23 Very Famous Quotes You Probably Have Wrong

1. “Ignorance is bliss” is actually “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise” and it was said by Thomas Gray.

2. In the bible, “Money is the root of all evil” is actually “For the love of money is the root of all evil” in the King James Version and in the New International, it’s “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”

3. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” is actually “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,” but either way, true.

4. Voltaire’s famous quote “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” is actually “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so also.”

5. “The ends justify the means” is actually “One must consider the final result,” which really gives a very different connotation to Machiavelli’s original statement.

6. Gandhi never said “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It was “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change toward him. We need not wait to see what others do.”

7. Forrest Gump said “Life was like a box of chocolates,” not “Life is like a box of chocolates,” although they do have the same meaning more or less.

8. “Houston we have a problem” was never said on Apollo 13, just in the movie.

9. And while we’re at it, Neil Armstrong actually said “One step forman…” not “One step for man…”

10. Marilyn Monroe did not say “If you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best,” or “Well behaved women rarely make history.” In fact, the latter was said by a Harvard professor.

11. Audrey Hepburn did not say “For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others, for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness, and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” It was actually from a humorist that she quoted often.

Other things Marilyn Monroe didn’t say

13. “Nothing lasts forever, so live it up, drink it down, laugh it off, avoid the drama, take chances and never have regrets because at one point everything you did was exactly what you wanted.”

14. “Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world.”

15. “Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.”

16. Billy Cosby’s “I’m 83 and tired” Facebook post wasn’t real.

17. “With great power comes great responsibility” was not actually said by Spider Man, it was just a narrative caption in the last panel of the story.

18. Churchill didn’t say “You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give.” What he actually said was “What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?  How else can we put ourselves in harmonious relation with the great verities and consolations of the infinite and the eternal?  And I avow my faith that we are marching towards better days.  Humanity will not be cast down.  We are going on swinging bravely forward along the grand high road and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun.”

19. Sarah Palin never said “You can see Russia from my house.”

20. Einstein never said “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” It was said by psychiatrist Frederick S. Perls.

21. There is no evidence that Oscar Wilde ever said “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken,” just a quote in the London Times’ story about him that is a variation of it.

22. There’s no evidence that Dr. Seuss ever said “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” It has been attributed to Gabriel García Márquez, but there seems to be no source for that either.

23. Mark Twain didn’t say “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” It was Jackson BrownThought Catalog Logo Mark

Want to get invited to exclusive private parties where you live? Thought Catalog can arrange that. Sign up here.

image – Abee5

Part time writer. Full time bad ass bitch. Brunch-having New Yorker.

More From Thought Catalog