By Paul F. Boller Jr., John George

Abraham Lincoln by no means stated, "You can't idiot all of the humans all of the time." Thomas Jefferson by no means stated, "That govt is better which governs least." And Horace Greeley by no means acknowledged, "Go west, younger man." In They by no means stated It, Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George learn hundreds of thousands of misquotations, fallacious attributions, and blatant fabrications, outlining the origins of the rates and revealing why we should always consign them to the ancient trashcan.
Many of the misquotes are particularly innocuous. a few are inadvertent misquotes that experience develop into well known (Shakespeare really stated, "The better part of valor is discretion"), others, the innovations of journalists embellishing a narrative (Franklin Roosevelt by no means opened a speech to a DAR team with the salutation, "My fellow immigrants"). yet many of the prices, comparable to Charles Darwin's meant deathbed recantation of evolution, falsify the historic list with their blatant dishonesty. And different chillingly vicious ones, choked with virulent racial and spiritual prejudices, thoroughly distort the perspectives of the individual supposedly quoted and unfold mistrust and hatred one of the gullible. those comprise the cast comments attributed to Benjamin Franklin that Jews may be excluded from the United States and the fabricated condemnation of Catholics attributed to Lincoln.
An enjoyable and thought-provoking booklet, They by no means stated It covers loads of background and units it correct. Going past an insignificant catalog of well known misconceptions, Boller and George display how rightists and leftists, and atheists and evangelists all have every now and then twisted or even invented the phrases of eminent figures to advertise their very own ends. the last word debunking reference, it completely enhances handbooks of quotations.