Showing posts with label misquotes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label misquotes. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Who Had Another Famous Death Quote?

The last post was on Mark Twain and his prediction about his death, which got me to thinking about another famous death quote.

Do you know who said this:  "The news of my death is greatly exaggerated."

Well, do ya?

Answer below.


W.C. Fields

***************************************

BUT!!!!

Mark Twain also reportedly said at one time:  "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

I Wonder?  --CootTwainFields


Friday, April 17, 2009

Famous Misquotes-- Part 3

Finishing up with List Universe's March 9th list of top fifteen military and political misquotes. I found this to be very interesting. Thanks.

#5. EDMUND BURKE-- "It is necessary only for good men to do nothing for evil to triumph." This never appears in any of his writings.

#4. PLATO-- "Only the dead have seen the end of war." Douglas MacArthur gave a speech and attributed it to Plato when George Santayana actually wrote it.

#3. OTTO VON BISMARCK-- "To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making." The 1869 Daily Cleveland Herald reported that Godfrey Saxe said, "Laws, like sausage, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made."

#2. ANDREW JACKSON-- "To the victors belong the spoils." Even though he definitely agreed with it. Actually, this was said by an ally of New York Governor William marcy in 1928, telling how Jackson would dole out appointments and jobs.

#1. ADMIRAL ISOROKU YAMAMOTO-- "I fear that all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant." Actually, it was from the screenwriters of the 1970 movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!" The admiral definitely believed Japan could not win a long war with the US.

In 1942, he did write: "A military man can scarcely pride himself on having smitten a sleeping enemy; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack."

Made You Think. --Da Coot

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Famous Misquotes-- Part 2

Continuing with March 9th's List Serve's 15 famous misquotes.

10. THOMAS JEFFERSON-- "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." He probably said it, but it was essentially said before. It was originally said by Irish judge John Philpot Curran: "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance."

9. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN-- Even more true today. "Nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes." In 1724, Edward Ward wrote, "Death and taxes, they are certain." In 1716, Christopher Bullock wrote, "Tis impossible to be sure of anything but Death and Taxes."

8. HARRY TRUMAN-- "The buck stops here." Got it from a 1945 gift from El Reno, Oklahoma bearing those words. A Yale historian discovered an El Reno newspaper photo from 1942 that shows the phrase on the desk of a colonel at the federal Reformatory in El Reno where the gift came from.

7. WILLIAM PRESCOTT-- "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes. Then fire low." 1775 at Bunker Hill. Frederick the Great said it in 1755 during the Seven years War.

6. CHIEF SEATTLE-- "How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land." These are the opening and closing lines of a very long speech. However, it was written in 1971 for an ecological movie.

A Word, A Word, My Kingdom for a Word. --Da Coot