It is very practical to use quotations especially when when we encounter difficulties in expressing our point of view. And then you always look less stupid appropriating other people’s ideas rather than speaking yourself. In short, it’s an imposter tactic to look less stupid. Except that often, the quotes are not the good ones and that one passes for more idiot than one is. Fortunately, we are here to put you back on the right track.
1. Neil Armstrong didn’t exactly say “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
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In fact, he would have rather said “A small step for a man, a great leap for humanity”. It’s just that 4G didn’t work very well at the time and we didn’t hear everything when he said his shit. As a result, the interpretations diverge (that’s a lot).
2. Madame de Sévigné did not say “Racine will pass like coffee”
It is Voltaire’s fault if he is attributed this valve often used to say that prophecies do not often come true. Let’s explain: the now proverbial quote referred to the fact that when Jean Racine was the Taylor Swift of the time, it was said that his success would not last, just like coffee, something that will go out of fashion. And then it happens that we always play Racine and we always drink coffee. So no. It could well be that she said something about root like “Racine is crap next to Corneille” and “coffee is for idiots” but the quote as we remembered it today is definitely not the right one.
3. Karl Marx didn’t really say “Religion is the opium of the people”
Even if a fragile babtou with silky rastas told you the last evening in which you typed the inlay, it’s a bit bogus. Not that it’s wrong, it’s mostly a little synthesized. From Hegel’s Critique of The Philosophy of Right, the true full quote is “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the soul of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a mindless state of affairs. She is the opium of the people. “. Well, the idea is there and it’s true that it’s more difficult to learn by heart.
4. Martin Luther King said “I have a dream”, but it doesn’t mean “I had a dream”.
This is further proof that we really are engliche dicks. The real good translation of this beginning of the speech is “I have a dream that…” and not a detailed account of little Martin’s oneiric activity the night before.
5. Pierre Desproges did not say so clearly “We can laugh at everything, but not with anyone”
Again, this is an extreme simplification of his remarks, even if implicitly this is what he said in his court of flagrant delirium, addressing Jean-Marie Lepen. To do well, it should be quoted very exactly: “The questions that haunt me (…) are these: first, can we laugh at everything? Second, can we laugh with everyone? To the first question, I would answer yes without hesitation (…). Second point, (…) can we laugh with everyone? It’s hard. Personally, I sometimes balk at the idea of inciting my zygomatics to tense paralysis. It is sometimes beyond my strength, in certain human environments: the company of a practicing Stalinist, for example, rarely brings me joy. »
6. Machiavelli never wrote “The end justifies the means”
Even if the sentence sums up Nicolo’s philosophy quite well, concretely, these words have never passed under his pen. I couldn’t find the exact quote in French (if you have it, don’t hesitate to ^share it with us) but what he wrote would be closer to “Quand il n’y a no impartial arbiter, you have to consider the end result”.
7. Gandhi didn’t say “Be the change you want for the world”
He said something a little more complicated than that whose meaning does not mean exactly the same thing. Again I’m translating from English so I hope my translation won’t be wrong so that I don’t in turn contribute to the quotes we always get confused about, but basically he would have said more like this: “If we could change ourselves, the trends of the world would also change. If a man changes his own nature, the attitude of the world will change towards him…”
8. The saying doesn’t say “Winning isn’t important” at all.
This quote from footballer Giampiero Boniperti, which has become a proverb, is not at all complete. The correct version is rather “At Juventus, winning is not important. It’s the only thing that matters. “. It still doesn’t mean the same thing.
9. Engels said a little more than “proof by the pudding”
This expression (especially known in English) is a bit distorted. Engels wrote precisely “The proof of the pudding is in the eating” in order to explain to idealists that the world is not a mental creation but is very real.
10. Emmanuel Macron never said “fuck all your mothers”
Indeed, many articles from newspapers that are reputed to be serious have been relaying this information for a few months that the president would have tossed it quietly off. But according to another source (the cousin of my roommate’s boyfriend who knows people who have once passed the Elysée Palace) well, in fact, he would have said above all “Fuck all your moms well”