History BeamMeUpScotty / Literature

* Creator/JohnMilton is often quoted as saying, or writing "Luck is the residue of design" (sometimes attributed specifically to his poem "At a Vacation Exercise in the College"). No Milton scholar has been able to find this quote in any of his writings. Much later, the phrase was often used by [[UsefulNotes/Baseball baseball player]] and Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey, who may or may not have mistakenly attributed it to Milton.

* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is about "doublethink", "newspeak", "crimethink", "goodsex", "sexcrime" and "duckspeak", not "double talk", "groupthink" or "{{doublespeak}}" or "wrongthink".
** It's not [[http://unspeak.net/ unspeak]] either.
** Misquoting Orwell is [[FutureSlang doubleplusungood]].

** Adam as the creature's name is also not stated in the novel. The creature ''does'' refer to himself as the "Adam of [Victor's] labours" but this is not his given name. WordOfGod did call him Adam though, according to a letter Mary Shelley wrote to her friend.

* Creator/TSEliot's poem the Hollow Men states "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper." instead of"with a whisper"

** On that same note there is a quote often attributed to the ''Inferno'' (aka the part about Hell that's the only part most people know about) that goes "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality". Not only does this quote not appear in any known translation of the poem, it's actually inconsistent with how Dante's Hell works, as anyone who has read it will know. The actual source of the quote is unknown, but [[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/01/14/hottest/ this site]] breaks down it's history and suggests that it was President Franklin Roosevelt who claimed that in the poem the neutral and cowardly people were considered the worst of the worst in Dante's Hell (which is more or less accurate) and a few years later a reporter mangled this into "The lowest place of Hell is for the neutral people"
** The phrase on the gates of Hell, sometimes abbreviated AHAYWEH, goes "All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here". Not "Abandon hope, all ye..." or "Abandon all hope, ye..." or other variations.

** Ebenezer Scrooge is often observed as having said "Bah-humbug!", but most works miss the emphasis. The phrase is given like it's all one word, whereas "Bah" is actually an interjection of disgust, e.g. "Bah! Humbug!" And in film and stage adaptations, he tends to say it many more times than in the novel. He tends to say "Humbug!" by itself in the book, too. He only says "Bah! Humbug!" twice.

** On that same note there is a quote often attributed to the ''Inferno'' (aka the part about Hell that's the only part most people know about) that goes "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis maintain, their neutrality". Not only does this quote not appear in any known translation of the poem, it's actually inconsistent how Dante's Hell actually works, as anyone who has read it will know. The actual source of the quote is unknown, but [[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/01/14/hottest/ this site]] breaks down it's history and suggests that it was President Franklin Roosevelt who claimed that in the poem the neutral and cowardly people were considered the worst of the worst in Dante's Hell (which is more or less accurate) and a few years later a reporter mangled this into "The lowest place of Hell is for the neutral people"

** In ''Literature/TheHobbit'' Smaug never says "I am king under the mountain!" He did say it, however, in [[Film/TheHobbit the second film]].

* The line is [[Literature/PeterPan "Second to the right and straight on till morning."]] The [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Disney version]] changed it to "Second ''star'' to the right...", probably in an effort to make more sense...even though it wasn't supposed to make sense, since Peter had made it up on the spot in an effort to impress Wendy. The whole "think happy thoughts and you'll be able to fly" thing was a similar made-up bit of information by Peter--he wanted to confuse Wendy and her brothers by trying to make them fly before they had any fairy dust, the thing you ''really'' need to fly. (And it's ''fairy'' dust, not ''pixie'' dust). But try telling that to any adaptation… Fairy dust wasn't even in the original play. Barrie put it in because someone warned him kids might hurt themselves trying to see if you could really fly on happy thoughts.

** Also, aside from the title, the word "Wonderland" is never used anywhere in the book. The title was a last minute change because Carroll's publishers suggested it should sound more whimsical. (The original title was ''Alice's Adventures Underground.'')

* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is about "doublethink", "newspeak", "crimethink", "goodsex", "sexcrime" and "duckspeak", not "double talk", "groupthink" or "{{doublespeak}}".

* Literature/{{Dracula}} did ''not'' speak with VampireVords in the original novel--in fact, the story even makes it clear he has SurprisinglyGoodEnglish. The accent would come from later adaptations of the story, most notably Creator/BelaLugosi's performance in the [[Film/Dracula1931 1931 film]] and subsequent parodies of it. And in the original book, Dracula never once said "I vant to suck your blood!" and he wouldn't have been caught [[strike: dead]] undead saying "Bleh, bleh bleh!" The original Dracula was far too proud of a character to speak in such a manner or accent.
** Reference is also frequently made to sunlight being a lethal weakness to Dracula, which is something that came from later adaptations like Film/{{Nosferatu}}. In the novel, sunlight did rob Dracula of some of his powers, but it didn't kill him.
* The full phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" was never in a Conan Doyle ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' book or story, though the detective did occasionally use the word "elementary" to describe his deductions, and -- as was standard in the Victorian era -- often addressed his sidekick as "my dear Watson." This one likely came from people tacking on a familiar character's name to make the quote more recognizable, much as in "''Luke'', I am your father" -- or, indeed, "Beam me up, ''Scotty''".
** During the early twentieth century the popular catchphrase for Holmes was "Quick, Watson, the needle!" referring to the character's drug habit. Nothing like this line was ever uttered in the stories themselves. Its origin is sometimes attributed to the the 1939 ''[[Film/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles Hound of the Baskervilles]]'' (whose final line is "Oh, Watson -- the needle") or to the 1906 comic operetta ''The Red Mill''; but in fact [[https://books.google.com/books?id=yuctBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT85&pg=PT101#v=onepage&q&f=false there is evidence]] that the quote was already in existence by 1900. Most likely it originated in one of the numerous parodies of William Gillette's wildly successful ''Sherlock Holmes'' [[Theatre/SherlockHolmes play]] from 1899 (which had included a dramatic scene of Holmes shooting up because Gillette wanted the chance to play some existential ''ennui'').
** The deerstalker hat as part of Holmes' IconicOutfit is also an example. In one story that happens to be set in the country, Holmes is described as wearing an "ear-flapped travelling cap"; illustrator Sidney Paget drew it as a deerstalker, and then depicted Holmes wearing this hat in a couple of later stories that were also set in the country (the only appropriate setting for such attire). But most of the time he drew Holmes in a top hat or bowler or other appropriate city hat. The use of the deerstalker as the character's ''only'' or "signature" hat may have been popularized by William Gillette, who wore one in both his popular play and its 1916 film adaptation; and when Creator/BasilRathbone used the same costuming in his first Holmes film, ''Film/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'', the image was effectively cemented in the public mind.
** Gillette was also responsible for introducing the distinctive curved calabash as the character's trademark pipe; in the stories Holmes was described as smoking several different pipes, not one of which was a calabash.
* [[Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli Machiavelli]] never said "the ends justify the means", which is a mistranslation. His exact quote is "si guarda al fine", which should be translated to "one must think of the final result" in regards to the ultimate effect a prince's words and actions have on his image.
** Ironically, Machiavelli would likely disagree with the statement "the ends justify the means". Machiavelli cares very much about the means. If a prince were to choose a means which would [[StupidEvil anger his populace]], then it would [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating invoke hatred from his populace]], which Machiavelli considers to be the absolute worst position for a prince to be in.
** Similarly, the line is "It is far safer to be feared than loved '''if you cannot be both'''", not "It is better to be feared than loved", and the message that it was best to be ''respected''. Also, there's that whole "avoid being hated" thing that everyone seems to forget.
* The first poem in the Mother Goose book of rhymes starts "Find a pin, pick it up", not "Find a penny, pick it up." And not "See a pin/penny" either.
* None of Creator/EnidBlyton's ''Literature/TheFamousFive'' books include the phrase "lashings of ginger beer". That comes from the infamous MadeForTVMovie parodies by British comedy troupe ''The Comic Strip'', "Five Go Mad In Dorset" and "Five Go Mad on Mescalin". It has its origins in the Five's (or at least their human members') [[TrademarkFavoriteFood penchant for ginger beer]] and the fact that their [[FoodPorn lovingly described meals]] do frequently sport [[AuthorVocabularyCalendar lashings]] of an appropriate accompaniment such as gravy or cream.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''
** Hagrid's oft-quoted line "you're a wizard, Harry" appears only in the first [[Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone film]] -- in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone the book]], his line was "Harry -- yer a wizard".
** Also, Voldemort's line "There is no good and evil, only power and those too weak to seek it," is this when applied to the book, where the line was "...that there is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it," and spoken by Quirrell, not Voldemort, as part of a much longer monologue with a different tone before Voldemort even puts in an appearance. Voldemort ''does'' say the line in the movie, though. And to be fair, when Quirrell says the line in the book version, he's citing it as an example of something which Voldemort taught him, so the line clearly reflects Voldemort's philosophy or at least Quirrell's understanding of it.
** 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.
** No character ever says either of the lines "What the hell is a Hufflepuff?" or "Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders" in the books or films. They originate from the satirical parody series ''Theatre/AVeryPotterMusical''.
** [[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.
** A more meta example. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger are often referred to by Rowling (and her fans) as the Golden Trio. Nobody in the books ever call them that, but don't tell the fanfic writers that, where it's a common nickname.
*** A similar label that ''does'' appear in canon is "dream team." Snape refers to Harry and Ron as this before separating them. This label never caught on with the fans, though, probably because it didn't implicitly include Hermione, despite Snape also preventing Harry from partnering with her in that scene.
** When Harry tells Albus Severus about who he's named after, he doesn't say, "You were named after two of the bravest men I ever knew." The line actually is, "Albus Severus, you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."
** Despite being used very regularly in the fourth book by his imposter, the catch phrase "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" is never once uttered by the real Mad-Eye Moody in any of the books.
** Aunt Petunia never calls Dudley "Ickle Diddykins" or "Dinky Diddydums". She does call him "''Dudley''kins" and "D''u''ddydums", however.
*** Harry does reference Aunt Petunia calling him "Ickle Diddykins", however, so it is canon, just not something that's ever shown.
* Coleridge's ''Literature/TheRimeOfTheAncientMariner'' is often quoted as "Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink"; the actual line is "Water, water everywhere, '''nor any''' drop to drink"
** Naturally, [[Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace Garth Marenghi]] got it wrong.
** Well, at least most people don't think that it goes, [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons "Water, water everywhere, so let's all have a drink."]]
** Music/IronMaiden got it right, though.
* ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'':
** "The lady doth protest too much, methinks". Often misquoted as either "Methinks the lady doth protest too much" or "Methinks thou doth protest too much." Also most people when quoting the line misuse "protest." At the time "protest" meant "a formal declaration," NOT "a statement against." Gertrude is complaining that the lady is stating her allegiance and love for her lord *too much* not complaining that the lady is being overly contrary.
** Hamlet's line in the graveyard is generally quoted as "AlasPoorYorick! I knew him well.", but what he actually said was "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, '''Horatio'''." And the line doesn't end there. "I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."
* Not a quote, but reference is frequently made to Literature/RobinsonCrusoe finding Friday's footprint in the sand. The footprint he finds could have belonged to any one of several dozen "savages"; it was almost certainly not Friday's.
* "'Will you '''walk''' into my parlor,' said the spider to the fly", not "come into my parlor."
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spider_and_the_Fly_%28poem%29 The poem]] at [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]], in case you didn't even realize it was a (mis-)quotation in the first place.
** The mistake here was also perpetuated by The Cure, who misquote it in their song "Lullaby" as ''come in to my parlour, said the spider to the fly, I have something here...''
* Creator/OliverWendellHolmes (senior) did not say "Boston is the hub of the universe." The line from "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" is "Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man, if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar." One commenter notes "'universe' for 'solar system' can be overlooked, but 'Boston' for 'Boston State-House' is unpardonable."

* ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is about "doublethink", "newspeak", "crimethink", "goodsex", "sexcrime" and "duckspeak", not "double talk", "groupthink" or "{{doublespeak}}".
** It's not [[http://unspeak.net/ unspeak]] either.
** Misquoting Orwell is [[FutureSlang doubleplusungood]].

--->'''Sancho:''' Señor, señor, que nos ladran los perros.
--->'''Don Quixote:''' Señal que cabalgamos, Sancho.

--->'''Sancho:''' Sir, sir, the dogs bark at us.
--->'''Don Quixote:''' A sign that we ride, Sancho.

* Ask "What is the meaning of life?" on the Internet and it's almost guaranteed that somebody will respond "[[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy 42.]]" Technically, 42 isn't the meaning of life - rather, it is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, whatever that may be.
** [[spoiler:Six by nine]], of course.
* "The best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry," is frequently attributed to Creator/RobertBurns, but the actual line in his poem ''To a Mouse'' is: "The best-laid ''schemes'' o' mice an' men ''gang'' aft ''agley''"—which means the same thing. Creator/JohnBrunner got this right when he composed a {{feghoot}} ending "The best-paid gangs of Meissen men scheme AFTER Clay."
* The poem "In Flanders Fields" opens ''"In Flanders fields the poppies '''blow'''"'', not "grow". Even the author (John [=McCrae=]) made this error when asked to supply a fair copy several years later.
* Dante never referred to ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' (''La Divina Commedia'') by that name: he simply called it ''Commedia'' ("comedy"). The epithet "divine" was added by Creator/{{Boccaccio}}.
** On that same note there is a quote often attributed to the ''Inferno'' (aka the part about Hell that's the only part most people know about) that goes "The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis maintain, their neutrality". Not only does this quote not appear in any known translation of the poem, it's actually inconsistent how Dante's Hell actually works, as anyone who has read it will know. The actual source of the quote is unknown, but [[https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/01/14/hottest/ this site]] breaks down it's history and suggests that it was President Franklin Roosevelt who claimed that in the poem the neutral and cowardly people were considered the worst of the worst in Dante's Hell (which is more or less accurate) and a few years later a reporter mangled this into "The lowest place of Hell is for the neutral people"
* Poet Dylan Thomas's last words are often given as "I've just had eighteen straight whiskeys in a row - I do believe that is some sort of record", but he actually said the far less triumphant [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/arts/sites/dylan-thomas/pages/death.shtml "After 39 years, this is all I've done".]]
* In Parson Weems's story about the young UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, he never says "I cannot tell a lie. It was I who chopped down the cherry tree.", because he doesn't chop it down, he "barks" it, slicing the bark off with a hatchet. He also didn't say "I did it with my little hatchet."
-->The following anecdote is a case in point. It is too valuable to be lost, and too true to be doubted; ...he unluckily tried the edge of his hatchet on the body of a beautiful young English cherry-tree, which he barked so terribly, that I don't believe the tree ever got the better of it. The next morning the old gentleman, finding out what had befallen his tree, which, by the by, was a great favorite, came into the house; ... Nobody could tell him anything about it... "George," said his father, " do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden? " This was a tough question; and George staggered under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself: and looking at his father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible charm of all- conquering truth, he bravely cried out, '''"I can't tell a lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet."''' "Run to my arms, you dearest boy," cried his father in transports, [[{{Narm}} "run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree;]] for you have paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold."

* This phenomenon is discussed in ''Literature/MoreInformationThanYouRequire'', which [[LittleKnownFacts jokingly claims]], among other things, that when UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," he was, in fact, referring to just his cabinet, who were protected by a thick steel wall. "Normal Americans need to [[Film/TheFly1986 be afraid, very afraid]] indeed. And not just of the Depression, but also flash floods, night-stabbers, and plague."
* "The spice must flow!", while spoken by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in the '[[Film/Dune1984 84 Lynch film]] and spoken often, was never actually in any of the six Dune books.
** The popular chant "It is by will alone I set my mind in motion", while it sounds like something from the books and is [[MemeticMutation quoted all the time]] by sci-fi {{geek}}s, is nowhere found in the original book, nor is the premise quite the same. It was written by Lynch for the movie.
*** The programmers' version, which credits [[MustHaveCaffeine caffeine]], was composed by Mark Stein at the 1993 Arisia science fiction convention in Boston.
--->It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
--->It is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
--->the hands acquire shakes, the shakes become a warning.
--->It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
* ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers''' "One for all, all for one." D'Artagnan only said it once, when he was trying to convince Athos, Porthos, and Aramis that he wasn't committing a selfish act by letting the husband of his lover be taken to jail by the Cardinal's guards.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Gandalf never said "You shall not pass!" in the book, only in the movie. His full line in the book goes:
-->'You cannot pass,' he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. 'I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass.'
** Note also that he says the lines in a calm manner, as opposed to [[PunctuatedForEmphasis dramatically shouting them]] like he does in the movie, and perhaps similar to Obi-Wan's demeanor when facing Vader for the last time in ''Star Wars''. Gandalf also says "You cannot pass!" again after blocking the Balrog's sword strike, but never "You ''shall not'' pass". Also, in the book, he says "Fly, you fools!" ''during'' his fall down the abyss. The book does however say that he "cried aloud" when he smote the bridge, which is when the movie version of him yells it.
** Gandalf's defiance of the Lord of the Nazgul at the gates of Minas Tirith is similar:
-->'You cannot enter here,' said Gandalf, and the huge shadow halted. 'Go back to the abyss prepared for you! Go back! Fall into the nothingness that awaits you and your Master. Go!'
** The oft-quoted line "Not all who wander are lost" is a slight rephrase from the marginally less quotable "Not all '''those''' who wander are lost". While the more well-known phrasing might be a bit more pithy and poetic on its own, the poem that it's from ("The Riddle of Strider" from ''The Fellowship of the Ring'') is written in a verse form with eight syllables in each line, necessitating the extra word.
** Boromir in the book never says "One does not simply [[WalkIntoMordor walk into Mordor]]"; like the Gandalf example above. this line was written specifically for the film. The closest thing to this in the book is said by none other than Gollum.
** In ''Literature/TheHobbit'' Smaug never says "I am king under the mountain!" He did say it, however, in [[Film/TheHobbit the second film]].
** There are even a few in-universe examples: Gandalf never said "Then be not too eager to deal out death in the name of justice, fearing for your own safety. Even the wise cannot see all ends," as Frodo remembered it. What Gandalf had actually said was "Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."
* The often misquoted line from ''Literature/TheAeneid'', "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts," is actually a mistranslation of the original phrase, ''"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes."'' The correct translation is, "I fear the Greeks, even if they bear gifts." [[note]]The error comes from thinking that "et" means "and", as it usually does. Here, however, it's short for "etiam", which means "even".[[/note]]
* In ''Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark'', if your snark turns out to be a boojum, "You will softly and '''suddenly''' vanish away, / And never be met with again." Not "softly and ''silently''", as generally misquoted.
** "Silently vanish away" is from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "The Day Is Done".
* In ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' by Creator/HGWells, Ogilvy ''never said'' "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a [[MillionToOneChance million to one]]." Instead he said "The chances against anything ''manlike'' coming from Mars are a million to one." The first quote is from [[Music/JeffWaynesMusicalVersionOfTheWarOfTheWorlds the musical by Jeff Wayne]]. Ironically, in the book it can be argued, judging from the [[StarfishAliens appearance of the Martians themselves]], that Ogilvy was actually ''right'' when he said that.
* The expression "survival of the fittest" generally is attributed to UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin, but it was actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest coined by Herbert Spencer]]. Note that the phrase almost always is used incorrectly: "the fittest" does not mean "the strongest individual". A much more accurate paraphrase is "the individual or trait that ''fits the best'' within a particular environment". (This use of "fittest" is no longer common in modern English.)
** This is why "fit or fat" is a misnomer.
** Speaking of Darwin, the following passage is often misattributed to him, either to tar him as a racist or to lend support to racism. But it actually comes from Thomas Dixon's 1905 novel ''The Clansman'' (best known for inspiring the film ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'').
--->"Since the dawn of history the negro has owned the continent of Africa--rich beyond the dream of poet's fancy, crunching acres of diamonds beneath his bare black feet. Yet he never picked one up from the dust until a white man showed to him its glittering light. His land swarmed with powerful and docile animals, yet he never dreamed a harness, cart, or sled. A hunter by necessity, he never made an axe, spear, or arrowhead worth preserving beyond the moment of its use. He lived as an ox, content to graze for an hour. In a land of stone and timber he never sawed a foot of lumber, carved a block, or built a house save of broken sticks and mud. With league on league of ocean strand and miles of inland seas, for four thousand years he watched their surface ripple under the wind, heard the thunder of the surf on his beach, the howl of the storm over his head, gazed on the dim blue horizon calling him to worlds that lie beyond, and yet he never dreamed a sail! He lived as his fathers lived--stole his food, worked his wife, sold his children, ate his brother, content to drink, sing, dance, and sport as the ape!"
** The word "evolution" does not appear in ''On the Origin of Species'', and the word "evolve" only appears once at the very end ("[E]ndless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."). Darwin avoided the word because, at the time, the word "evolution" referred to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's ideas. Darwin preferred the phrase "descent with modification".
* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'':
** Ebenezer Scrooge is often observed as having said "Bah-humbug!", but most works miss the emphasis. The phrase is given like it's all one word, whereas "Bah" is actually an interjection of disgust, e.g. "Bah! Humbug!" And in film and stage adaptations, he tends to say it many more times than in the novel. He tends to say "Humbug!" by itself in the book, too. He only says "Bah! Humbug!" twice.
** The last of the spirits is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, not the Ghost of Christmas Future.
** Scrooge is often misremembered as buying a goose for the Cratchit family on Christmas morning. Actually, he buys a turkey. This particular mistake comes from people confusing that turkey with the goose the Cratchits eat during the earlier "Christmas Present" sequence. The book's success actually helped to popularize turkey for Christmas dinner.
* The famous British magazine ''Magazine/{{Punch}}'' contained many satirical cartoons with captions, all of which are understood in the popular imagination to end with a dry, brief line like "Collapse of Stout Party" when in fact of none of them did. Ronald Pearsall notes this in the introduction to his book ''Collapse of Stout Party: Victorian wit and humour'':
--> To many people UsefulNotes/{{Victorian|Britain}} wit and humour is summed up by ''Punch'', when every joke is supposed to end with "Collapse of Stout Party", though this phrase tends to be as elusive as "Elementary, my dear Watson" in the Sherlock Holmes sagas.
* In Creator/LewisCarroll's poem ''Literature/{{Jabberwocky}}'', the nonsense word "borogoves" is often mispronounced "borog'''r'''oves."
* The line is [[Literature/PeterPan "Second to the right and straight on till morning."]] The [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Disney version]] changed it to "Second ''star'' to the right...", probably in an effort to make more sense...even though it wasn't supposed to make sense, since Peter had made it up on the spot in an effort to impress Wendy. The whole "think happy thoughts and you'll be able to fly" thing was a similar made-up bit of information by Peter--he wanted to confuse Wendy and her brothers by trying to make them fly before they had any fairy dust, the thing you ''really'' need to fly. (And it's ''fairy'' dust, not ''pixie'' dust). But try telling that to any adaptation… Fairy dust wasn't even in the original play. Barrie put it in because someone warned him kids might hurt themselves trying to see if you could really fly on happy thoughts.
** This is perpetuated by Kirk's quoting the Disney version right at the end of ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry''.
* William Cowper's ''Light Shining Out Of Darkness'': "God moves in '''a''' mysterious way", not "God moves in mysterious ways"
* Tennyson's ''The Charge of the Light Brigade'' includes the following lines: "Theirs is not to make reply, / Theirs is not to reason why, / Theirs is but to do & die [...]" At varying points you will see "Ours" exchanged for "Theirs," which is reasonably justifiable, but to use the line "Theirs (or Ours) is but to do OR die" should merit flogging, at the least. And it's not "theirs not to question why".
* [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} José Rizal's]] poem popularly known as ''Mi Ultimo Adiós'' was originally untitled. The title was added posthumously, and the phrase itself nowhere appears in the text.

* Lennie Small in ''Literature/OfMiceAndMen'' never asked, "Which way did he go, George?". That line comes from parodies of the character in ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and other animated shorts.
* Creator/TSEliot's poem the Hollow Men states "This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper." instead of"with a whisper"
* Many [[TastesLikeDiabetes twee quotes]] commonly attributed to Creator/AAMilne come not from his ''Literature/WinnieThePooh'' books but from Disney greeting cards and DirectToVideo movies. For instance, "You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think" comes from the 1997 video ''WesternAnimation/PoohsGrandAdventure'', with which Milne (d. 1956) obviously had little to do. Nor did Milne's Pooh ever say "Today is my favorite day," or "If you live to be 100, I hope [[FridgeHorror I live to be 100 minus one day]], so I never have to live a day without you."
* The title character of ''Literature/OliverTwist'' said "Please, sir, I want some more", not "Please, sir, may I have some more?"
%% * [[http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/maya-angelou-and-the-internets-stamp-of-approval This article]] on the line attributed to MayaAngelou in ''I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' (“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song”). The actual line, from ''A Cup of Sun'' by Joan Walsh Anglund (1967), is, “A bird doesn’t sing because he has an answer, he sings because he has a song.”
* ''Literature/LesMiserables'':
** Enjolras is referred to as "Apollo" exactly once, by an unnamed witness to the uprising. Never to his face and never by Grantaire, as fanfics would have you believe. Grantaire does compare someone to Apollo - when he's talking about ''Marius''.
** "To love another person is to see the face of God" is not a quote from the novel. It's from [[Theatre/LesMiserables the musical adaptation.]]
* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'': Augustus never claims to feel kinship with Anne Frank because she died "of an illness" like his own. He and Hazel both clearly feel kinship with her because she died ''young'', but the alleged murder-denying quote never occurs.
* A line from Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's story "Literature/TheMasqueOfTheRedDeath" is often quoted as "And the Red Death held sway over all". However, the word "sway" appears nowhere in the actual story, and the final line is "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all." The misunderstanding may come from the fact that the inaccurate quotation is featured heavily in Creator/StephenKing's novel ''Literature/TheShining''.
* The German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno is often said to have said "it is impossible to write poetry after Auschwitz", and many a freshman discussion has wrecked itself on those very words. But what he actually wrote, in the 1949 article "Cultural Criticism and Society", was "To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric." Oddly enough, he later seems to have decided that he ''had'' said that it was impossible to write poetry after Auschwitz, because in his 1966 book ''Negative Dialectics'' he actually retracted that particular opinion: "Perennial suffering has as much right to expression as a tortured man has to scream; hence it may have been wrong to say that after Auschwitz you could no longer write poems." Maybe it was just impossible for Adorno to be a barbarian.
* Creator/KarlMarx never said "Workers of the world, unite!", with or without following it with "You have nothing to lose but your chains". This is a paraphrase of the last three sentences of the [[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ Communist Manifesto]], which are "The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. '''Working Men of All Countries, Unite! '''". However, the original German version is exactly the way as the last sentence appears in the 1848 original version "Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt Euch!" and the difference of translation is minor, though the difference of sentence order is present in the original as well.
* 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."

* Creator/RobertFrost's poem "The Road Not Taken" is often given the title "The Road Less Traveled" instead, stemming from the line "I took the one less traveled by".
* A frequently-cited example used by advocates of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma Oxford comma]] to show why it's necessary is an unnamed author dedicating a book to "my parents, Creator/AynRand and [[DivineParentage God]]." Whether this came from an actual book or was just a humorous hypothetical example wasn't clear. Even Wiki/TheOtherWiki calls it "apocryphal". But eventually someone found the source: an obscure 1964 scientific tome by Robert Mills Bevensee called ''Electromagnetic Slow Wave Systems''. But besides being worded slightly differently, Bevensee's dedication actually ''did'' use an Oxford comma.
-->''This Book Is Dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand, and the glory of GOD.''
* Thanks to Nick Lowe's essay "[[http://news.ansible.co.uk/plotdev.html The Well-Tempered Plot Device]]", if anybody mentions the Flaz Gaz Heat Ray it's as a SoBadItsGood ForgottenSuperweapon ''par excellence''. In the [[https://www.peltorro.com/Badger_SF089.pdf original book]], matters are considerably downplayed; the protagonists are testing each of their weapons in turn against the enemy's force field, and the Heat Ray is the only one they find that's the least bit effective. It doesn't destroy the enemy, but only cause them to retreat temporarily; and it's not so much forgotten as outlawed because it [[CruelAndUnusualDeath cooks its targets alive]]. And it's spelt 'Flazgaz' -- one word, rather than two.
* ''Literature/WutheringHeights'': "She burned too bright for this world" is often cited as a quote from the novel describing Catherine Earnshaw. That quote actually comes from the 1992 film version.

* 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]].

* "The spice must flow!", while spoken by the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in the '[[Film/{{Dune}} 84 Lynch film]] and spoken often, was never actually in any of the six Dune books.

* OliverWendellHolmes did not say "Boston is the hub of the universe." The line from "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" is "Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man, if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar." One commenter notes "'universe' for 'solar system' can be overlooked, but 'Boston' for 'Boston State-House' is unpardonable."

** Hamlet's line in the graveyard is generally quoted as 'AlasPoorYorick! I knew him well'. What he actually said was 'Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, '''Horatio'''. And the line doesn't end there. "I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

* ''The Prophecies of Michael Nostradamus'' is said to have predicted everything from the Great Fire of London to the rise of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. The true meaning of the quatrains contained within is up for debate; however, what ''isn't'' up for debate is that Nostradamus ''never'' predicted COVID-19 using anything close to these words:

* 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]].

* The "[[CowboyBeboppAtHisComputer 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]].

* The "ugly American" in ''Literature/TheUglyAmerican'' is a WorkingClassHero whom the natives like because he is not a clueless, arrogant, elitist like the better groomed and dressed [[AssInAmbassador foreign ambassadors]].

* The [[Literature/AesopsFables Aesop Fable]] of ''The Lion and The Mouse'' is often misremembered as "The lion spares the mouse's life, and when later the lion gets a thorn caught in his paw, the mouse pulls it out." For example, in ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'', the portrait of the Rescue Aid Society's founder Euripides Mouse shows him standing proudly next to a lion with a bandaged paw, from which he presumably pulled a thorn. Actually, the thorn-pulling comes from another of Aesop's Fables, ''[[AndroclesLion Androcles and the Lion.]]'' In ''The Lion and the Mouse'', the lion is captured by hunters, but the mouse rescues him by gnawing through the hunters' net.

** Nor does the White Rabbit ever say "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!" That line comes from [[Disney/AliceInWonderland the Disney version]]. In the book he says "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" and "Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!"

* The line is [[Literature/PeterPan "Second to the right and straight on till morning."]] The [[Disney/PeterPan Disney version]] changed it to "Second ''star'' to the right...", probably in an effort to make more sense...even though it wasn't supposed to make sense, since Peter had made it up on the spot in an effort to impress Wendy. The whole "think happy thoughts and you'll be able to fly" thing was a similar made-up bit of information by Peter--he wanted to confuse Wendy and her brothers by trying to make them fly before they had any fairy dust, the thing you ''really'' need to fly. (And it's ''fairy'' dust, not ''pixie'' dust). But try telling that to any adaptation… Fairy dust wasn't even in the original play. Barrie put it in because someone warned him kids might hurt themselves trying to see if you could really fly on happy thoughts.

* The [[Literature/AesopsFables Aesop Fable]] of ''The Lion and The Mouse'' is often misremembered as "The lion spares the mouse's life, and when later the lion gets a thorn caught in his paw, the mouse pulls it out." For example, in ''Disney/TheRescuers'', the portrait of the Rescue Aid Society's founder Euripides Mouse shows him standing proudly next to a lion with a bandaged paw, from which he presumably pulled a thorn. Actually, the thorn-pulling comes from another of Aesop's Fables, ''[[AndroclesLion Androcles and the Lion.]]'' In ''The Lion and the Mouse'', the lion is captured by hunters, but the mouse rescues him by gnawing through the hunters' net.

* The [[Literature/AesopsFables Aesop Fable]] of ''The Lion and The Mouse'' is often misremembered as "The lion spares the mouse's life, and when later the lion gets a thorn caught in his paw, the mouse pulls it out." For example, in ''Disney/TheRescuers'', the portrait of the Rescue Aid Society's founder Euripides Mouse shows him standing proudly next to a lion with a bandaged paw, from which he presumably pulled a thorn. Actually, the thorn-pulling comes from another of Aesop's Fables, [[AndroclesLion ''Androcles and the Lion.'']] In ''The Lion and the Mouse'', the lion is captured by hunters, but the mouse rescues him by gnawing through the hunters' net.

* The [[Literature/AesopsFables Aesop Fable]] of ''The Lion and The Mouse'' is often misremembered as "The lion spares the mouse's life, and when later the lion gets a thorn caught in his paw, the mouse pulls it out." For example, in ''Disney/TheRescuers'', the portrait of the Rescue Aid Society's founder Euripides Mouse shows him standing proudly next to a lion with a bandaged paw, from which he presumably pulled a thorn. Actually, the thorn-pulling comes from another of Aesop's Fables, ''Androcles and the Lion.'' In ''The Lion and the Mouse'', the lion is captured by hunters, but the mouse rescues him by gnawing through the hunters' net.

* ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'''s Ebenezer Scrooge is often observed as having said "Bah-humbug!", but most works miss the emphasis. The phrase is given like it's all one word, whereas "Bah" is actually an interjection of disgust, e.g. "Bah! Humbug!" And in film and stage adaptations, he tends to say it many more times than in the novel. He tends to say "Humbug!" by itself in the book, too. He only says "Bah! Humbug!" twice.