Regular readers will know that I'm a fan of a great quote, so I was rather chuffed to find a great article on the subject in the current issue of The New Yorker (great magazine, must make time for it more often...)
Most interesting was a run-down of famous-quotes-that-aren't-quotes-really, rather, "coins rubbed smooth by circulation":
Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
Muhammed Ali never said "No Vietcong ever called me nigger."
Patrick Henry never uttered the immortal words "Give me liberty, or give me death!" (rather, the line was cooked up by his biographer).
No-one in the film Casablanca ever says "Play it again, Sam" (but Ingrid Bergman does say "Play it, Sam")
In the film Wall Street, Gordon Gekko never says "Greed is good" (what he does say is "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good")
Rodney King never said "Can't we all get along?" (but he did say "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?... Please, we can get along here. We can all get along. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while. Let's try to work it out. Let's try to beat it. Let's try to beat it. Let's try to work it out." Not quite as snappy, memorable or suitable for a bumper sticker)
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