Every famous thinker attracts sayings they never wrote. Some are modern paraphrases of a real idea, some belong to someone else entirely, and some come from nowhere at all. Here are the ones that circulate most, where each really came from, and, where there is one, the genuine line it was built from.
Each entry is marked with what went wrong:
Think you can tell them apart? Who Said It? mixes these fakes with real quotes, with a new puzzle every day.
The Buddha is probably the most misquoted figure on the internet, so he has a page of his own: Fake Buddha Quotes. So do Gandhi and Rumi. Two examples:
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
Someone else A modern rewording of an image by the 5th-century commentator Buddhaghosa, written roughly 900 years after the Buddha.
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
Someone else From the meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg’s book Lovingkindness (1995), loosely based on a passage in the Udana.
“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
Paraphrase The idea is thoroughly Stoic, but the sentence is not in the Meditations. The real passage:
“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.”Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.47
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
No source Widely shared, but not in the Meditations. His genuine morning advice is far less sunny:
“Begin the morning by saying to yourself: I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant, the deceitful, the envious, the unsocial.”Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 2.1
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
Paraphrase A loose modern rewording of this:
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.16
“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”
Someone else Maximus says it in the film Gladiator (2000); it is not in the Meditations, where Marcus is unimpressed by fame after death (4.19). See Philosophy at the Movies.
Many more on Fake Marcus Aurelius Quotes. More: Marcus Aurelius: quotes and lessons
“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Paraphrase A modern summary, not his words. The closest real line:
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.”Epictetus, Enchiridion 5
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
Paraphrase A popular compression of Plato’s Apology. Socrates’ actual claim is narrower and less paradoxical:
“I am wiser than this man to this small extent: I do not think I know what I do not know.”Plato, Apology 21d
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
Someone else From Dan Millman’s 1980 novel Way of the Peaceful Warrior, where it is said by a modern gas-station attendant the narrator nicknames “Socrates”.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Someone else Will Durant, summarising Aristotle in The Story of Philosophy (1926). It is faithful to Aristotle’s ethics, which teach that we become just by doing just acts and brave by doing brave acts (Nicomachean Ethics II.1), but the words are Durant’s.
More: Aristotle
“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
No source Not in the Analects or any early source. Its genuine cousin:
“If there want but one basket of earth to complete the work, and I stop, the stopping is my own work.”Analects 9.18
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Someone else Oliver Goldsmith, The Citizen of the World (1762), a series of letters written in the voice of a fictional Chinese philosopher, which is probably how it drifted to Confucius.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
No source A 20th-century saying with no ancient source.
“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.”
No source Not found in the Analects. The idea is closer to the Great Learning, a Confucian classic that links an ordered state to ordered families.
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
No source Not in the Tao Te Ching; it appears to be a modern saying. The nearest real idea:
“The Tao does nothing, yet nothing is left undone.”Tao Te Ching 37
More: Laozi · Tao Te Ching
“Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions: Why am I doing it, what the results might be, and will I be successful.”
No source Widely shared online, but it does not appear in the Arthashastra or the Chanakya Niti.
“A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.”
Paraphrase A crude modern rewording; the slang is 20th-century English. The genuine verse:
“Do not be too upright in your dealings: go to the forest and see — the straight trees are cut down, while the crooked ones are left standing.”Chanakya Niti, ch. 7 (traditional attribution)
“Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere.”
Paraphrase A loose modern version. The closest genuine verse:
“Learning is a friend on the journey, a wife at home, medicine in sickness; religious merit is the only friend after death.”Chanakya Niti, ch. 5 (traditional attribution)
Many more on Fake Chanakya Quotes. More: Chanakya: quotes and lessons
“In a day, when you don’t come across any problems, you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path.”
No source Widely shared under his name, especially in India, but it is not found in his Complete Works.
Many more on Fake Vivekananda Quotes. More: Swami Vivekananda: quotes and lessons
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
No source Widely shared as Rumi, but it cannot be traced to his works.
“Love is the bridge between you and everything.”
No source Another popular line with no source in Rumi. Much of the “Rumi” online comes from very free modern English versions, or from nowhere. A genuine line on love, from a scholarly translation:
“Whether love be from this side or from that side, in the end it leads us yonder.”Masnavi I.111, tr. R. A. Nicholson
More: Fake Rumi Quotes · Rumi
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
Someone else The famous Peace Prayer first appeared, anonymously, in a French magazine in 1912, almost seven centuries after Francis. It is beautiful, but it is not his.
“Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.”
No source Not found in his writings, though his Rule does tell the friars to preach by their deeds.
“Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
No source A modern line with no source in Francis.
More: Francis of Assisi
“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”
No source Not found in his sermons or treatises; it reads like a modern paraphrase of his teaching on gratitude.
More: Meister Eckhart
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
No source Nowhere in Nietzsche’s works. Its real origin is unknown.
“Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.”
Paraphrase A popular simplification of the categorical imperative. Kant’s test applies to the maxim, the rule behind an action, not to every act:
“Act only according to that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.”Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 4:421
“We are our choices.”
Paraphrase A popular compression of his view, not a line Sartre wrote. What he did write:
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.”Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism
Found one we’ve missed, or think we’ve got one wrong? Write to us; corrections are always welcome.
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