Another fascinating article, thank you! It was only the other day that I found out Mark Twain never wrote 'If I'd had more time I would have written a shorter letter'. I couldn't even tell you who actually said it, even though I looked it up, which also tells you something about how we attach so much weight to certain figures' words over others. It becomes part of what they symbolise to us culturally, I suppose.
Which is what makes it more enraging that they did such a hatchet job of that Martin Luther King Jr quote on his statue. I find it crazy that more thought isn't gone into these national monuments that are going to serve as teacher one day, if not already.
The story about Maya Angelou's quote and the response you got from the 'licence holder' (of a quote) also reads Kafka-esque.
Thanks, Emma! Twain, Einstein, Edison - you can find the same quotes attributed to all of them! It's crazy how people slap a photo of a person with some sage words and then suddenly those quotes go viral...and part of the record.
And you're right - not everyone is going to bother to look this stuff up - which is why it's so important to get it right.
It's like Patrick Henry famously said, "Give me accurate quotes, or give me death."
Very timely, Beth, as I'm about to release a book of quotes for the coming year. Looks like I have a list-minute revision to make the MS! This article caught me just in time. I find it's interesting the quotes we choose and what it says about us.
2 things: I was a senior in HS the first time I was arrested, which happened while I was on my way to meet my English class at a local college to see Maya Angelou speak (1997). Also: kind of a nitpick, but... "quote" is a verb, "quotation" is its noun form. Just sayin'
Interesting! I wonder what she said that day. I won't ask the internet!
And I don't mind a nitpick - as clearly getting things right matters to me! Though quote is a verb, modern usage (and dictionaries) also advise it can be used as a noun.
But I like someone paying attention to grammar, so thank you. Though if you see any typos, those were intentional.
Another fascinating article, thank you! It was only the other day that I found out Mark Twain never wrote 'If I'd had more time I would have written a shorter letter'. I couldn't even tell you who actually said it, even though I looked it up, which also tells you something about how we attach so much weight to certain figures' words over others. It becomes part of what they symbolise to us culturally, I suppose.
Which is what makes it more enraging that they did such a hatchet job of that Martin Luther King Jr quote on his statue. I find it crazy that more thought isn't gone into these national monuments that are going to serve as teacher one day, if not already.
The story about Maya Angelou's quote and the response you got from the 'licence holder' (of a quote) also reads Kafka-esque.
Thanks, Emma! Twain, Einstein, Edison - you can find the same quotes attributed to all of them! It's crazy how people slap a photo of a person with some sage words and then suddenly those quotes go viral...and part of the record.
And you're right - not everyone is going to bother to look this stuff up - which is why it's so important to get it right.
It's like Patrick Henry famously said, "Give me accurate quotes, or give me death."
And Blaise Pascal reportedly said that line about not having time to write a shorter letter back in the 1600s- but it's been said (in one form or another) by several others: https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/02/03/270680304/this-could-have-been-shorter
Very timely, Beth, as I'm about to release a book of quotes for the coming year. Looks like I have a list-minute revision to make the MS! This article caught me just in time. I find it's interesting the quotes we choose and what it says about us.
2 things: I was a senior in HS the first time I was arrested, which happened while I was on my way to meet my English class at a local college to see Maya Angelou speak (1997). Also: kind of a nitpick, but... "quote" is a verb, "quotation" is its noun form. Just sayin'
Interesting! I wonder what she said that day. I won't ask the internet!
And I don't mind a nitpick - as clearly getting things right matters to me! Though quote is a verb, modern usage (and dictionaries) also advise it can be used as a noun.
But I like someone paying attention to grammar, so thank you. Though if you see any typos, those were intentional.
Stay curious!
Sure, but "modern usage" is also why everyone on the internet thinks "amount" and "number" are interchangeable as well (they're not).