No doubt all of us have noticed that people often include a quotation along with their email signatures, that many websites feature a quote or two pertaining to their content or purpose, and there are a multitude of sites with list after list of quotes. This can be quite useful when someone wants to find a quote about almost any topic. However, many—dare I say most?—quotes online are uncited. And even many of those that do give sources have mistaken attributions or other inaccuracies.
For instance, according to many baking and bread sites, “If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens,” words supposedly from the work of Robert Browning. There is no evidence of this in Browning’s writings; it appears to originate with Paracelsus.
It is easy to see how this happens: someone posts an erroneous quote and others re-post it, and the error proliferates. And then the numerical preponderance of the mistaken quotation makes it even more difficult to track down the real thing amongst all the litter.
Even a typing error can spread throughout the web. Some years ago a colleague tracked down a line attributed to Oscar Wilde on innumerable websites to a typo: “die” had been replaced with “lie” (or perhaps the other way around; I no longer recall the quote or the original work in which it appeared).
To be sure, problems with the accuracy of quotes predate the internet. On the one hand, when a statement someone makes is repeated by another it often gets shortened, simplified and generally rendered into a more concise, pithy and elegant phrasing. For instance, “War is hell” is derived from General Sherman’s declaration (in a speech in Columbus, Ohio, of all places!) “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.”
On the other, statements are often attributed to more famous persons, even if that person cites another source. For instance, Gramsci is often credited for “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will,” although he attributed it to the novelist Romain Rolland.
Of course, the speed and reach of the internet has magnified this problem immeasurably.
In this posting I will suggest some resources for tracking down the often-elusive reality behind quotations.
Before doing so, however, it is useful to address if and why such verification is important. Does it really matter, for instance, who coined the phrase, “Lies, damned lies, and statistics,” or whether those words are the ones actually written or uttered by that person? I mean, unless someone is crafting a thesis for a degree or some similarly formal document, the point is the meaning of the quotation, not (usually) its source or precision.
Well, it DOES matter. For one thing, why should quotations be different from any other potentially verifiable query we field? In terms of our mission of providing the most accurate and authoritative information we can, how does finding the source or actual wording of a quote differ from a question such as “how many feet in a kilometer?” or “what is the capital of Mali?” One hopes we would not be casual or dismissive in answering these questions to the best of our abilities.
Second, isn’t a lack of interest in accuracy in quotes about the same as not caring if some text is plagiarized? Isn’t it akin to lying–by omission if not commission? Especially in today’s supposedly post-truth world, do we really want to give inaccuracies a free pass just because they are quotes? I think—I hope!—most of us agree that there are already more than enough manufactured and misattributed quotations flying around that we would recoil at sanctioning more!
Finally, although we all know–don’t we?–that an “appeal to authority” in an argument is a logical fallacy, linking some position to a famous and well-regarded person via a quotation may sway people. In this practical sense, then, accuracy can make a real difference.
So, in the famous words of Lenin, “What is to be done?”
Probably the most important strategy in tracking down quotes, whether using print or online sources, is to persevere. Be dogged in pursuing leads, do not give up easily—it may well take some time.
If you are fortunate, you will have a selection of good books of quotations in your library’s collection. By good, I mean they give specific sources so that, if there is any doubt, you can check further.
It is also wise to confirm with another source or two–even Bartlett’s and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations have been found to have a rare error or two.
The best sources will not only give a quote and its source, but also discuss similar statements and their (likely) relation to the quote in question. Unless your library is in dire need of space, it never makes sense to discard a good book of quotations unless it has been superseded by a new edition or your library is consciously throwing in the towel on verification.
Among the standard tomes for checking quotes are: The Yale Book of Quotations, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.
There are also numerous compendia of quotations with more narrow foci: humorous quotations, quotations by African Americans, political quotations, quotations by women, American quotations, literary quotations, and more. There are also some collections of quotes by notable persons, such as The Quotable Einstein, which can be quite helpful. You might be surprised what (who) you might find in your collection.
In addition, there are several exceptional books focused on falsely attributed quotes and/or quotations of dubious or confusing provenance. They are not only fine reference tools, but also great fun to peruse if you are a reference geek. Among them are: They Never Said It by Paul Boller, Jr. and John George (some of which can be seen via Google Books); The Quote Verifier by Ralph Keyes; and Hemingway Didn’t Say That, by Garson O’Toole.
If you are really fortunate, your library has access to one or more premium databases, such as Credo Reference or JSTOR, which could also be useful.
The web, despite the difficulties it presents regarding quotes, also has some tools that can be quite helpful. The most obvious one, of course, is the wealth of archival documents (buried though they may be) that is accessible via search engines or by going directly to the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Smithsonian Institution, Digital Public Library of America, or other major repositories, and browsing or searching their online collections.
Closely related is the trove of digitized books available via Project Gutenberg , HathiTrust Internet Archive, and Google Books, to name the most prominent repositories. Bartlby.com merits special reference because it offers full texts of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (1919), Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service (1989), and several other—mostly old but often useful—compilations of quotations.
There are also various websites that can be usually be relied upon to have authoritative information, and that provide lines of evidence and reasoning regarding quotes. Among these are snopes.com and The Straight Dope.
In addition, there are several sites dedicated to ferreting out quotations’ origins, or that contain sections that do so. Two of the best of these are The Quote Investigator (be sure also to look into its Resources section, which offers further goodies) and quote/counterquote. Wikiquote is another excellent resource, though the same cautions apply to it as to its parent, Wikipedia.
Though aimed more at phrases and proverbs than quotations as such, a British site, The Phrase Finder, may also prove helpful. The elusive “Revenge is a dish best served cold,” for example, receives a rather thorough treatment here.
Another set of resources are online archives or databases compiled by an organization, serious scholar or fan, such as the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln from The Abraham Lincoln Association, Twain Quotes, or the Ambrose Bierce Site.
It is always worth searching for such a resource about the person you suspect is the source of some quote. Even if the document(s) you seek is not online, you may be able to email or phone them your inquiry.
A less obvious tactic made feasible by the internet is to use online translators that permit the pursuit of leads in other languages. For example, Don Boozer (of Cleveland Public Library) tracked down a quote I recalled from library school and shared with him. It was attributed to some German writer, and in my memory was rendered as “Librarians are semi-precious jewels who think they are crown jewels.” Like me, he was unable to find it as such. Unlike me, he realized he could translate it online into German, then plug that into a search engine, and re-translate a promising hit back into English. (I should note that he then entered the quotation and its source into Wikiquote where you may find it by searching “semi-precious stones”).
Online recordings are another resource we ought not to forget if we suspect a speech or performance might hold the key to our quest. For instance, most of us recognize Woody Guthrie’s line, “some men rob you with a six gun,” but not necessarily the line that follows. Search engine results offer several variations: “…others rob you with a fountain pen;” “…others with a fountain pen.” “…some with a fountain pen;” “…and some with a fountain pen.” Fortunately, YouTube has a recording of Woody singing his keen-edged lyrics.
There are undoubtedly other fine online resources for quote verification. If you know of any, please share them in the blog comments.
You might have noticed that although there are a handful of quotes in this posting, I give no citations—I have deliberately left them for you to discover.
And always remember what Abe Lincoln said: “The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can’t always depend on their accuracy.”
–Bill Meltzer, Worthington Libraries
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