Lincoln Said What? Bogus Quotations Take On A New Life On Social Media

[donarb]

My favorite Lincoln quote is "Don't believe everything you read on the internet".

[arkitaip]

Plato said it more eloquently but he referenced Usenet.

[omginternets]

Ha! I saw a pretty good one along the lines of:

   70% of statistics are made up on the spot.
       - Abraham Lincoln

[coldcode]

My favorite Lincoln quote "I never said that about the internet".

[deepandmeaning]

I've been collecting quotes for years (publishing some of them here: http://thinkmindful.com )

For me other peoples pithy insights bring solace, a new way of looking at something, and a recognition that any struggles I may be going through are not unique to me.

Does the fact that some of them are wrongly attributed bother me? Only a little, I like to get it right. But the meaning behind the message is the main thing.

[Bakary]

The meaning can be vastly different depending on the origin of the quote, although for general observations about life I would say you are right.

[toomanybeersies]

I have a notebook that I write quotations, sayings, and other wise-sounding tidbits in.

I never write who the quotes are ascribed to. I don't believe that just because a specific person had an adage or said something means that it's right. Unless it's on a subject that someone is an expert on, it's just a weak appeal to authority.

For me, it's more that I already agree with what the quotes are saying, but they're generally worded better than what I could write.

[dajohnson89]

Knowing the source of a quote is valuable for all but the most trite aphorisms​.

Take Gertrude Stein's "a rose is a rose is a rose". Sounds pretty dumb on its own, but that was her style, and incidentally she was paraphrasing a Shakespeare line.

Hmmm, I think I kinda proved your point.

[Semaphor]

My rule for posts that contain text as an image is that the information in that image is almost certainly wrong.

[gravityfeed]

let me Escher-ize that for you: https://www.genolve.com/svg/en/quotes.php?creation=2d40141d-...