15 famous phrases that no one really said
Miscellaneous / / April 05, 2021
The main problem with quotes from the Internet is that people immediately believe in their authenticity.
1. "I'm tired, I'm leaving" - Boris Yeltsin
This is what Boris Yeltsin allegedly said in his address to the Russians when he was leaving the presidency. The phrase was even changed into “I'm tired. I am a muhozhuk. "
However, if you watch the entryYeltsin's speech, then "I'm tired, I'm leaving" you will not find there. Yeltsin said: "Today, on the last day of the outgoing century, I am resigning."
2. "If there is no bread, let them eat cakes" - Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette didn't say thatDid Marie-Antoinette really say “Let them eat cake”?. The phrase "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche" appeared in the Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1769. He attributed her some French princess. Marie Antoinette was still living in Austria at the time, and she was only 14.
3. "There are no irreplaceable people" - Joseph Stalin
Stalin is often credited with the words "There are no irreplaceable people" or "We have no irreplaceable people." But neither in his memoirs nor in the recordings of speeches such a phrase is found. The only even remotely similar statement can be found in the entry
Report to the 17th Party Congress on the work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on January 26, 1934 reporting report of the 1st Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1934These arrogant nobles think that they are irreplaceable and that they can violate the decisions of the governing bodies with impunity. They should not hesitate to remove them from leadership positions, regardless of their past merits.
Joseph Stalin
Report to the 17th Party Congress on the work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on January 26, 1934
4. "Any cook can run the state" - Vladimir Lenin
Lenin said nothing of the kind. And in the articleWill the Bolsheviks retain state power "Will the Bolsheviks retain state power?" he expounded the opposite idea in meaning: both the laborer and the cook must first educateso that they can control something.
We are not utopians. We know that any laborer and any cook are not able to immediately take over the government... We demand that training in the state management was carried out by class-conscious workers and soldiers and so that it was started immediately, that is, all workers, all the poor.
Vladimir Lenin
"Will the Bolsheviks retain state power?"
5. “Wake me up in a hundred years, and ask what is happening in Russia now. And I will answer - they drink and steal "- Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
Such a saying is attributed toDrink and steal then Saltykov-Shchedrin, then Karamzin, but in this form it is not found in any of them. Apparently, the phrase was invented by Alexander Rosenbaum, who in an interview with the Sobesednik newspaper on October 16, 2000 saidAlexander Rosenbaum's interview to the Sobesednik newspaper following.
Either Karamzin or Saltykov-Shchedrin said: “What will happen in 200 years? They will drink and steal! "
Alexander Rosenbaum
Interview to the newspaper "Sobesednik"
Or the saying appeared thanks to an entry in diaryPyotr Vyazemsky, "Notebooks" Prince Peter Vyazemsky, who knew Karamzin personally.
Karamzin said that if you answered in one word to the question: "What is happening in Russia?", Then you would have to say: "Steal."
Pyotr Vyazemsky
"Notebooks"
6. "The end justifies the means" - Niccolo Machiavelli
Machiavelli did expressEnd justifies the means a similar thought:
The actions of all people, and especially sovereigns who are unwise to challenge, are judged by the result. Therefore, give the sovereign the opportunity to conquer and retain power in the state, and the funds will always be considered worthy, and everyone will approve of them, because the common people are always seduced by what things seem to be and what turns out.
Niccolo Machiavelli "
Treatise "Sovereign"
But he did not say that particular phrase. Something similar was said by the German theologian Hermann Busenbaum: "To whom the goal is permitted, the means are also permitted." Obviously, the formulation “the end justifies the means” is a product of folk art.
7. “I disagree with any word that you say, but I’m ready to die for your right to say it” - Voltaire
Voltaire never said that. A phrase reminiscent of this aphorism belongs to the writer Evelyn Hall and appeared in her book - the biography of the poet "The Friends of Voltaire":
I do not approve of what you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.
Evelyn Hall
Book "The Friends of Voltaire"
Hall herself statedI disagree with any word you say, but I’m ready to die for your right to say it.: “I didn’t want to give the impression that these are the true words of Voltaire, and would be surprised if they were found in any of his works. This is just a paraphrase of Voltaire's words from Essays on Tolerance - "Think and let others think too."
8. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" - Sigmund Freud
There is a story about the following on the Internet. Somehow psychoanalytic students surrounded Freud and began asking him questions about smoking, trying to connect the teacher's habit with a subconscious craving for oral sex with men. But Freud replied: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar", suppressing the jokes of the students.
But the story is unlikely to take place in reality.Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar, 10 of the Most Famous Quotes Never Said or Misattributed. None of Freud's contemporaries said anything like that. Moreover, the vast majority of students adopted his smoking habits to please their mentor, who disliked non-smokers. So it is unlikely that they would have accused Freud of obscenities because of cigars, despite the fact that they themselves did not refuse them.
Perhaps the aphorism appeared10 of the Most Famous Quotes Never Said or Misattributed thanks to comedian Groucho Marx. Only he compared cigars not with a member, but with a mother's breast.
9. “Don't regret the soldier! The women are still giving birth! " - Georgy Zhukov
This phrase was attributed at different times not only to Marshal Zhukov, but also to Suvorov, Kutuzov and Peter I. But there is no evidence that at least one of them blurted out something like that.
Something similar can only be found in a letterCorrespondence between Nicholas and Alexandra: 1914-1917 Empress Alexandra Nicholas II, written on August 17, 1916:
The generals know that we still have many soldiers in Russia, and therefore do not spare their lives, but these were superbly trained troops, and everything was in vain.
Correspondence with Nicholas II, 1914-1917
10. "If there is no God, then everything is permitted" - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky did not assert this, although the phrase fully reflects the views of his hero Ivan Karamazov. Aphorism attributedIf there is no God, everything is allowed his Jean-Paul Sartre in his lecture.
Dostoevsky once wrote that "if there is no God, then everything is permitted." This is the starting point of existentialism.
Jean-Paul Sartre
"Existentialism is Humanism"
In Dostoevsky's novel "The Demons" there is only a phrase uttered by the "gray-haired bourbon captain": "If there is no God, then what kind of captain am I after that?" And the answer of the atheist Kirillov: "If there is no God, then I am God."
11. “God helps those who help themselves” - Bible
In a 2001 poll, 82% of Americans decidedResearcher Predicts Mounting Challenges to Christian Churchthat this is a quote from the Bible. However, a simple search on its text will tell you that such a phrase is not there.
This thought meetsThe Bible Doesn’t Say That in ancient sources - "Hippolytus" by Euripides, "Metamorphoses" by Ovid and Aesop. And in a more familiar form, the aphorism can be found in Algernon Sydney's book Discourses on Government: "God helps those who care for themselves."
12. Divide and Conquer - Julius Caesar
Neither Caesar nor other Roman rulers and senators could find such an aphorism. It is absent in classical Roman texts.Divide and rule. It is possible that the aforementioned Machiavelli said something like that - he owns the following phrase:
Divide what you control.
Niccolo Machiavelli
"Discourses on the first decade of Titus Livy"
But it was precisely "Divide and Conquer" that neither Caesar nor Machiavelli said.
Do you have examples of phrases that no one actually said? Jason Statham's sayings are not accepted, everything is true in them.
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