Quotes, sayings and stories, checked
We look up where famous lines, sayings and stories really come from, and share what we found with the sources. Often the original is more interesting than the version that travels. 271 lines across 31 articles so far.
Famous quotes
Lines credited to real people, read against what they said or wrote.
- Did They Really Say That? 22 Famous Quotes, Checked Against the Source
- Did They Really Say That? Part 2: Einstein, Roosevelt, Ford and the Films ✓2 holds up◐6 partly✕7 doesn't hold up
- Quotes That Get Cut Short: 15 Sayings and How They End in the Original ✓5 holds up◐3 partly✕7 doesn't hold up
- Quotes That Change When You Read the Next Sentence: 12 Famous Lines in Context ◐7 partly✕5 doesn't hold up
- Film and TV Lines Everyone Remembers Slightly Wrong: 11 Famous Lines Checked ◐9 partly✕1 doesn't hold up▶1 film line
- Shakespeare Lines That Mean Something Different in the Play: 11 Famous Quotes in Context ◐4 partly✕6 doesn't hold up▶1 fiction
- Famous Lines from Founders, Kings and Generals: 10 Checked Against the Record ◐2 partly✕4 doesn't hold up⇄1 still argued?3 can't confirm
- Napoleon Quotes Checked: What He Said, What He Wrote and What He Never Did ✓2 holds up◐7 partly✕6 doesn't hold up?8 can't confirm
- Julius Caesar Quotes Checked: What He Said, What Shakespeare Wrote, and What the Sources Report ✓5 holds up◐5 partly✕1 doesn't hold up?2 can't confirm▶6 fiction
- Nietzsche Quotes, Checked: What He Wrote and What He Never Did
- Buddha Quotes, Checked: What the Early Texts Say and What They Don't
- Confucius Quotes, Checked: What the Analects Say and What They Don't
- Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Quotes, Checked: What They Actually Said
Sayings and words
Proverbs, phrases and words, traced to the oldest copies we found.
- Sayings That Used to Mean the Opposite: Where 12 Common Phrases Came From and How They Flipped ✓2 holds up◐3 partly✕7 doesn't hold up
- "Ancient" Proverbs and Lost-in-Translation Stories: Where 14 Sayings Really Come From ◐3 partly✕8 doesn't hold up⇄1 still argued?2 can't confirm
- Origin Stories That Are Better Than the Truth: Where 11 Everyday Words and Phrases Really Come From ◐1 partly✕9 doesn't hold up?1 can't confirm
- Famous Latin Phrases, Checked: 15 Sayings and Where They Really Come From
- Lines People Think Are in the Bible: 14 Sayings and What the Text Says ✓2 holds up◐5 partly✕6 doesn't hold up⇄1 still argued
- Mental Models from History: 12 Sayings Checked Against the Sources
Stories and lessons
Myths, fables and life stories, set beside the texts they come from.
- Myths Used as Life Lessons: What the Ancient Texts Say About Icarus, Pandora, Achilles, Midas and More ✓1 holds up◐5 partly✕4 doesn't hold up⇄1 still argued
- Fables and Parables Traced to Their Sources: What 11 Famous Teaching Stories Really Say ✓2 holds up◐5 partly✕3 doesn't hold up?1 can't confirm
- Older Than You Think: 12 Modern Life Rules and Where They Actually Come From
- Older Than You Think, Part 2: Productivity Rules and Where They Come From ✓4 holds up◐5 partly✕1 doesn't hold up?1 can't confirm
- Comeback Stories from History, Checked Against the Record ✓3 holds up◐2 partly✕1 doesn't hold up
- Comeback Stories, Part 2: Sanders, Jordan, Disney, Beethoven and Jobs ✓3 holds up◐4 partly
- History Myths Checked: Nero's Fiddle, the Salem Witch Burnings and the "Dark Ages"
Studies and rules
Famous experiments, rules of thumb and popular claims, read against the research.
- Famous Psychology Experiments, Checked: What Really Happened in 8 Studies Everyone Quotes ◐7 partly⇄1 still argued
- Business and Self-Help Rules, Checked: Where 10 Famous Rules Come From and What They Really Say ◐6 partly✕3 doesn't hold up⇄1 still argued
- Real or Myth? 14 Popular Claims, Checked ✓1 holds up◐3 partly✕9 doesn't hold up?1 can't confirm
- Real or Myth? Animal Mindsets and Shop Tricks, Checked ✓1 holds up◐5 partly✕4 doesn't hold up⇄1 still argued▶1 fiction
- Cognitive Biases, Checked: 14 Famous Findings and Whether They Held Up ✓2 holds up◐7 partly⇄4 still argued?1 can't confirm
Every line we checked
Each line is the article's own wording, with our verdict and a link to the full check and its sources. Filter by type or by what we found.
271 lines
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Give a man a fish" is an ancient Chinese proverb, or a saying of Laozi
Popular claim
What we found: The earliest fishing version found is in an English novel of 1885.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"A picture is worth a thousand words" is an old Chinese proverb
Popular claim
What we found: It was American advertising advice; the Chinese label came later.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"May you live in interesting times" is an ancient Chinese curse
Popular claim
What we found: No Chinese source has been found; the earliest strong match found is a 1936 speech.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear" is a Buddhist proverb
Popular claim
What we found: The earliest close version found is in a Theosophist book in English.
- ?Can't confirm Sayings and words
The two wolves story is a Cherokee legend
Popular claim
What we found: We found no Cherokee source; early versions are sermon stories about two dogs.
- ?Can't confirm Sayings and words
"It takes a village to raise a child" is an African proverb
Popular claim
What we found: The exact sentence is untraced; similar African sayings are reported.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Que sera, sera" is an old Spanish saying
Popular claim
What we found: It is an English proverb, and not grammatical Spanish.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
"Trust in God, but tie your camel" is an Arab proverb
Popular claim
What we found: It goes back to hadith reports; the English wording is a paraphrase.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
The Chinese word for crisis is made of "danger" plus "opportunity"
Popular claim
What we found: The second part means something like a crucial point on its own.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
"Gung ho" is an old Chinese saying meaning eager
Popular claim
What we found: It is Chinese, but began as a 1937 co-op's short name.
- ⇄Still argued Sayings and words
The "Eskimo" languages have hundreds of words for snow
Popular claim
What we found: Snow word lists mostly run to several dozen terms, the largest more than 100; how to count them is argued.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
Kennedy's 1963 line in Berlin made him call himself a pastry
Popular claim
What we found: His German was correct; the story grew up outside Germany.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
Kangaroo means "I don't understand"
Popular claim
What we found: It comes from gaŋurru, a Guugu Yimidhirr word.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
The Chevy Nova sold badly in Spanish-speaking countries because of its name
Popular claim
What we found: We found no evidence that the name hurt sales.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Maslow created the needs pyramid and said each level must be met before the next one
Popular claim
What we found: No pyramid has been found in his writings; he said needs are partly met at once.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Everyone at work rises to their level of incompetence
Popular claim
What we found: The 1969 book says employees tend to; one team's study fits part of it.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
SMART stands for attainable and relevant, and every goal must meet all five letters
Popular claim
What we found: Doran's A was Assignable; he said not every objective will have all five.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
A study of Yale's class of 1953 found the 3% with written goals ended up richer
Popular claim
What we found: A search of Yale's alumni archives found no such study.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
The butterfly effect means a small act reliably causes a big, traceable result
Popular claim
What we found: Lorenz said a flap could as well prevent a tornado; his point was unpredictability.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Shared resources are always overused and ruined
Popular claim
What we found: Hardin later said he should have written unmanaged; Ostrom found many users manage them well.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Murphy's law was coined by an engineer named Murphy in 1949
Popular claim
What we found: The saying is in print by 1862; even the name's link to him is in doubt.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Parkinson's law says work expands to fill the time available
Popular claim
What we found: He called that a commonplace observation; his law was about staff.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
The 80/20 rule is a law that Vilfredo Pareto discovered
Popular claim
What we found: Pareto studied income; Juran said he applied the wrong name.
- ⇄Still argued Studies and rules
The least skilled people are the most overconfident
Popular claim
What we found: Low scorers overestimated; how big the effect is remains argued.
- ✓Holds up Studies and rules
Anchoring: a number mentioned in a question sways the answer
What we found: Held up. Described by Tversky and Kahneman in 1974.
- ✓Holds up Studies and rules
Hindsight bias: after the fact, outcomes seem more predictable than they were
What we found: Held up. A 2021 close replication of Fischhoff's 1975 study 'found support for hindsight bias in retrospective judgments'.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Confirmation bias: we judge evidence more kindly when it suits us
What we found: Real, but it is a family of effects, not one finding.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Framing: the same choice described as gains or losses changes decisions
What we found: Held up, at about half the original size.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Sunk cost: people keep investing because of what they have already spent
What we found: Replicated as a small effect in a hypothetical scenario.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
The marshmallow test: children who wait for a second treat do better in life
What we found: Smaller than claimed.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
The bystander effect: nobody helps when others are around
What we found: Real, but usually misread.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Power posing: standing like a superhero changes your hormones and behaviour
What we found: The hormone and behaviour claims failed; the feeling replicated in that study.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Facial feedback: holding a pen in your teeth to force a smile makes cartoons funnier
What we found: The pen study did not replicate; a small effect of facial feedback seems real.
- ⇄Still argued Studies and rules
Loss aversion: losses hurt more than equal gains
What we found: Genuinely contested. A 2018 review argued that current evidence 'does not support that losses, on balance, tend to be any more impactful than gains'.
- ⇄Still argued Studies and rules
The Dunning-Kruger effect: the least skilled are the most overconfident
What we found: The overestimation is real; its size and cause are disputed.
- ⇄Still argued Studies and rules
Stereotype threat: reminding girls of a stereotype lowers their maths scores
What we found: Probably smaller than claimed.
- ⇄Still argued Studies and rules
Ego depletion: willpower is a resource that runs out when you use it
What we found: The strong version failed; a very small effect is disputed.
- ?Can't confirm Studies and rules
Elderly priming: reading words about old age makes people walk more slowly
What we found: The original finding has not been confirmed.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
Lincoln failed at almost everything he tried before he became president
What we found: The famous list is from the 20th century.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
Grant wrote his memoirs while dying, to save his family from ruin
What we found: True, and the detail is stronger than the summary.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
Shackleton lost his ship and brought every man in his party home
What we found: Every one of the 28 men in his own party survived.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Edison said "I have not failed, I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work"
What we found: He said something like it; the famous wording is not his.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life
What we found: The Red Vineyard, painted in 1888, was bought by the painter Anna Boch at the Les Vingt exhibition in Brussels; in February 1890 Van Gogh told his mother that one of his paintings had sold in Brussels for 400 francs.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
Churchill was finished, then came back
What we found: Twice. He was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 to 1915; after the Gallipoli campaign, for which he was heavily criticised, he resigned and went to fight on the Western Front, and he was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school team
What we found: He did not make the varsity as a sophomore; he was not dropped from basketball.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Colonel Sanders was rejected 1,009 times before anyone bought his recipe
What we found: The rejections and the late start are real; we found no source for the number.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for lacking imagination
What we found: We could not find the quotation; the setbacks are real.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Fred Astaire's screen test said "Can't act. Can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little."
What we found: A dismissive note probably existed; the famous wording grew.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
Beethoven wrote his Ninth Symphony while deaf
What we found: True; how much he could still hear is argued.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple, then came back
What we found: True, and the way he came back matters.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
James Dyson built 5,127 prototypes before his vacuum worked
What we found: True by his own count, and the count is his own.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" — Einstein
What we found: There is no substantive evidence that Einstein said it, and The Ultimate Quotable Einstein (Princeton University Press) lists it among lines misattributed to him.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree…" — Einstein
What we found: No substantive evidence that Einstein said it, and it is not in The Ultimate Quotable Einstein.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"Do one thing every day that scares you" — Eleanor Roosevelt
What we found: It comes from Mary Schmich's column in the Chicago Tribune, 1 June 1997, the piece later circulated as Wear Sunscreen.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"Well-behaved women seldom make history" — Eleanor Roosevelt, or Marilyn Monroe
What we found: It is the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, in her 1976 article "Vertuous Women Found": New England Ministerial Literature, 1668–1735, in American Quarterly.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken" — Oscar Wilde
What we found: No substantive evidence that Wilde said it, and it is not in Ralph Keyes's collection The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses" — Henry Ford
What we found: The Henry Ford museum says it "has never been satisfactorily traced to Henry Ford" and only begins to appear in the early 21st century.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration" — Edison
What we found: Fair to credit to him, though the numbers moved.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" — Franklin D. Roosevelt
What we found: Real, and dated. It is from his first inaugural address, 4 March 1933.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Blood, sweat and tears" — Churchill
What we found: He said it with a fourth word, in a different order.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Elementary, my dear Watson" — Sherlock Holmes
What we found: Both halves are Holmes's, but never together in Conan Doyle.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Play it again, Sam" — Casablanca
What we found: Nobody in the film says it.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Luke, I am your father" — The Empire Strikes Back
What we found: The line in the film is "No, I am your father." In a script copy online, Luke has just said "He told me enough!
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Money is the root of all evil" — the Bible
What we found: Three missing words, "the love of", change the meaning.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Pride comes before a fall" — the Bible
What we found: Close, and trimmed. Proverbs 16:18 reads: "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." The saying fuses the two halves of the verse into one.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"Blood is thicker than water" originally meant the opposite — the blood of the covenant beats the water of the womb
What we found: The reversal is the part with no source, not the proverb.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
The tortoise and the hare teaches that slow and steady wins the race
Popular claim
What we found: The wording is later English; the Greek moral blames idleness and praises steady effort.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
"Sour grapes" means being bitter about something you did not get
Popular claim
What we found: In the fable, the fox runs down the grapes she could not reach.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
The moral is that liars are not believed even when they tell the truth
Popular claim
What we found: The old versions say so, and the whole flock is lost.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
The fable is about an ant and a grasshopper
Popular claim
What we found: In Townsend's English it is; the Greek and French insect is a cicada.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
The golden eggs came from a goose
Popular claim
What we found: The Greek prose bird is a hen in the translations we read; the Latin poem has a goose, and a dictionary reads a Greek verse version as one.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
The frog and the ox warns against trying to match someone much bigger
Popular claim
What we found: Phaedrus says so in his first line, and names envy.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
The scorpion and the frog is one of Aesop's fables
Popular claim
What we found: Not in the Aesop collections we searched; the closest story we found is Persian, with a tortoise.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
The Emperor's New Clothes was Hans Christian Andersen's own idea
Popular claim
What we found: Andersen credited the whole idea to Prince Don Juan Manuel's Spanish tale.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
The blind men and the elephant teaches that every side holds part of the truth
Popular claim
What we found: Saxe's poem says so, then adds that all were wrong; older versions stress the quarrel.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
Lemmings follow each other off cliffs in mass suicide
Popular claim
What we found: They move on when food runs short; some drown, but they do not kill themselves.
- ?Can't confirm Stories and lessons
An experiment showed caged monkeys stopping newcomers from climbing a ladder to bananas
Popular claim
What we found: We found no published study that describes it.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Young George Washington told his father "I cannot tell a lie" about the cherry tree
Popular claim
What we found: The story's only source is a biography printed after he died, crediting an unnamed witness.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Patrick Henry ended his 1775 speech with exactly these words
Popular claim
What we found: The speech is real; its words were rebuilt in 1817 from memories.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Paul Revere rode through the night shouting "The British are coming!"
Popular claim
What we found: No account we found has him shouting it, including his own.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Voltaire wrote "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Popular claim
What we found: It is Evelyn Beatrice Hall's 1906 summary of his attitude.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Louis XIV said "L'État, c'est moi"
Popular claim
What we found: First printed in 1791, 76 years after he died, with no witness or date.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Let them hate me, so long as they fear me" was Caligula's own saying
Popular claim
What we found: He often said it, but it was a line from an older Roman tragedy.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Napoleon coined the phrase "a nation of shopkeepers"
Popular claim
What we found: Adam Smith printed it in 1776, when Napoleon was six or seven.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
A German general coined "lions led by donkeys" about British soldiers in the First World War
Popular claim
What we found: The phrase was in print decades before that war.
- ⇄Still argued Famous quotes
Armstrong said "one small step for man", leaving out the "a"
Popular claim
What we found: He meant "for a man"; experts hear no clear "a", but a 2016 study found the recording ambiguous.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Leo Durocher said "Nice guys finish last"
Popular claim
What we found: He said something like it about one team in 1946; the short form came later.
- ⇄Still argued Studies and rules
Give people a guard's role and they turn cruel on their own
The Stanford Prison Experiment, as often told
What we found: Two 2019 archive studies found guards were briefed and encouraged; the original researchers reject that reading.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Most ordinary people will obey an authority figure who tells them to hurt someone
Milgram's studies, as often told
What we found: Obedience held up but depended heavily on the set-up; why is argued over.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Most people go along with the group, even when the group is plainly wrong
Asch's line studies, as often told
What we found: Pressure swayed just over a third of answers; most stayed correct.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Nobody helps when others are around
The bystander effect, as often told
What we found: Each person helps less with others there, but someone usually helps.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Workers worked harder just because they were being watched
The Hawthorne studies, as often told
What we found: Being studied can change behaviour; the lighting result was not in the data.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Teachers' expectations make children smarter
The Pygmalion study, as often told
What we found: Expectation effects are usually small; effects on intelligence are unclear.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Pavlov trained his dogs to drool at a bell
Pavlov's dogs, as often told
What we found: Conditioning is real; his lectures name the metronome most, and accounts disagree about the bell.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Children who wait for a second marshmallow do better in life
The marshmallow test, as often told
What we found: The link is real but smaller, and shrinks by two thirds once family background, early ability and the home environment are counted.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
The Wizard of Oz line is 'Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore'
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
What we found: The film says 'I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore'.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
The Jaws line is 'We're gonna need a bigger boat'
Jaws (1975)
What we found: It is 'You're', said by Brody to Quint, the boat's owner.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
The voice says 'If you build it, they will come'
Field of Dreams (1989)
What we found: It says 'he will come'; the paying crowd is a separate idea later.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
The All About Eve line ends 'a bumpy ride'
All About Eve (1950)
What we found: The film's line ends 'a bumpy night'.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
The line is 'What we have here is a failure to communicate'
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
What we found: AFI prints 'What we've got here is failure to communicate'.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Wall Street has the line 'Greed is good'
Wall Street (1987)
What we found: It is 'Greed, for lack of a better word, is good'.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Dirty Harry has the line 'Do you feel lucky, punk?'
Dirty Harry (1971)
What we found: Harry tells the other man to ask himself 'Do I feel lucky?'
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
The line is 'We don't need no stinking badges'
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
What we found: The film's line is longer and opens by echoing 'Badges?'
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Forrest Gump says 'Life is like a box of chocolates'
Forrest Gump (1994)
What we found: The film credits it to 'My mama', in the past tense.
- ▶Film line Famous quotes
The Apollo 13 crew radioed 'Houston, we have a problem'
Credited to Apollo 13 crew
What we found: They said 'we've had a problem'; the present tense is the 1995 film's.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Kirk says 'Beam me up, Scotty' in the original series
Credited to Captain Kirk
What we found: Never said on the show; a word historian found only near misses.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"Experience is the teacher of all things"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: His own writing, Civil War 2.8.3, in an aside about a siege.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"Men willingly believe what they wish"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: His own writing, Gallic War 3.18.6, with the qualifier "in most cases".
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"It is easier to find men who will die than men who will endure pain"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: In his Gallic War, but spoken by Critognatus, a Gallic noble at Alesia.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"Veni, vidi, vici"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Reported two ways: a triumph inscription (Suetonius) or a letter to Amantius (Plutarch).
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"I came, I saw, I conquered" was about Gaul
Popular story
What we found: It was about a quick victory over Pharnaces at Zela, in Pontus.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Alea iacta est"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Suetonius gives Latin Iacta alea est; Plutarch says he called out in Greek.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Caesar's wife must be above suspicion"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Both biographers report something like it; neither has the proverb's words.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"I would rather be first here than second at Rome"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Plutarch reports it, said while passing a poor village in the Alps.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"I am Caesar and no king"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Suetonius reports the reply; Plutarch tells the same moment.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"It is better to die once than to live always in fear of death"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Plutarch and Velleius report the idea in their own words, not these.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"If you must break the law, do it to seize power"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Cicero says Caesar often quoted these lines; they are Euripides', from the Phoenissae.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
His last words were "You too, my child?"
Popular story
What we found: Suetonius gives it only as what some wrote; Dio prefers the silent version.
- ▶Fiction Famous quotes
"Et tu, Brute?"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Shakespeare's line, Act 3 Scene 1; the Latin tag was already on the stage.
- ▶Fiction Famous quotes
"Beware the Ides of March"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: In the play the Soothsayer says it to Caesar; the warning itself is older.
- ▶Fiction Famous quotes
"Cowards die many times before their deaths"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Shakespeare gives it to his Caesar, in Act 2 Scene 2.
- ▶Fiction Famous quotes
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Cassius says it to Brutus in Shakespeare's play.
- ▶Fiction Famous quotes
"I love the name of honour more than I fear death"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Brutus says it in Act 1 Scene 2 of the play.
- ▶Fiction Famous quotes
"There is a tide in the affairs of men"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Brutus says it in Act 4 Scene 3 of the play.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
"The art of communication is the language of leadership"
Credited to Julius Caesar
What we found: Not found in Caesar's books, Suetonius or Plutarch's Life of Caesar.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Cleanliness is next to godliness" is a Bible verse
Popular claim
What we found: Not in the King James text; its best-known use is a Wesley sermon.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"The Lord works in mysterious ways" is a Bible verse
Popular claim
What we found: It comes from William Cowper's hymn, printed in 1774.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"God helps those who help themselves" is a Bible verse
Popular claim
What we found: Not in the King James text; an Aesop fable and Franklin have it.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
"Spare the rod and spoil the child" is a Bible verse
Popular claim
What we found: Proverbs 13:24 has a similar idea; the rhyme is from Hudibras.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
The Bible says three kings visited the baby Jesus
Popular claim
What we found: Matthew has wise men and three gifts, but no number and no kings.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
The Bible says Eve ate an apple
Popular claim
What we found: Genesis 3:6 and the Latin Bible both say fruit.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"The eye of a needle" was the name of a small gate in Jerusalem
Popular claim
What we found: A 2022 study found no ancient evidence of such a gate.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
The verses of Luke 15 call him "the prodigal son"
Popular claim
What we found: The verses do not use it; some modern Bibles add it in a heading.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
The word "scapegoat" is in the Bible
Popular claim
What we found: It is in the King James Version; newer translations keep Azazel.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
The Bible says Moses had horns
Popular claim
What we found: The Latin Vulgate says horned; the King James says his face shone.
- ⇄Still argued Sayings and words
Genesis says Joseph's coat had many colours
Popular claim
What we found: Translations differ; one notes the Hebrew is uncertain.
- ✓Holds up Sayings and words
"Judge not" is in the Bible
Popular claim
What we found: Matthew 7:1, and the next verses talk about the standard you judge by.
- ✓Holds up Sayings and words
"An eye for an eye" is in the Bible
Popular claim
What we found: Exodus 21:24, in a list of penalties, and quoted in Matthew.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
"Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" is one Bible verse
Popular claim
What we found: Its pieces come from four different books.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun
Popular lesson
What we found: He also warned him not to fly too low: fly midway.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
In the myth, the golden touch is a blessing
Popular lesson
What we found: In Ovid it is a curse Midas begs the god to take back.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Narcissus is a story about a young man who loved his own looks
Popular lesson
What we found: In Ovid he loves the face before he knows it is his.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Prometheus was punished forever for giving fire to humans
Popular lesson
What we found: Heracles kills the eagle; Hesiod still has him bound, a later writer frees him.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Pandora opened a box and let the world's troubles out
Popular lesson
What we found: In Hesiod it is a great jar; the box came much later.
- ⇄Still argued Stories and lessons
Hope was left in the jar to comfort us
Popular lesson
What we found: Hope stays inside; scholars disagree whether that is good news.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
In Homer, Achilles could be wounded only in his heel
Popular lesson
What we found: In the Iliad a spear grazes his forearm and he bleeds.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
The Trojan horse story comes from Homer's Iliad
Popular lesson
What we found: No wooden horse in the Iliad; it is in the Odyssey and the Aeneid.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts" comes from the story of the Trojan horse
Popular lesson
What we found: Laocoön says it in Virgil's Aeneid; the English is a translation.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
In the myth, Cassandra is a pessimist whose warnings come to nothing
Popular lesson
What we found: In Aeschylus and Virgil she is right and never believed.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Sisyphus was punished for cheating death
Popular lesson
What we found: Some commentators blame his escape from death; others give other crimes.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
Napoleon wrote "Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: In his letter to General Lauriston of 12 December 1804.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Impossible is not French"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: His 1813 letter says "that is not French"; the short saying is later.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Napoleon told his troops "Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: By his own later account; the wording varies, and a longer form was in print by 1801.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"An army of deer led by a lion…" is Napoleon's saying
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: He used it, crediting "the Athenian general".
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Imagination rules the world"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Las Cases recorded it in January 1816.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"From the sublime to the ridiculous is only one step" is Napoleon's
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: He said it in Warsaw, but it was in print by 1777.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Napoleon said "History is a set of lies agreed upon"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: He spoke of "a fable agreed upon"; others said it first.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Napoleon said "China is a sleeping giant…"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: O'Meara records a real warning about China, in other words.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: A sharpened version of a Council of State remark of 4 March 1806.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Earliest version: Jomini's 1827 book, written in Napoleon's voice.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Impossible is a word found only in the dictionary of fools"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Earliest we found: in English, 1851; no French original found.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Victory belongs to the most persevering"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Earliest we found: an 1852 magazine article, with no source.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: A joke "law" in 1983; his name on it by 1988.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Ability is nothing without opportunity"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: An older wording is credited to him by 1894, with no source.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Napoleon said "The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos…"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Earliest we found: a 1994 US Army manual, unsourced.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Napoleon said "A leader is a dealer in hope"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Maxim 93 of an unsourced 1838 collection.
- ?Can't confirm Famous quotes
Napoleon said "If you want a thing done well, do it yourself"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Same 1838 collection; already a stage line in 1807 and an English saying by 1835.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Napoleon said "There is nothing we can do"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: A TikTok slideshow of 15 August 2023.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Napoleon said "An army marches on its stomach"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Credited to Frederick the Great by 1858; to Napoleon by 1862.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Napoleon said "It is worse than a crime; it is a blunder"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Credited to Boulay de la Meurthe in 1807; to Napoleon only in 1844.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Printed as "Hanlon's razor" in 1980.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Not tonight, Josephine"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: Nothing from his lifetime; a known catchphrase by 1908.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Napoleon said "Able was I ere I saw Elba"
Credited to Napoleon
What we found: An English palindrome; Quote Investigator's earliest copy, from 1848, credits J.T.R.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
“Less is more” is older than modern minimalist design
What we found: Older than modernism.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
Delegation advice (you can't do everything yourself) is ancient
What we found: It is in Exodus 18. Moses's father-in-law Jethro watches him settle disputes from morning to evening and tells him: The thing that thou doest is not good … thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.
- ?Can't confirm Stories and lessons
“Work smarter, not harder” is older than start-up culture
What we found: We could not date it.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
“Early to bed and early to rise” is older than Benjamin Franklin
What we found: Older than Franklin. Franklin's Poor Richard repeats it, but W.
- ✓Holds up Stories and lessons
“Time is money” is older than Benjamin Franklin
What we found: Franklin wrote Remember that time is money in 1748, in Advice to a Young Tradesman.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
“Work expands to fill the time available” is a real, dated law
What we found: The sentence is real and dated; the law is something else.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Occam's razor: “Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity” (William of Ockham)
What we found: The idea is medieval; the famous sentence is not his.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
The 80/20 rule is a law discovered by Pareto
What we found: Vilfredo Pareto studied the unequal distribution of income in his Cours d'économie politique (1896–97) and fitted a curve to it.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
Hanlon's razor: never attribute to malice what stupidity explains
What we found: The name is from 1980, when Robert J.
- ◐Partly Stories and lessons
“Impostor syndrome” is a real psychological condition
What we found: The experience is real; the diagnosis is not.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Stories and lessons
The Dunning-Kruger chart: “Mount Stupid”, the valley of despair, the slope of enlightenment
What we found: That curve is not in the research.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
The phrase comes from a law letting a man beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb
Popular claim
What we found: It is about rough measuring; the phrase never occurs in legal history.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"The whole nine yards" refers to a machine-gun belt, a kilt or a load of concrete
Popular claim
What we found: A form of it is in print by 1907; the yards seem to mean just "a lot".
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
Admiral Nelson coined "turn a blind eye" at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801
Popular claim
What we found: The story is reported, but the image was in print before the battle.
- ?Can't confirm Sayings and words
"Mind your Ps and Qs" comes from barkeepers counting pints and quarts
Popular claim
What we found: The origin is unknown; no early uses are about counting drinks.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Posh" stands for "Port Out, Starboard Home"
Popular claim
What we found: No stamped tickets found; the earliest telling found is from 1932.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"SOS" stands for "save our souls"
Popular claim
What we found: The letters stand for nothing; they are easy to send in Morse.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Tip" stands for "to insure promptness"
Popular claim
What we found: It comes from thieves' slang recorded in 1610.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Cop" stands for "constable on patrol"
Popular claim
What we found: It is short for copper, from a verb meaning to grab.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Golf" stands for "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden"
Popular claim
What we found: The word is in a 1457 Scottish law; the story is found in print only from the 1990s.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"OK" comes from Choctaw, Greek, a West African word or Andrew Jackson's spelling
Popular claim
What we found: It is first recorded in 1839, as a joke spelling of "all correct".
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Sincere" comes from the Latin sine cera, "without wax"
Popular claim
What we found: It comes from Latin sincerus, clean or pure.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Lord Acton wrote that power corrupts
Credited to Lord Acton
What we found: He wrote 'tends to', in a letter urging stricter judgement of the powerful.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
The line says that words beat force
Credited to Edward Bulwer-Lytton
What we found: It carries a condition, 'Beneath the rule of men entirely great'; the pen is a statesman's.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
'Man is a wolf to man' is a judgement on human nature
Credited to Plautus
What we found: In Plautus it is about strangers; Hobbes limits the wolf to dealings between states.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
'Ars longa, vita brevis' means art outlives the artist
Credited to Hippocrates
What we found: The next sentence turns to the physician; the art is the doctor's craft.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
'Who benefits?' settles who did it
Credited to Cicero
What we found: Cicero used it against a man he called wicked, and said good men are not moved to crime by any gain.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Keynes meant the future does not matter
Credited to John Maynard Keynes
What we found: His next sentence faults economists who can only say the storm will pass.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Lincoln used 'this too shall pass' only as comfort
Credited to Abraham Lincoln
What we found: In 1859 he also called it chastening 'in the hour of pride', then hoped it was 'not quite true'.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Congreve wrote that music soothes the savage beast
Credited to William Congreve
What we found: He wrote 'breast', and the speaker then says music cannot calm her grief.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Churchill called democracy the worst form of government
Credited to Winston Churchill
What we found: He gave it as something 'it has been said', then said the people should rule.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
The oldest record of 'vox populi, vox Dei' praises it
Alcuin (as credited)
What we found: In the oldest record we found, a letter credited to Alcuin, the writer says not to heed those who say it.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Johnson meant that patriotism itself belongs to scoundrels
Credited to Samuel Johnson
What we found: Boswell's next sentence says he meant pretended patriotism.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Edmund Burke wrote the 'triumph of evil' line
Credited to Edmund Burke
What we found: Not traced to Burke; he and Mill wrote similar lines in 1770 and 1867.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
"Knowledge is power" is Francis Bacon's motto
Credited to Francis Bacon
What we found: His words, in 1597, but as a bracketed aside in a passage about God's knowledge and power.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"A little learning is a dangerous thing" goes on to tell you to learn more
Credited to Alexander Pope
What we found: The next line is "Drink deep"; Pope's cure for a little learning is a larger one.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"The proof is in the pudding" is short for "the proof of the pudding is in the eating"
Credited to English proverb
What we found: Camden's 1623 proverbs have "All the proofe of a pudding is in the eating"; proof means test.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"Ignorance is bliss" is cut from a longer line
Credited to Thomas Gray
What we found: Gray's ode ends "where ignorance is bliss, / 'Tis folly to be wise": a condition, not a rule.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
"Discretion is the better part of valour" goes on "in the which better part I have saved my life"
Shakespeare (Falstaff)
What we found: Falstaff says it in Henry IV, Part 1, after getting up from playing dead.
- ✓Holds up Famous quotes
Marx's "opium of the people" comes straight after "the sigh of the oppressed creature"
Credited to Karl Marx
What we found: In the 1844 text, the opium sentence follows straight after the sigh sentence.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Plato wrote "Only the dead have seen the end of war"
Credited to Plato
What we found: It is George Santayana's, from Soliloquies in England (1922).
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Coleridge wrote "Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink"
Credited to Samuel Taylor Coleridge
What we found: Right poet, other ending: "Ne any drop to drink" (1798), "Nor any drop to drink" (1817).
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
Congreve wrote "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"
Credited to William Congreve
What we found: The second half of his 1697 couplet, reworded, with the first line about love dropped.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Shakespeare wrote "gild the lily"
Credited to William Shakespeare
What we found: King John has two images: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily".
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Charles Darwin coined "survival of the fittest"
Credited to Charles Darwin
What we found: Herbert Spencer used it in 1864; Darwin adopted it in 1869 and credited Spencer.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"Curiosity killed the cat" originally went on "but satisfaction brought it back"
Popular saying
What we found: The older proverb blamed care; Phrase Finder dates the satisfaction reply to 1912.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"Great minds think alike" originally went on "but fools seldom differ"
Popular saying
What we found: The rider turns up in 1931 and 1932, more than a century after the first half.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"The customer is always right" originally ended "in matters of taste"
Credited to Harry Gordon Selfridge
What we found: No early source has been found; Snopes found no evidence Selfridge said it.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
"The early bird gets the worm" originally went on "but the second mouse gets the cheese"
Popular saying
What we found: The first half is in Ray's 1670 proverbs; the mouse joke is traced to Usenet, 1994–1995.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Sharks die if they stop swimming
What we found: True only for the sharks called obligate ram ventilators, which include great whites, makos and whale sharks: they have lost the ability to pump water over their gills, and would die from lack of oxygen if they stopped swimming.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
You swallow eight spiders a year in your sleep
What we found: Swallowing one is possible, but "it would be a strictly random event".
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
The Great Wall of China is visible from space
What we found: Generally not to the unaided eye from low Earth orbit.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Einstein failed maths at school
What we found: Shown the claim in a newspaper column in 1935, he replied: "I never failed in mathematics.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Marie Antoinette said "let them eat cake"
What we found: The line is in Rousseau's Confessions, Book VI, where he recalls the saying of "a great princess" who, told that the peasants had no bread, answered qu'ils mangent de la brioche: let them eat brioche.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Bulls charge because they see red
What we found: Cattle have two kinds of colour-sensing cone, not three: they are dichromats, and colour-blind to red.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Vikings wore horned helmets into battle
What we found: The only Viking-age helmet preserved whole, from a warrior's grave at Gjermundbu in Norway, has no horns, and no contemporary source mentions Vikings wearing horned headgear, according to the National Museum of Denmark.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Goldfish have three-second memories
What we found: In experiments at the University of Plymouth, goldfish learned to push a lever for food, and when the lever worked for only one hour a day, they learned to press it at the right time.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Milk is at the back of the shop so you walk past everything
What we found: Milk is usually at the back.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Bison run into storms to get through them faster
What we found: The behaviour is real; the reason is not shown.
- ?Can't confirm Studies and rules
Napoleon said never to interrupt an enemy who is making a mistake
What we found: The idea has been credited to him for a long time, but no record from Napoleon himself has turned up.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Lightning never strikes the same place twice
What we found: It often strikes the same place again and again, especially tall, pointed, isolated objects.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
We only use 10% of our brains
What we found: "We use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time," the Johns Hopkins neurologist Barry Gordon told Scientific American.
- ✓Holds up Studies and rules
Honey never spoils
What we found: This one holds up. Honey is very low in water, acidic (a pH of roughly 3 to 4.5), and contains small amounts of hydrogen peroxide made by an enzyme from the bees, so very little can grow in it.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Be an alpha wolf: packs are ruled by the dominant male
What we found: The alpha idea came from research on captive wolves, which L.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
The ageing eagle breaks off its beak and plucks out its talons and feathers to be reborn
What we found: No eagle does this. Without talons and beak a raptor "would certainly die of starvation", the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center told Snopes.
- ⇄Still argued Studies and rules
A frog in slowly heated water won't notice until it's boiled
What we found: The evidence is old and mixed, and it turns on how slowly the water is heated.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Lobsters are biologically immortal
What we found: The biology is real; the conclusion is not.
- ▶Fiction Studies and rules
A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinion of sheep
What we found: It is a line from Game of Thrones, spoken by Tywin Lannister in the episode You Win or You Die, first aired on 29 May 2011: "A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinions of a sheep." A reworded version appeared on social media in October 2012.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when scared
What we found: They do not. When an ostrich senses danger and cannot run, it "flops to the ground and remains still, with its head and neck flat on the ground", and from a distance it looks as if the head has gone.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Studies and rules
A mother bird will abandon a chick that humans have touched
What we found: "No bird's sense of smell is cued to human scent," as Scientific American puts it.
- ✓Holds up Studies and rules
Prices ending in 9 or 99 make things feel cheaper
What we found: This one holds up, with a condition.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Shops add a pointless third option to steer you to the one they want
What we found: It is called the decoy or attraction effect, and it is real in the lab: Huber, Payne and Puto (1982) showed that adding an option clearly worse than one of the others can raise that option's share.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
Slow music in shops makes you spend more
What we found: The famous result is Ronald Milliman's 1982 study: in a single supermarket over nine weeks, slow-tempo music brought slower traffic and higher sales than fast-tempo music.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
The Rule of 100: 100 hours a year makes you better than 95% of people
What we found: We found no study behind the figure; the versions we read state it without a source.
- ◐Partly Studies and rules
It takes 10,000 hours to master anything
What we found: The number comes from a 1993 study of violin students by Ericsson, Krampe and Tesch-Römer.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" has always meant succeeding by your own effort
Popular claim
What we found: In 1834 it was a joke about lifting yourself by your own boots.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
"Like the curate's egg" means partly good and partly bad
Popular claim
What we found: It does now, but in the 1895 cartoon the egg was bad, and only the curate praised parts of it.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
The bad-apple proverb says one bad member does no harm to the rest
Popular claim
What we found: Chaucer's proverb says one rotten apple spoils the rest.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
"A rolling stone gathers no moss" praises a life on the move
Popular claim
What we found: Some read it so now; the earliest English record we found is a rebuke.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
An exception proves that a rule is true
Popular claim
What we found: The legal maxim: a stated exception shows a general rule exists.
- ◐Partly Sayings and words
"That begs the question" means "that raises the question"
Popular claim
What we found: Dictionaries list both senses; the older one is a term from logic.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
A moot point has always meant one not worth arguing about
Popular claim
What we found: It first meant open to debate; the newer sense dates from the mid-1800s.
- ✓Holds up Sayings and words
"Head over heels" once meant being upside down
Popular claim
What we found: It began as heels over head, a picture of a tumble.
- ✓Holds up Sayings and words
"You can't have your cake and eat it" still means what it first meant
Popular claim
What we found: Same meaning since at least 1538; Heywood's 1546 version put eating first.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"The devil is in the details" is the saying's original form
Popular claim
What we found: A German form with God in the detail is older.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"Children should be seen and not heard" was first said about children
Popular claim
What we found: The earliest record we found, a medieval sermon, is about young women.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Sayings and words
"A law unto themselves" began as a description of people who ignore rules
Popular claim
What we found: In Romans 2:14 it describes people doing right without the written law.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
The line is the play's advice to keep things short
Shakespeare (Polonius)
What we found: Polonius says it partway through a long speech; the Queen asks him to get to the point.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
It means 'follow your own feelings, whatever anyone thinks'
Shakespeare (Polonius)
What we found: The sentence ties being true to yourself to not being false to anyone else.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
'Be not afraid of greatness' is sincere encouragement in the play
Shakespeare (a letter in Twelfth Night)
What we found: It is in a forged letter written to trick a pretentious steward.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
'What's past is prologue' means the past is a warm-up for a better future
Shakespeare (Antonio)
What we found: The past sets up what comes next, but Antonio is urging a murder.
- ▶Fiction Famous quotes
It is Shakespeare's own view of lawyers
Shakespeare (Dick the butcher)
What we found: A character in Jack Cade's crowd says it; Cade then orders a clerk hanged.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Juliet is asking where Romeo is
Shakespeare (Juliet)
What we found: 'Wherefore' means why; she asks why he has to be a Montague.
- ◐Partly Famous quotes
It means someone who denies a thing too hard must be guilty
Shakespeare (the Queen)
What we found: 'Protest' meant to vow; the Queen is reacting to a vow never to remarry.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
A petard is something you get hung from
Shakespeare (Hamlet)
What we found: A petard was a small bomb; 'hoist' meant lifted, as in blown up.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Macbeth says 'Lead on, Macduff', inviting him to go first
Shakespeare (Macbeth)
What we found: He says 'Lay on', meaning strike, as he chooses to fight.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Shakespeare coined the saying
Shakespeare (a scroll in The Merchant of Venice)
What we found: The scroll calls it something 'Often have you heard', and Chaucer has a version.
- ✕Doesn't hold up Famous quotes
Hamlet says 'Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well'
Shakespeare (Hamlet)
What we found: He says 'I knew him, Horatio'; 'well' is not in the line.
Want to check a line yourself? Here is how to spot a fake quote or an invented source, or search every checked line in Who really said it? Each verdict is our reading of the evidence, so you can decide for yourself. How we check.