Quotes

[Jaymes]

As I'm browsing various forums I often see a lot of quotes attributed to famous people. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Albert Einstein, and Mahatma Gandhi seem to be the most common of the 'famous people' quotes.

However, more often than not, it will be a quote where there's little to no evidence the person 'quoted' ever actually said what they're being quoted for.

The quotes are great and insightful and would be thought-provoking even without 'citing' someone famous for the origin of the quote.

So why do we do it?

[angellous_evangellous]

Originally Posted by Jaymes

As I'm browsing various forums I often see a lot of quotes attributed to famous people. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Albert Einstein, and Mahatma Gandhi seem to be the most common of the 'famous people' quotes.

However, more often than not, it will be a quote where there's little to no evidence the person 'quoted' ever actually said what they're being quoted for.

The quotes are great and insightful and would be thought-provoking even without 'citing' someone famous for the origin of the quote.

So why do we do it?

Here are some possibilities:

1) To add authority to the quote

2) Make us look like we actually know something about the person - eg, have read their work

3) Some people are idiots and circulate quotes that aren't attributed to these famous people because they're too stupid or lazy to find out anything about the person that they are "quoting."

4) Some people whether intelligently or stupidly try and remember a person falsely by attributing words to people that aren't theirs.

[Hema]

When someone says something really wise and I quote him/her it is my way of showing respect to that person. I have learnt from that person. I didn't come up with it on my own.

[MaddLlama]

If someon actually said something, and we want to repeat it, it's proper to attribute to quote to that person. Not doing so is plagarism.

As to why people match up quotes with famous people who never said them, probably because they haven't done the research to see if the quote ws accurate, or they figure nobody else will bother checking so they can use it to bolster their own argument.