History BeamMeUpScotty / Literature

* Creator/FyodorDostoevsky never said, "If God does not exist, everything is permitted," or the alternate translation "Without God, anything is permissible."[[labelnote:Russian]] Без бога всё позволено [[/labelnote]] In ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'' Ivan expresses the basic idea but, as the character is a StrawNihilist, its unlikely Dostoevsky actually endorsed such a view himself. The closest any character comes to saying it is Mitya recalling a conversation with Rakitin in which he technically says all the words in that order, but with a clause in between them: "'But,' I asked, 'how will man be after that? Without God and the future life? It means everything is permitted now, one can do anything?'"[[labelnote:Russian]] "'Только как же, спрашиваю, после того человек-то? Без бога-то и без будущей жизни? Ведь это, стало быть, теперь всё позволено, всё можно делать?'" [[/labelnote]]

* Creator/FyodorDostoevsky never said, "Without God, anything is permissible". In ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'' Ivan basically says this (but not in those exact words), but, as the character is a StrawNihilist, its unlikely Dostoevsky actually endorsed such a view himself.

** Ron never says his movie CatchPhrase ("bloody hell!") in any of the books. However, there are many instances in the books when [[NarrativeProfanityFilter "Ron swore loudly"]], so perhaps he was saying "bloody hell" each of those times.

* Creator/FriedrichNietzsche is variously quoted as writing something like "when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back", or myriad variations. The original phrase used by Nietzsche in ''Beyond Good and Evil'' is: "And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."

** [[SpoiledBrat "Wait 'till my father hears about this!"]] is often thought of as Draco Malfoy's catchphrase. Not only is it in none of the books, he only says it with that wording once in all eight films, during [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLfH0qAxDTc this scene.]] There are two more instances of him saying a variation on the phrase, "Wait until my father hears Dumbledore's got this oaf teaching classes!" in the third film and "My father will hear about this!" in the fourth film, but that's it.

* Contrary to a thousand inspirational Tumblr posts, [[Creator/CSLewis C.S. Lewis]] never wrote "You don't have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body." Nor is it a viewpoint he would have endorsed: in ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'', he actually writes that human beings are "amphibians--half spirit and half animal." The most likely source of the misattributed quote is Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s novel ''Literature/ACanticleForLeibowitz'', in which a character says "You don't have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily."

* Despite originating the term, the "[[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer ugly American]]" in ''Literature/TheUglyAmerican'' is a WorkingClassHero whom the natives like because he is ''not'' an ignorant, arrogant elitist like the "[[EvilIsSexy beautiful]]" (as in better groomed and dressed) [[AssInAmbassador foreign ambassadors]].

* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'': Augustus never claims to feel a kinship with Anne Frank because she died "of an illness" like his own. He and Hazel both clearly feel a kinship with her because she died ''young'', but the alleged murder-denying quote never occurs. [[note]] The historian consensus, however, is that Anne Frank most likely ''did'' die of an illness--namely, typhus, of which there was an outbreak in Bergen-Balsen camp at the time. [[/note]]

* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'': Augustus never claims to feel a kinship with Anne Frank because she died "of an illness" like his own. He and Hazel both clearly feel a kinship with her because she died ''young'', but the alleged murder-denying quote never occurs.

** Nor does the novel's Heathcliff ever say to Catherine "If he [Edgar Linton] loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn't love you as much as I do in a single day." That's another quote from the 1939 film. The original quote is "If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day," and Heathcliff doesn't say it directly to Catherine, but to Nelly Dean in a conversation ''about'' Catherine.