For some reason, I was thinking recently about commonly used quotes that, when read in their original context, mean something quite different -- sometimes nearly the opposite -- of what many modern quoters use them to mean. For example, "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet" is usually used to suggest that two cultures are ultimately irreconcilable; but the full quote is very different:
OH, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,Likewise, some people defend antitrust law by quoting Adam Smith's line "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." But Smith actually said:
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!
People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice.Hardly a ringing defense of antitrust law.
Similarly, "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers," from Shakespeare's Henry VI, part 2, is said by a revolutionary who is not portrayed as a particular sensible character; shortly afterwards, Dick (who said the line) and Cade (who agreed with it) move on to condemn anyone who can write.
So my question: What other such quotes can people come up with? Again, I'm looking for quotes that (1) are pretty famous and (2) are often used to mean one thing, but where (3) the original work is saying nearly the exact opposite (either because the original line was facetious, or was followed by something of a "Yes, but," as in the Kipling or in the Smith quotes).
Please post your suggestions in the comments, and please stick within these three rules.
"Tell it to the Marines! ...
... the sailors won't believe it!"
Drink deep, or taste not the Phyrrean spring.
There, shallow draughts intoxicate the brain
And drinking largely sobers us again."
from "On Criticism" by Alexander Pope
“What, then, is an impeachable offense? The only honest answer is that an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives to be at a given moment in history; conviction results in whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office.”
Full quote:
“What, then, is an impeachable offense? The only honest answer is that an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives to be at a given moment in history; conviction results in whatever offense or offenses two-thirds of the other body considers to be sufficiently serious to require removal of the accused from office. Again the historical context and political climate are important; there are few fixed principles among the handful of Precedents.
I think it is fair to come to one conclusion, however, from our history of impeachments; a higher standard is expected of Federal judges than of any other ‘civil officers’ of the United States. The President and Vice President, and all persons holding office at the pleasure of the President, can be thrown out of office by the voters at least every four years. To remove them in midterm (it has been tried only twice and never done) would indeed require crimes of the magnitude of treason and bribery.”
-- Charles E. "Engine Charlie" Wilson, then CEO of GM, during the confirmation hearings to be Eisenhower's Defense Secretary. Most people take the "vice versa" and turn it into an undeserved declaration of corporate arrogance.
Another Shakespeare quote, this from Richard II's opening lines: "Now is the winter of our discontent" is often used to describe current times as bad times, in particular a rough winter. But the fuller quote reveals that the bad times are over: "Now is the winter of our discontent/ Made glorious summer by this son of York; / And all the clouds that lour'd upon our homes / In the deep bosom of the ocean buried." In context, the winter of discontent is in the past and has been transformed into a glorious summer, with dark clouds buried in the ocean.
Moreover, you could argue that this counts as a double reverse misleading quote, for as Richard goes on he explains that although these are happy, celebratory times for his fellow members of the House of York, he does not personally share their joy and the "glorious summer."
What you hear quoted:
"What's good for GM is good for America"
What he said:
"I used to think that what was good for GM was good for America"
This is often quoted as to mean somethink like "Oh well, even though the facts contradict theory, let's stick with the theory." In fact it means, "Data that contradict a theory, challenge the validity of the theory." Here prove means test as in firing proof loads in a firearm or in phrases such as "Aberdeen Proving Grounds."
"Stelle Dir vor es ist Krieg und niemand geht hin!“
"Imagine - there's a war on and nobody's going!"
(my translation). However, the quote, read in full, is not at all pacifist in intent:
"Stell dir vor, es ist Krieg, und keiner geht hin. Dann kommt der Krieg zu dir, und willst du nicht die Waffen der Deinen tragen, dann wirst du die der Feinde tragen müssen."
"Imagine - there's a war on and nobody's going! Then war comes to you, and if you do not want to bear the arms of your own side, you will have to bear those of the enemy."
IIRC, Brecht wrote this in the 1940s to exhort people to fight against the fascists. Cf. this topical discussion thread (in German).
Incidentally, Brecht fled from East to West Germany after becoming disillusioned with Stalinism in the 1950s. His verse "The Solution" from this period remains worth reading:
After the uprising on June 17th
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had flyers distributed in Stalin Way that said
That the People had frivolously
Thrown away the Government's Confidence
And that they could only regain it
Through Redoubled Work. But wouldn't it be
Simpler if the Government
Simply dissolved the People
And elected another?
(via Wikipedia)
"Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men." George S. Patton
"Go tell the Spartans, thou that passeth by here,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie."
--inscription at Thermopylae
From Robert Frost's "Mending Wall". Often quoted in support of clear dividing lines, see, e.g. Plaut v. Spendthrift Farm, Inc., 514 U.S. 211, 240 (1995) (Scalia, J.), when the poem is far more skeptical of such, see, e.g., id., at 245 (Breyer, J., concurring).
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
From Exodus, 21:23, 24. Often quoted in support of strong punishment, when in fact it is meant as a limiting principle for punishment (i.e. requiring proportionality).
The full couplet
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) An Essay on Man (Fr. Epistle I)
Now usually quoted as the embodiment of pompous hypocrisy, but in the movie the listeners knew that the speaker wasn't even pretending to be shocked. It wasn't hypocrisy; everyone was "in on the game."
Original meaning: Since the Constitution cannot embrace all the particulars that are likely to arise under it, one must infer those particulars from the nature of the general grants of power in the text.
Current meaning: The meaning of the Constitution can evolve from age to age as society matures and develops.
Full Quote
"Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
’Tis folly to be wise." - Thomas Grey
"Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," which misquotes Emerson, as noted here.
"Split the baby," an phrase that people use to reach some compromise when at loggerheads -- "Let's split the baby." The problem is that Solomon did not split the baby. Rather, he gave the entire baby to the rightful mother. Saying he was going to split the baby was merely a method used to determine whom the rightful mother was. So Solomon would not want you to split any babies!
"I thought that what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa."
This seems much more defensive than the below as if he is defending his currently held views. Of course it could also be apologetic depending on the context.
"I used to think that what was good for GM was good for America"
Here he sounds contrite as if he was being accused and is now admitting the error of his previous ways.
instapundit link
"Actually, though, the 'some of my best friends' line was originally thought uncool because of what usually followed: 'my shoeshine guy, the janitor, the bartender at the country club, the yard man,' etc. The 'best friends' line was thus rather hypocritical: these were people who were actually servants, and only promoted to 'best friend' status in the service of rebutting charges of racism."
It seems to me that—*if true*—"some of my best friends are black" is actually a pretty good (though not airtight) answer to a charge of racism.
From Richard III is one of the most wrongly used quotes ever: "Now is the winter of our discontent." Two points related to the emphasized portions: First, the reference to "winter" is not to the season, but is a metaphor for the end, as winter used to be seen as the end of a cycle. Thus, Richard was referring to the end of discontent. Yet it is usually used to refer to a winter i.e. a season of discontent — the precise opposite of the way in which it was used, which was to signify the end of discontent. Second, the reference to "our" is personal to Richard, in that as royalty he referred to himself in the plural. Yet, "our discontent" is generally used as a "collective" even though it was referring only to the end of Richard's discontent which was the beginning of just about everyone else's in the play's problems.
Another good example: "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" This is generally used by people as asking where their lover is. That is not what it means, it means why are you Romeo and not someone with whom Juliet's family did not have a feud with. Juliet knew exactly where Romeo was when she asked this question. Yet it is often used in the wrong way to signify trying to find a lover, when in fact it is a question by someone who has found their lover but wants to know why it is a particular person.
The tone of the poem is actually mournful. The narrator is saying that line "with a sigh". The poem is about how our choices make other choices impossible, and so life and experience has the effect of narrowing our perspective. The realization of all the lives we can not live because we are living ours is a point of regret.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference
Milton's "better to reign in hell than serve in heaven" is a perversion by Satan of the message that servitude to God is paradise.
Variations on "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" are used to describe confusion and miscommunication, usually in organizations, but it's originally used in the Sermon on the Mount to mean that you shouldn't be ostentatious about your good deeds.
It is constantly used in graduations and sorts as a rallying cry to seize the future and go out on your own. But in fact, there is no meaningful difference between the two paths. And in the future, the speaker - in an act of puffery - will simply claim that there was a difference so that he seems more adventuresome.
"I do my thing, and you do your thing;
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations
And you are not in this world to live up to mine;
You are you and I am I,
And if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful."
But they would omit the last line, which made the poster/poem considerably less "romantic" if perhaps not quite the opposite in meaning:
"If not, it can't be helped."
How about "the proof is in the pudding"? I don't even know what that is supposed to mean. Discussion of the original can be found here:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pro1.htm
Marx's famouns saying that "religion is the opium of the people" is habitually wrenched out of its context and given a meaning subtly but appreciably different from the one he gave it. Marx did not say, at any rate in that place, that religion is merely a dope handed out from above; he said that it is something the people create for themselves to supply a need that he recognised to be a real one. "Religion is the sigh of the soul in a soulless world. Religion is the opium of the people."
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." Marx
Does that count?
From a conversation between King Charles II, his court, some naval officers, a Royal Marine, and reported by Samual Pepys in 1664.
Properly said of something that can be verified by the Marines, who have been everywhere and seen every odd thing in the world, and who have the courage to say "I don't believe you" to the King.
---
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable tells how the phrase was originated by King Charles II. According to legend, Samuel Pepys was retelling tales told to him by the navy and he happened to mention flying fish. Many in the court were sceptical, but a naval officer concurred, saying that he, too, had seen these marvellous fish.
The king believed him, saying, 'From the very nature of their calling, no class of our subjects can have so wide a knowledge of seas and land as the officer and men of Our Loyal Maritime Regiment. Henceforward, ere ever we cast doubts upon a tale that lacks likelihood, we will first tell it to the Marines.'
Byron, in 1923, observed, 'That will do for the marines, but the sailors won't believe it.' And the following year, Scott used the phrase, 'Tell that to the marines - the sailors won't believe it!' in Redgauntlet.
---
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Article252.html
This is a distortion of the real quote, which is that "love of money is the root of all evil."
Gen 4:
[6] The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?
[7] If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it."
[8] Cain said to Abel his brother, "Let us go out to the field." And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him.
[9] Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?"
[10] And the LORD said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is cries out to me from the ground.
[11] And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
[12] When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."
In the original Jacob and Laban agreeing to separate permanently rather than fight.
The Turtles' "Happy Together" is considered by many to be a very romantic lovesong about a happy couple, but one of the guys in the Turtles (Mark? Howard?) used to always point out it was a song about UNREQUITED love; that people somehow ignored the first line:
"Imagine me and you -- I do."
The same can be said about REM's "The One I Love" in which the supposed object of affection is described as "A simple prop to occupy my time."
Imagine me and you -- a deux.
Think French.
Also, I only came into the comments to post about love/money/evil, but someone beat me to it.
-To thine own self be true, for it will follow, as the night the day, thou then canst not be false to any man."
or somesuch. being true to yourself is the beginning of your relationship with the rest of the world, if you want a good relationship, that is. the shorter quote seems to be used out of context many times to justify selfishness.
Polonius to his son Laertes/Hamlet. Not vapid.
Not sure it would undermine the original poster's point if you were right -- since the crucial word here is "imagine" -- but you aren't. Kind of an amusing misread, though. Anyway, google the first line and you'll find plenty of evidence to the contrary. Here's one link: I do
As for Polonius, that's a tougher call.
GB is certainly right that the rest of the quotation changes the meaning from the egocentric reading. But Polonius is a windbag, and his long parting exhortion to his son certainly smacks of cliche.
OK, I don't have anything to add; I just couldn't resist the temptation to quibble over both the Turtles and Willy S.
Usually used to refer to a custom that is more commonly breached than observed. Hamlet is actually referring to a custom that it would be better to breach than observe:
"Oh can't you see, you belong to me. My poor heart aches every step you take, every move you make ... I'll be watching you"
"Since you've gone I've been lost without a trace... I feel so cold and I long for your embrace, I keep calling, baby, baby, please"
-------
Returning to literature, people often quote Santayana as saying something like "Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it." They mean that we have to remember the tragedies of the past and learn the lessons of history in order to keep such tragedies from happening again. Santayana was not talking about tragedies, though. He was claiming that progress involves the accumulation of knowledge and experience, and thus cannot happen unless we hang on to what we have learned in the past. In other words, we don't want to keep reinventing the wheel. A fuller quote:
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience. In a second stage men are docile to events, plastic to new habits and suggestions, yet able to graft them on original instincts, which they thus bring to fuller satisfaction. This is the plane of manhood and true progress."
brainyquote
they have "knowledge is power" attributed to Francis Bacon; I was under the impression the actual quote was 'In and of itself, knowledge is power"
but by whom...?
Cry Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war.
Books have been based on the misinterpreted line, and countless quotes have fallen from the mouths of public figures who should have known better.
Shakespeare did not refer to ferocious animals. Even in the limited context of the line this is apparent. Its frequent misquoting also makes this apparent, as it often becomes "set loose the dogs of war".
Shakespeare made the metaphor of war as a machine, with clutches or catches, commonly called "dogs", which held it in check. To let a dog slip would set a machine in motion.
The point of the line was that the machinery of war would be out of anyone's control, not that war was a ferocious dog.
"Theirs but to do OR die" is often substitued for Tennyson's "Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do AND die"
Comes from a toast from Stephen Decatur. He was a professional military officer and, the full quote makes it clear that he's celebrating military professionalism rather than making a jingoistic statement.
"Our country. In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong!"
"Too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it ... They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."
Pat Dennis
Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought.
"No love was lost between them" taken to mean that they have no love for one another, that two people dislike each other. Of course, realizing the source of the quote, it is more clear that it means the opposite, that they did not waste one drop of the love between them, they drank fully from that cup...
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46
puzzling, until you read all of Psalm 22, from which Jesus takes the quote:
For the leader; according to "The deer of the dawn." A psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish? My God, I call by day, but you do not answer; by night, but I have no relief. Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the glory of Israel. In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted and you rescued them. To you they cried out and they escaped; in you they trusted and were not disappointed. But I am a worm, hardly human, scorned by everyone, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they curl their lips and jeer; they shake their heads at me: "You relied on the LORD--let him deliver you; if he loves you, let him rescue you."
Yet you drew me forth from the womb, made me safe at my mother's breast. Upon you I was thrust from the womb; since birth you are my God. Do not stay far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me; fierce bulls of Bashan encircle me. They open their mouths against me, lions that rend and roar. Like water my life drains away; all my bones grow soft. My heart has become like wax, it melts away within me. As dry as a potsherd is my throat; my tongue sticks to my palate; you lay me in the dust of death. Many dogs surround me; a pack of evildoers closes in on me. So wasted are my hands and feet that I can count all my bones. They stare at me and gloat; they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, LORD, do not stay far off; my strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword, my forlorn life from the teeth of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, my poor life from the horns of wild bulls.
6 Then I will proclaim your name to the assembly; in the community I will praise you: "You who fear the LORD, give praise! All descendants of Jacob, give honor; show reverence, all descendants of Israel! For God has not spurned or disdained the misery of this poor wretch, Did not turn away from me, but heard me when I cried out.
I will offer praise in the great assembly; my vows I will fulfill before those who fear him.
8 The poor will eat their fill; those who seek the LORD will offer praise. May your hearts enjoy life forever!"
All the ends of the earth will worship and turn to the LORD; All the families of nations will bow low before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, the ruler over the nations. All who sleep in the earth will bow low before God; All who have gone down into the dust will kneel in homage. And I will live for the LORD; my descendants will serve you. The generation to come will be told of the Lord, that they may proclaim to a people yet unborn the deliverance you have brought.
May lines popped out of Shakespeare and displayed as truisms turn out to possess an ironic meaning in their original context. Some have been noted above. “The better part of valor is discretion.” is Falstaff speaking in the play Henry IV, trying to justify his cowardice.
Though this is a bit oblique, there are also instances of musical compositions being used in public contexts that create some unintended subtexts if you consider their textual meaning. One example is the famous “bridal march” that’s often played as a processional at weddings. This comes from Wagner’s Lohengrin, where it accompanies the marriage between Elsa and the title character. The irony is that this was one of the most unsuccessful marriages in history: they don’t even manage to make it through the first night before cracking up.
"In this light, the straightforward use of this line by recovery groups and others seems unfortunate"
if Polonius is giving bad advice, then yes.
Yet in the scriptural context, Paul is actually saying the reverse--that he approaches everyone on their own terms, not to curry favor or make a good impresion, but to convince each person of the Good News of the gospel:
"For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." (1 Corinthians 9:19-22)
As to this Thatcher quote:
"Too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it ... They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation."
One's obligation could be thought of as being a hard-working and law-abiding person. If an entity, such as a government or community, were to damage a person or steal property from a person meeting this obligation an entitlement would surely be created. Unless a government's aim was merely to damage persons and steal property and then find a way to wiggle out of its obligations, of course. But one usually assumes governments are acting honorably, and that if they should make a mistake they would endeavor to remedy it honorably.
As for Polonius' speech, there is nothing wrong with his advice to Laertes to be true to his own nature; Shakespeare's point is that if Laertes already knows how to do the right thing [Lee, S.], and if Polonius knows Laertes already knows it, all the specific advice which came before was wasted talk, which is his characteristic.