blame Cummings and Gove.
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