{"id":1241,"date":"2012-03-20T11:19:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T15:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=1241"},"modified":"2012-03-20T15:34:09","modified_gmt":"2012-03-20T19:34:09","slug":"so-many-bad-quotes-so-little-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/so-many-bad-quotes-so-little-time\/","title":{"rendered":"So many bad quotes, so little time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_1241\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"1241\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kalama_Sutta\" title=\"Wikipedia\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/ntweblog.blogspot.ca\/2007\/08\/jesus-creed-historical-jesus-series_17.html\" title=\"Albert Schweitzer mis-quote\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/ntweblog.blogspot.ca\/2011\/10\/that-dalai-lama-quotation-and.html\" title=\"Dalai Lama misquote\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kalama_Sutta\" title=\"Kalama Sutra\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>I was browsing through my blog posts today and found I have actually written about improperly attributed quotations on the Net nine times since I first started blogging back in March, 2005.<\/p>\n<p>On my old Mumpsimus blog, I posted two pieces about these bad memes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A quote misattributed to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ianchadwick.com\/forum\/index.php?\/blog\/1\/entry-946-a-sappy-thoreau-misquote-becomes-a-viral-meme-online\/\" title=\"Thoreau misquote\" target=\"_blank\">Henry David Thoreau<\/a>, November, 2010.\n<\/li>\n<li>A quote misattributed to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ianchadwick.com\/forum\/index.php?\/blog\/1\/entry-643-bad-meme-an-un-shakespearean-quotation\/\" title=\"Shakespeare misquote\" target=\"_blank\">William Shakespeare<\/a>, January, 2009.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On this new blog, which I launched in mid_December, 2011, I have written seven pieces about bad Internet quotes, starting with  the Slowly Dies piece, in January, 2012:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A quote mis-attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/bad-lao-tzu-meme-adds-to-growing-list-of-mis-identified-quotes-online\/\">Lao Tzu;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A quote mis-attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/james-miles-goethe-sorry-this-quote-is-from-malcolm-forbes\/\">Malcolm Forbes;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A quote mis-attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/does-this-really-sound-like-sitting-bull\/\">Sitting Bull;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A quote mis-attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/nope-this-quote-is-not-from-plato\/\">Plato;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A quote mis-attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/not-a-john-lennon-quote-just-another-bad-meme\/\">John Lennon;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A quote mis-attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/it-wasnt-einstein-who-said-it\/\">Einstein;<\/a><\/li>\n<li>A quote mis-attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/slowly-dies-another-bad-internet-meme\/\">Brazilian poet Martha Medeiros.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_z2BchzkR7W4\/TSdJP0zVTAI\/AAAAAAAAACo\/mdbr3NFYxB0\/s1600\/misquote%2Bspock.jpg\" alt=\"Mis-quoting Spock\" class=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"\/>It&#8217;s got so that every time I see some cutely-crafted poster with its quotation done in some artistic font, I have to start searching online to confirm the source. If only the people who designed such beautifully artistic images put a fraction of the work into confirming the source as they do in making their posters look pretty, I would not be so quick to challenge them.<\/p>\n<p>[pullquote]Unless we use critical thinking, unless we use intellectual analysis and skepticism, unless we question, we are condemned to being fooled, to being cheated and being mislead.[\/pullquote]Perhaps it&#8217;s become a small obsession for me. I&#8217;m not the only one who tries to correct these. I&#8217;ve mentioned the Quote Investigator and Wiki Quotes in previous posts. Today I found a piece about a popular quote mistakenly attributed to the Dalai Lama (ntweblog.blogspot.ca\/2011\/10\/that-dalai-lama-quotation-and.html). That in turn led to a post about a quote mis-attributed to Albert Schweitzer (ntweblog.blogspot.ca\/2007\/08\/jesus-creed-historical-jesus-series_17.html). Wiki Quotes has its list of popular mis-quotes (en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/List_of_misquotations), as does Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_misquotations). And more at Secular Perspectives (secularhumanist.blogspot.ca\/2011\/01\/skeptically-fact-checking-quotes.html) from when comes the image above.<\/p>\n<p><em>Why bother<\/em>? Because people are posting and sharing wrong information without checking it first. If information is the currency of the 21st century, then what they&#8217;re posting is counterfeit coinage. It&#8217;s not simply a mistake; it&#8217;s devaluing real information. It contributes to the general dumbing-down of our society. And it underscores the terrible lack of critical thinking that pervades our culture. People are too willing to suspend belief, too willing to accept statements and comments at face value when they reinforce their own beliefs. Instead, they should be thinking, reasoning and above all, questioning.<\/p>\n<p>For me, the words of the Buddhist Kalama Sutra (en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kalama_Sutta) should guide everyone&#8217;s online activity:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor upon rumor, nor upon what is in a scripture, nor upon surmise, nor upon an axiom, nor upon specious reasoning, nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over, nor upon another&#8217;s seeming ability, nor upon the consideration, &#8220;The monk is our teacher.&#8221;<br \/>\nKalamas, when you yourselves know: &#8220;These things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,&#8221; enter on and abide in them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Unless we use critical thinking, unless we use intellectual analysis and skepticism, unless we question, we are condemned to being fooled, to being cheated and being mislead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p id=\"pvc_stats_1241\" class=\"pvc_stats all  \" data-element-id=\"1241\" style=\"\"><i class=\"pvc-stats-icon medium\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.0\" viewBox=\"0 0 502 315\" preserveAspectRatio=\"xMidYMid meet\"><g transform=\"translate(0,332) scale(0.1,-0.1)\" fill=\"\" stroke=\"none\"><path d=\"M2394 3279 l-29 -30 -3 -207 c-2 -182 0 -211 15 -242 39 -76 157 -76 196 0 15 31 17 60 15 243 l-3 209 -33 29 c-26 23 -41 29 -80 29 -41 0 -53 -5 -78 -31z\"\/><path d=\"M3085 3251 c-45 -19 -58 -50 -96 -229 -47 -217 -49 -260 -13 -295 52 -53 146 -42 177 20 16 31 87 366 87 410 0 70 -86 122 -155 94z\"\/><path d=\"M1751 3234 c-13 -9 -29 -31 -37 -50 -12 -29 -10 -49 21 -204 19 -94 39 -189 45 -210 14 -50 54 -80 110 -80 34 0 48 6 76 34 21 21 34 44 34 59 0 14 -18 113 -40 219 -37 178 -43 195 -70 221 -36 32 -101 37 -139 11z\"\/><path d=\"M1163 3073 c-36 -7 -73 -59 -73 -102 0 -56 133 -378 171 -413 34 -32 83 -37 129 -13 70 36 67 87 -16 290 -86 209 -89 214 -129 231 -35 14 -42 15 -82 7z\"\/><path d=\"M3689 3066 c-15 -9 -33 -30 -42 -48 -48 -103 -147 -355 -147 -375 0 -98 131 -148 192 -74 13 15 57 108 97 206 80 196 84 226 37 273 -30 30 -99 39 -137 18z\"\/><path d=\"M583 2784 c-38 -19 -67 -74 -58 -113 9 -42 211 -354 242 -373 16 -10 45 -18 66 -18 51 0 107 52 107 100 0 39 -1 41 -124 234 -80 126 -108 162 -133 173 -41 17 -61 16 -100 -3z\"\/><path d=\"M4250 2784 c-14 -9 -74 -91 -133 -183 -95 -150 -107 -173 -107 -213 0 -55 33 -94 87 -104 67 -13 90 8 211 198 130 202 137 225 78 284 -27 27 -42 34 -72 34 -22 0 -50 -8 -64 -16z\"\/><path d=\"M2275 2693 c-553 -48 -1095 -270 -1585 -649 -135 -104 -459 -423 -483 -476 -23 -49 -22 -139 2 -186 73 -142 361 -457 571 -626 285 -228 642 -407 990 -497 242 -63 336 -73 660 -74 310 0 370 5 595 52 535 111 1045 392 1455 803 122 121 250 273 275 326 19 41 19 137 0 174 -41 79 -309 363 -465 492 -447 370 -946 591 -1479 653 -113 14 -422 18 -536 8z m395 -428 c171 -34 330 -124 456 -258 112 -119 167 -219 211 -378 27 -96 24 -300 -5 -401 -72 -255 -236 -447 -474 -557 -132 -62 -201 -76 -368 -76 -167 0 -236 14 -368 76 -213 98 -373 271 -451 485 -162 444 86 934 547 1084 153 49 292 57 452 25z m909 -232 c222 -123 408 -262 593 -441 76 -74 138 -139 138 -144 0 -16 -233 -242 -330 -319 -155 -123 -309 -223 -461 -299 l-81 -41 32 46 c18 26 49 83 70 128 143 306 141 649 -6 957 -25 52 -61 116 -79 142 l-34 47 45 -20 c26 -10 76 -36 113 -56z m-2057 25 c-40 -58 -105 -190 -130 -263 -110 -324 -59 -707 132 -981 25 -35 42 -64 37 -64 -19 0 -241 119 -326 174 -188 122 -406 314 -532 468 l-58 71 108 103 c185 178 428 349 672 473 66 33 121 60 123 61 2 0 -10 -19 -26 -42z\"\/><path d=\"M2375 1950 c-198 -44 -350 -190 -395 -379 -18 -76 -8 -221 19 -290 114 -284 457 -406 731 -260 98 52 188 154 231 260 27 69 37 214 19 290 -38 163 -166 304 -326 360 -67 23 -215 33 -279 19z\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/i> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading\" src=\"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/page-views-count\/ajax-loader-2x.gif\" border=0 \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"pvc_clear\"><\/div>\n<p>I was browsing through my blog posts today and found I have actually written about improperly attributed quotations on the Net nine times since I first started blogging back in March, 2005. On my old Mumpsimus blog, I posted two pieces about these bad memes: A quote misattributed to Henry David Thoreau, November, 2010. A quote misattributed to William Shakespeare, January, 2009. On this new blog, which I launched in mid_December, 2011, I have written seven pieces about bad Internet quotes, starting with the Slowly Dies piece, in January, 2012: A quote mis-attributed to Lao Tzu; A quote mis-attributed to \u2026&#8230;&#8230; click below for more \u2193<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[73,69],"tags":[105,71,47,48],"class_list":["post-1241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language-grammar","category-internet-memes","tag-dumbing-down","tag-internet","tag-meme","tag-quotation"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":12459,"today_views":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1241"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1261,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1241\/revisions\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}