This kind of thing is right up my street as I collect books on misquotations, on popular fallacies [things that people think are true but haint] and dictinaries of quotations.

I rememerb hearing on the Beeb's Any Questions [radio] the then U.S. Ambassodor to the U.K. quoting that thing about [supposedly] Washington chopping down a cherry tree and saying you couldn't tell a lie. Yet the story came from a poular biography and there is no evidence for the story.

One I like is the misquotation of Marx that "religion is the opium of the people". That produces a misinterpretation.

Apparently Marx actually spoke of religion as "the opiate of the people." Iow, he wasn't saying it vblissed people out, just that it made people quite, accepting and unquestioning.



The other author of the 'source unknown' type typically fingered is Twain.