The Right’s Library of Fake Quotes

[alp227]

Abraham Lincoln despised class warfare, Thomas Jefferson detested bailouts and the founders of the nation were all Bible-believing Christians. These are among the historical “facts” you’ll learn as a regular consumer of talk radio, Fox News and other conservative sources.

While non-conservatives have been known to misquote historical figures to add credibility to their own views, the right seems to have a special enthusiasm for putting words in dead people’s mouths.

Take what has become known as the “The Ten Cannots,” a list repeatedly misattributed to Abraham Lincoln. It begins:

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.…

And so on. These words were actually written by William J.H. Boetcker, a conservative minister who published them in a 1916 pamphlet along with some actual Lincoln quotes (Snopes.com, 8/19/09). Almost a century and many well-documented debunkings later (e.g., the 1989 Oxford Press book They Never Said It), some conservatives still insist on assigning them to Lincoln.

The canard is a staple of rabidly anti-Obama right-wing media such as Newsmax, where it has been repeated by columnist Geoff Metcalf (1/20/09) and radio talkshow host Al Rantel (3/1/04). This past summer, a flurry of letters to the editor citing Lincoln’s supposed remarks coincided with right-wing Tea Party demonstrations across the country (e.g., Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier, 8/8/09; South Florida Sun Sentinel, 9/18/09).

Rush Limbaugh (Rush Limbaugh TV show, 2/19/96) acknowledged falsely assigning the remarks to Lincoln in a 1986 speech he gave honoring the 16th president’s birthday. This admission came four years after former President Ronald Reagan misattributed the quote in his speech at the 1992 GOP convention and the New York Times (8/19/92), CNN (8/19/92) and NPR (8/20/92) ran stories disproving the Lincoln connection.

Read more: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4053

[ericinne]

1. Here's another:

"The government which governs best, governs least."

ALWAYS seeing right wingers try and claim it was Thomas Jefferson, or Paine, when it was actually Henry David Thoreau.

[Journeyman]

2. It's actually from the masthead of "The United States Magazine and Democratic Review" . . .

a publication to which Thoreau contributed several articles in the 1840s.

The publication's motto, "The best government is that which governs least," was famously paraphrased (and improved upon) by Thoreau in the opening sentence of Civil Disobedience.


Walden & Civil Disobedience: The Variorum Editions (1962)

[That Guy 888]

3. The Winston Churchill "quote" is one I see too often

from The Churchill Centre And Museum http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/myths/myths/quotes-falsely-attributed-to-him


Quotes Falsely Attributed | Print |

These quotes make for good story-telling but popular myth has falsely attributed them to Churchill.

"Conservative by the time you're 35"

"If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain." There is no record of anyone hearing Churchill say this. Paul Addison of Edinburgh University makes this comment: "Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of Clemmie, who is generally thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?"







The "Clemmie" mentioned above is Winston's wife, Clementine Hozier.

[pnorman]

4. Does anyone know of other internet sources like FAIR?

I diligently research each and every such quote (and occasionally find a few of my favorites to be bogus!) It's usually a rewarding quest, but I'd like to have a ready reference at hand when time is pressing.

[Blue_Tires]

5. they have been doing that for a LONG time

good to see someone finally call them on it...

They take the most fascist statements and simply put Jefferson/Franklin/Churchill's name on it and it becomes accepted fact...