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WORDSMITHS LIKE SHAKESPEARE and Robert Frost loved their sarcasm. But when you take comments like that out of context, they can mean the exact opposite of the author’s intention.
That hasn’t stopped us from spouting famous lines, many from classic literature, however we see fit.
We created a list of some frequently used quotes that people just don’t understand. Some came from this Quora post. Others, we added from bits and pieces of our Leaving Cert English classes.
In Robert Frost’s culturally omnipresent poem, “The Road Not Taken“, he tries to decide which of two paths he should take. He looks down one but chooses the second, “just as fair” and “worn really about the same.”
If you read the entire poem, the last stanza regales how he’ll say “with a sigh” that his decision “made all the difference.”
In reality, Frost arbitrarily chose his path, which didn’t matter in the long run. He just wants to hide his pessimism.
Of course everyone today uses the quote as evidence of “forging your own path”, “going your own way” and all those other tautologies about fate and individualism.
Robert Frost didn’t quite mean a “road less traveled”. (Image Credit: Hjalmar Gislason via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Not really. The love of money is the root of all evil, according to Timothy 6:10 from the King James Bible.
Nice guys actually finish seventh. Leo Durocher, nicknamed Leo the Lip, served as the field manager for baseball team Brooklyn Dodgers during the height of their rivalry with San Francisco Giants. He made some comment about Mel Ott, right-fielder for the Giants, being too nice, which made the team finish in seventh place. “Baseball Digest” later reprinted the column in which his quote appeared but changed “seventh” to “last place,” according to Freakonomics blog.
Leo’s misquoted words soon became a credo for over-aggressive coaches and guys with no romantic game everywhere.
Brooklyn Dodgers’ second baseman Jackie Robinson (right) and Giants’ manager Leo Duroche in 1951 (Image Credit: AP Photo)
In most high school adaptations of Shakespeare’s well-known play, Juliet raises a hand to her furrowed brow, searching for her lover from a balcony. But “wherefore art” doesn’t mean “where.” It means “why.” Juliet questions why fate made Romeo a Montague, her family’s sworn enemy.
Still, some report the original reads, “Think for yourselves and let other enjoy the privilege to do so too”. But those words never appear in Voltaire’s essay either.
François-Marie Arouet, also known as Voltaire. (Image Credit: J.D. Falk via Flickr/Creative Commons)
The Duchess, a hideous character in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”, makes this comment in passing right after she advocates beating her baby for sneezing. In context, the author meant the sweet quip sarcastically. But that didn’t stop Ashlee Simpson from making a terrible song.
In Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”, Maria writes a letter to Malvolio, trying to convince him that another character, Olivia, loves him — dramatic, right? Maria uses the quote to appeal to Malvolio’s ego, that Olivia (the false author) cannot deny his greatness. Thanks, Sparknotes.
Talking heads in foreign policy sometimes use this quote as evidence that opposite sides of the globe will never see eye-to-eye. But if they read just a little farther in Rudyard Kipling’s ballad, the next lines read, “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”.
Essentially, world colonization will happen regardless of geo-political borders, and we should all just get along.
Even the 2007 Eurovision results show the East-West division. Red denotes better results, blue is worse. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Lazy people somehow bastardized a brilliant German architect’s words to mean the exact opposite. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe really said, “God is in the details.” He’s also credited with another famous aphorism: “Less is more”.
Once again, Bobby Frost wrote a widely misunderstood poem. In “Mending Wall“, a fence separates two neighbors’ yards. Every spring, they collaborate and fix it. But in the process, they disagree on whether they need a barrier at all. Frost makes the last line of the poem ironic. These two curmudgeons simply keep their fence out of tradition, even though it means more work for them.
More than one slick love letter has included this phrase. But arguably Shakespeare’s most famous sonnet praised a man, not a woman. He actually wrote hundreds of sonnets about this guy, his dearest friend.
This gets uttered around awkward family photos on the mantel of nearly every home in the country. The original phrase, however, meant the opposite. An earlier proverb preached, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”. In this case, “water of the womb” refers to family while “blood of the covenant” means blood shed by soldiers. So really, military bonds trump your siblings and parents.
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Hindsight is the foresight of a gobsh*te…brilliant.
if Tom Moore was Like me wit no boots on his feet he wouldn’t give a f..k where the bright waters meet
The penis mightier than the sword.
Freudian slip? ;-)
Most misquoted film line, ”Luke, I am your father”.
Or “beam me up Scotty”
Surely “Play it again, Sam”?
You dirty rat.
A Freudian slip is when you say one thing and mean your mother.
everyone knows all the best quotes come from the princess bride!
Inconceivable!
Fizini…perhaps YOU are the 6 fingered man!!!
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Great film! :)
“Ah yes”….I laugh and switch to Bonetti’s Defense because I too can type with my left hand!!!
When a poem or Quote is written,only the writer knows its true meaning,the rest is left up to the readers imagination,hence,debates on this topic always leads to many answers,no two people read with exact same thoughts or feelings!. :)
Probably the Bible is just that too…
A1 Sharon!
Do a lush of President Bush quotes “Most of our imports come from abroad” :-)
*list
The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing….. If you don’t get that you need to YouTube it, priceless.
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
It’s not a famous quote but alot of people say ” I’m on tender hooks” instead of “I’m on tenterhooks”.
Another could be the Marie Antoinette example of “let them eat cake” She never said it or anything like it.
Oh yes she did.
There’s no record of her ever saying it, it came from a book that was published when she was young, the writer claimed a great princess said those words, and the public just assumed the princess was Marie Antoinette
Didn’t she say, ‘Qu’on leur laisse manger de brioche,’ which in any case isn’t quite cake or bread is it?
Oh no she didn’t.
Behind you!
That was written by Rousseau. No proof that she ever said it. Like the words Et tu, Brute, Shakespeare wrote them in his play, no proof that Caesar ever said them.
Bastardized …. What a fantastic word!
And one should never pass the opportunity to use “curmudgeon” in a sentence!
People who say the 1916 proclamation is about cherishing all the children of the nation equally often have it wrong. People often believe it refers to young children but in fact it means all of the Irish people (including unionists). Does my head in every time I hear it being used incorrectly!
And ‘Alas poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio’ not ‘Alas poor Yorick, I knew him well’.
To be or not to be do be do be do
Frank Sinata
“That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.”
“Excuse me while I kiss this guy”. Jimi Hendrix
“Charity begins at home”
Another misunderstood quote.
“Not another red cent”, which actually meant every red cent and any other currency of any colour.
Or
“Labour’s way or Frankfurt’s way”, which actually meant Frankfurt’s way or Frankfurt’s way.
This could go on for hours.
Dont forget that other famous quote that meant the opposite
“labours way or frankfurts way”
Who can forget Bertie’s bastardisation,(of the nation) and of “smoke and daggers”?
It’s many a man’s mouth broke his nose.
“Lead on MacDuff ” which is actually “lay on MacDuff” ie start the fight
All that glisters is not gold
‘It’s better to burn out than to fade away.’ Always wrongly attributed to Kurt Cobain because he used it in his suicide note. Actually comes from the Neil Young song, ‘My, My , Hey, Hey.’
Does anyone else think Voltaire looks like one of the Maisters from Game if Thrones there? (Can’t remember which one he is!)
Game OF Thrones.. Damn my fingers!!
Thick people always say “one foul swoop”.
It is “champing at the bit”, not “chomping at the bit”. That one really grinds my gears.
One correction not quite right! It is not ” Money is the root of all evil “, it is ” Money is A [ not THE ] root of ALL KINDS of evil ” . ( James 6:10 ).
Hate when people say “The proof is in the pudding”, its “The proof of the pudding is in the eating”.
For some reason, it always annoys me when people say that they’re going to give it 110%. I know what they mean but u can’t give more than 100%! And don’t get me started on X-Factor judges saying “A million percent Yes”! Grrrr
During the row …. shouldn’t the response be “Blood is thicker than 2 planks!”
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That’s a good Ashlee Simpson song :P
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