A quotation from Robert Holmes
THE DOCTOR: Well, what’s the use of a good quotation if you can’t change it?Robert Holmes (1926-1986) British television screenwriter
Doctor Who (1963), 22×07 “The Two Doctors,” Part 1 (1985-02-16)
More info about this quote: wist.info/holmes-robert/79439/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #doctorwho #sixthdoctor #quotation #adaptation #misquotation
But where did the paraphrase originate? Searching has led me to suspect ‘L'Ultramontanisme’ (1844) [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k113971t/f257.item], by the historian and philosopher Edgar Quinet. In particular, the earliest appearance in English I have found of something resembling the quotation is in the 1845 translation of Quinet's book [https://archive.org/details/ultramontanism00quin/page/54]:
‘His fundamental maxim, that we cannot teach truth to another, that we can only help him to find it within himself, this single maxim, the foundation of his method, is an entire philosophy’
The context is a discussion of Galileo, to whom ‘His’ refers.
Quinet did not claim to *quote* Galileo here. And perhaps he deliberately made a rather free paraphrase, since he was writing a polemic.
2/2
A quotation that is often attributed to Galileo is:
‘You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it within himself.’
This quotation, sometimes with minor differences (e.g. ‘discover’ instead of ‘find’) can be found in countless books, articles, web pages. But there is never a citation, just an attribution.
This always makes me suspicious.
Assuming that Galileo would have written it in Latin or perhaps Italian, I made some guesses at the original text and searched. This immediately led me to an Italian-language blog post [https://lezionidallaletteratura.wordpress.com/2019/07/16/la-verita-secondo-internet-o-galileo/] whose author had been equally suspicious and who argued — I think correctly — that the quotation is actually a paraphrase of a passage in Galileo’s ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’ (Drake translation, p.157–8):
‘I say to you that if one does not know the truth by himself, it is impossible for anyone to make him know it. I can indeed point out things to you, things being neither true nor false; but as for the true — that is, the necessary; that which cannot possibly be otherwise — every man of ordinary intelligence either knows this by himself or it is impossible for him to ever know it.’
1/2
A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
QUOTATION, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words erroneously repeated.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Quotation,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/1071/
A quotation from Byron, George Gordon, Lord:
«
With just enough of learning to misquote.
»
Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/byron/62350/
#quote #quotes #quotation #education #error #learning #misquotation #sophomore
It's been a while since I produced a "fake quotes" video. Here's a new one with quotes misattributed to the great Stoic philosopher Epictetus. You see a lot of quote and meme accounts continually spreading these around
https://youtu.be/D-ZFE2JspFA
#FakeQuotes #Epictetus #Stoicism #Misquotation #Paraphrase
WIST Quotations Has Moved!
Alan J. Cain
JBRoss
WIST Quotations moves again!
Gregory B Sadler