6 Famous Quotes You See On Facebook (That Are Crazy Fake)

6 Famous Quotes You See On Facebook (That Are Crazy Fake)

Updated with reader comment:

Why stop at six? The typical Facebook meme involves words superimposed over a picture of someone known for his intellect, wisdom and/or wit: Franklin, Confucius, Aristotle, Einstein, Mark Twain, Lincoln, Mencken …

Scoop’s law is this:

There’s about 99% certainty that the person pictured did not speak those words.

Scoop’s sub-laws are as follows:

A small percentage of them are reasonable paraphrases of something they actually said.

A small percentage of them are real quotes or paraphrases, but said by somebody less famous, less sympathetic, or with less gravitas. Mark Twain never said or wrote. “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” I can see why this was attributed to the witty author and raconteur, since it actually is clever and wise, but it ain’t his. How do we know? Well, for one thing, Twain’s father died when he was eleven, so he couldn’t have said it speaking as himself. Given that, the quote would have had to come from one of his characters, but there is nothing similar in any of his works. With the recent release of his unpublished autobiography, just about every thought he ever had has been published.

A very large percentage of them are quotes that have been altered just enough to turn the original genius into something more specific or quite inaccurate.

Inaccurate example:

Ben Franklin did not say “Those who would give up liberty for safety, deserve neither,”  because he was not an idiot. The entire purpose of human beings in creating communities, then civilizations, rather than living as hunter-gatherers, requires giving up absolute individual liberty to create safety for all. What Franklin wrote was, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither,” which is so much of a truism that it’s almost trite, but is a good reminder for all of us.

Too specific example:

H.L. Mencken did not say, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” (Nor, for that matter, did P.T. Barnum.) Mencken did say, “No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” Mencken pointed out that stupid is stupid everywhere in the world. There was no need to wrap it in red, white and blue bunting.

A large percentage of them are the opinion of the person who created the slide, who makes his Hallmark level of profundity seem recondite by attributing it to somebody respected.

A few consist of people repeating urban legends without checking the facts. Hitler and Goebbels did talk and write about “the big lie” and its effectiveness, but they were not advocating it. They were condemning the alleged use of it by the English or by Jewish people.

Reader comment:

“I can’t believe ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.’ (Albert Einstein) didn’t make the top of the list. I have seen really smart people use this in job interviews and paid presentations when it is so easily refutable if you look up even a moderately intelligent Einstein scholar.”

Scoop’s response:

Yes. Good one. Thanks! At various times, that quote has been wrongly attributed to Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Mark Twain. (The usual suspects! How did they miss Lincoln?) According to one source, the reliability of which I cannot vouch for, the first time it actually appeared in print was in a 1981 Narcotics Anonymous text.