Questions tagged [quotes]

Use this tag when the question is about whether someone said or wrote a quote.

The repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts.

This tag is appropriate for questions where the authenticity of a quote is being questioned rather than questions where a quotation is the source of a claim. In other words, the underlying claim is about the authenticity of the quote itself rather than any claims made within the quotation.

Example appropriate questions for the tag
  • Famous Person X claims in his recent book that Famous Person Y gave a speech claiming that the sky is green. Did Famous Person Y really give a speech in which he claimed that the sky is green?
  • Smith (2019), in a paper published in Science, claims that his assertion that "x is bounded by the lesser hyperbola when n < 3" is a quotation from a paper by Johnson (1995), but I cannot find this paper anywhere. Does it really exist and does it in fact contain the claimed mathematical assertion?
Example inappropriate questions for the tag (choose a more appropriate tag)
  • Famous Person Y claims that the sky is green, is it really green?
  • A paper by Johnson (1995) claims that "x is bounded by the lesser hyperbola when n < 3". Is x actually so bounded? The proof that Johnson provides appears very specious, and I have these specific concerns about it specifically....
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Did Einstein talk about creating a new theory being like climbing a mountain?

Did Einstein say the following: Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our…
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Did Socrates say “The secret of change is..."?

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. Did Socrates say this ?
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Did Leonardo da Vinci say "Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication"?

I came upon this quote on p.51 of National Geographic's Sublime Nature: Photographs That Awe and Inspire. I don't think da Vinci wrote in English, but what's this source? Wikiquote disputes it. What does this quote mean exactly? Does it just mean…
user58250
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Did the Mayo Clinic in the 1900s find 4-5 quarts (~4 litres) of raw milk a day to be healthy?

According to this claim by realmilk.com, THE MILK CURE: In the early 1900s, the Mayo Clinic administered the “Milk Cure,” which consisted in drinking 4-5 quarts of raw milk per day, obtaining favorable results for a range of illnesses including…
Evan Carroll
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What is the origin of this quote: "Humans live on one-quarter of what they eat; on the other three-quarters lives their doctor."

There is a website about fasting that claims that this quote has been found on an "Egyptian pyramid inscription" in "3800 BC". This makes it extremely dubious: at that time the Egyptians have not yet invented neither writing nor pyramids. But maybe…
TT Farreo
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Did Maxim Gorky say “The most beautiful words in the English language are 'not guilty'”?

Brainyquote's quote site, attributes this quote to Maxim Gorky: “The most beautiful words in the English language are 'not guilty'.” Did he say or write this (or a Russian equivalent)? If so, what was the Russian original? In what context…
rapt
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Did Twain state: "Most people are bothered by those Scripture passages which they cannot understand...."

Most people are bothered by those Scripture passages which they cannot understand. But for me, the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand.” –Mark Twain I've seen the above quote bandied about often,…
NKCampbell
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Did Henry Ford say, "Jews control the business..."?

A search for the quote returns results from many websites It claims that Henry ford said, "Jews have always controlled the business... The motion picture influence of the United States and Canada... is exclusively under the control, moral and…
Sakib Arifin
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Did Muhammad al-Arifi describe non-Arab Muslims as cowards?

The following photo was posted in the Citizens for secular democracy, Pakistan Facebook group. It claims Saudi author Muhammad al-Arifi said: ARABS are the true Muslims and the true descendants of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).. "Non—Arabs who…
Sakib Arifin
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Did Tanya Plibersek call ISIS "not a terrorist organisation"?

This picture, with a purported quote attributed to Australian Member of Parliamenet, Tanya Plibersek, has been posted on Facebook by the "Patriots Defence League Australia": The attribution to Tanya Plibersek's 2002 maiden speech is trivially…
lvc
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Did Steve Jobs compare Apple's market share with BMW, Mercedes-Benz's and Porsche?

From The Register: Apple CEO Cook: 'We're not in the junk business' Steve Jobs reprised nearly that exact argument in a 2004 interview. "Apple's market share is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes's or Porsche's in the automotive market," he said at…
Andrew Grimm
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Did Rousseau say that equality of conditions is not possible without slavery?

I just read What is Property, written in 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. At the end of the book he attributes a paraphrased quote to Jean-Jaques Rousseau: The communistic republic of Plato involved slavery; that of Lycurgus employed Helots, whose…
Kii
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Did Harbhajan Singh Yogi say "... to learn something - read about it ..."?

Did Harbhajan Singh Yogi say If you want to learn something - read about it; understand something - write about it; master something - teach it. Wikiquote has it as unsourced, and there's an unsourced claim that a variant, "To learn, read. To…
Andrew Grimm
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Did Biden ever threaten to impeach any president who went to war without congressional approval?

Just saw this and I was wondering if it was a legit quote. I've seen similar claims about Biden too, here the PolicyMic headline states "Joe Biden Wanted Bush Impeached For the Very Thing Obama is About to Do". The above graphic reads, The…
Evan Carroll
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Did Vincent Van Gogh say "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere”?

I came upon this quote on p. 88 of National Geographic's Sublime Nature: Photographs That Awe and Inspire. If You Truly Love Nature... | Empress of Dirt November 26, 2014 ♛ By Melissa J. Will If you truly love nature, you will find beauty…
user58250
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