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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Was this quote on a clay tablet about unruly kids written by an Assyrian?

I've been sent an email saying that every generation thought that kids were too stupid or unruly, with this text as evidence: "Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery …
Manu
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Did the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army say this about human trafficking?

Did General Yair Golan, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army say this? General Golan, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, on Holocaust Memorial Day, said: “If there is something that frightens me about the memories of the …
Feralcat
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Did Henry Ford predict revolution if people understood the banking and monetary system?

Several sites claim that Henry Ford said the following: It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. Members in…
Dave Hilditch
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Did Henry Kissinger say this about forced vaccinations?

I found a quote online in the form of a photo from what looks like some newspaper: The photo contains an alleged quote from Henry Kissinger's speech to the WHO Council on Eugenics on February 25, 2009, and it reads: Once the herd accepts mandatory…
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Did Alexander Graham Bell write "the unchecked burning of fossil fuels would have a sort of greenhouse effect" in 1917?

Quoting from a clearly low-quality journal: In 1917 Alexander Graham Bell wrote. The unchecked burning of fossil fuels] would have a sort of greenhouse effect", and "The net result is the greenhouse becomes a sort of hot-house." Bell went on to …
Rebecca J. Stones
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Did Pope Francis say that women are "unfit for political office", and merely the "helper of men"?

A popular image going around Facebook claims it to be true. The image was found on the Anti-Theists blog page, currently with 65,000+ followers. The picture reads, Women are naturally unfit for political office. Both the natural order and facts…
Evan Carroll
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Did Marcus Aurelius say "Live a good life"?

Is the attribution of this quote to Marcus Aurelius correct? Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods,…
Sven
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Did Barry Goldwater claim peanut butter is good shaving cream?

If you don't mind smelling like peanut butter for two or three days, peanut butter is darn good shaving cream. I've seen this quote floating around, attributed to Barry Goldwater, but only on those unsourced quote websites (Brainy Quote, All Great…
qarz
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Did Albert Einstein say "the only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once"?

The quote The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. is attributed to Einstein with some regularity. (For example, Google returns 47,700 results, of which all except 5,780 include the word Einstein. Google Books…
user95432
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Did Pascal write: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction"?

The sentence, supposedly by Pascal in his Pensées: Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. is quoted extensively (especially in atheist circles). This has always puzzled me, because I've read…
leonbloy
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Did Otto Warburg make this claim about diseases in an alkaline environment?

I came across the following quote, alledgedly by the biochemist Otto Warburg: No disease, including cancer, can exist in an alkaline environment or its German counterpart: Keine Krankheit kann in einem basischen Milieu existieren – nicht einmal…
akraf
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Do headless chickens run around?

It's a clichè that is constantly repeated by the likes of Gordon Ramsey: You are running around like headless chickens! source Also, for example, they do in South Park animations Do headless chicken run around? After all, why wouldn't they…
Sklivvz
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Did von Braun say "The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet"?

A number of sources including Wikipedia state that when the first V-2 hit London, Wernher von Braun apparently said: The rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet. This sounds entirely too dramatic and rehearsed. It doesn't…
user7920
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Did Fauci argue that gain-of-function research is worth risking a global pandemic?

In a related question, it's asked whether the Wuhan Lab conducted gain-of-function research, as claimed by Sean Hannity of Fox News. But moments later in the same piece Hannity says that Anthony Fauci admitted that gain-of-function research was…
Fizz
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Did Ben Gurion say this about conquering Palestinian land?

I'm watching a video about the Israel/Palestine situation (supposedly from a reputable source), yet the video so far seem filled with inaccuracies and bias. For the record I'm not a member of either side either ethnically or religiously. It seems to…
Zebrafish
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