History BeamMeUpScotty / Literature

* 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.

* ''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.

** The Tweedles are never referred to as "Tweedledee and Tweedledum", as they are popularly known. Tweedledum's name is always listed first.

* In ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe'', the White Witch doesn't feed Edmund [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Taffy Turkish taffy.]] She feeds him [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_delight Turkish delight.]] This mistake is probably made chiefly by American readers who don't know the difference between the two candies.

* 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.[[note]]Even there it's an exaggeration; though Lugosi has a thick Hungarian accent, he has no problem pronouncing the letter W.[[/note]] And in the original book, Dracula never once said "I vant to suck your blood!" and as he makes clear in ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'', "I do not say bleh, bleh bleh!" The original Dracula was far too proud of a character to speak in such a manner or accent.

-->''"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.\\

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

* 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.)

** [[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.

* 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 the last sentence appears in the 1848 original version "Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt Euch!" and the difference in translation is minor, though the difference of sentence order is present in the original as well.

* 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.

* 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 causes them to retreat temporarily, and it's not so much forgotten as outlawed because it [[CruelAndUnusualDeath cooks its targets alive]]. And it's spelled 'Flazgaz' -- one word, rather than two.

* 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.

* 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.

** [[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.

** None of the books in the series contain the quote, "Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made", nor does it appear in any of Tolkien's other writings. amongst the fandom to express their displeasure over the show's changes and other creative liberties regarding the source material's story, presentation and characters. It has gotten to the point that the teaser trailer for the show has been flooded with the in the comment section, even in other languages like Russian and Greek. Ironically, it's not even a real quote but a very loose paraphrase, and apparently comes from this very wiki's Evil Is Sterile article, where the real quote (in context, specifically about the origin of Orcs as corruptions of prior existing beings) is also found. While the basic idea is there, the meme usage often puts the line in quotation marks and attributes it directly to Tolkien, when he didn't write it, thus undercutting the appeal for better accuracy. nor any of Tolkien's other writings,

** Also, there is no "Mad Hatter," only a "Hatter" who is mentioned as being mad. Same goes for the "Mad March Hare".
** The quote "I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then" is often repeated in Tumblr and other social media as an Alice quote. The original quote is "'but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.'", which actually means something quite different.
** Though not in the books themselves, Lewis Carroll's official answer to the riddle "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" is "Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is ''nevar'' put with the wrong end in front!" Many people will write it as "never", which ruins the joke ("nevar" is "raven" spelled backwards).

* "Antagonish", an 1899 poem by William Hughes Mearns, opens with the lines "Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there!". Nearly every reference to it you'll hear is a variant, usually one in which the narrator was coming up or down the stair at the time of the encounter.
* 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".

--->"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 actual origin of this quote is Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe's 1808 poem, ''Kläffer'' ("Barker"): ''Und seines Bellens lauter Schall Beweist nur, daß wir reiten.'' / "But their strident barking is just a sign that we ride." The misatribution to ''Don Quixote'' goes back to the 1850s.

--->''Don Quixote took the lead, and having gone a matter of two hundred paces he came upon the mass that produced the shade, and found it was a great tower, and then he perceived that the building in question was no palace, but the main church of the town, and he said, "We '''found''' the church, Sancho."'' [notice the small letter, as he is talking of a building rather than the institution]

* 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.

* ''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.

* 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.
* 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."

** 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.

** 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.

* 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.

** 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.

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

** 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."

** 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.

* 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."

* ''The Prophecies of Michael UsefulNotes/{{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 (the Hister-Hitler connection in particular is a favorite among theorists); however, what ''isn't'' up for debate is that Nostradamus ''never'' predicted COVID-19 using anything close to these words:

--> 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.

** 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.

** 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...''

* 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.
* 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.
* Many 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."

** 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'').

* 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."

* Creator/FyodorDostoevsky never said "Without God, anything is permissible". In ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramozov'' 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.

** Nor does the White Rabbit ever say "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date!" That line comes from [[WesternAnimation/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!"

** 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.

--->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.

** All accounts of lightning-powered animation, or the theft and stitching together of corpse parts to make the creature, are later additions (though the part-collecting is implied). Frankenstein's narrative ''deliberately omits'' any mention of how he brought his creation to life, as he didn't want anyone to repeat his mistakes.
*** It is specifically stated that Frankenstein never learned the secret of restoring life to living things that had died, only of bestowing life on non-living matter (actually a plot point, explaining why he never tries to revive the creature's victims). This pretty much rules out any possibility of Frankenstein using any parts from cadavers (which he did steal to study). He made the creature by sculpting raw materials. Overlooked by all adaptations, most likely because ScienceMarchesOn and the discovery of the existence of cells and other microscopic structures makes it less plausible that a clay sculpture could function as a living organism just by being imbued with "the life force."
** In a misinterpretation of the movie itself, popular portrayals of the story somehow seem fit to have a mob go after Frankenstein's blood with torches and pitchforks because of the monster. Among the details glossed over about the mob scene as presented in the movie, there are three mobs, each focused solely on an organized "search and destroy" operation targeting only the monster, and Frankenstein himself is the ''leader'' of one of those mobs, searching for the monster in the mountains.

** 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."

* 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.[[note]]Even there it's an exaggeration; though Lugosi has a thick Hungarian accent, he has no problem pronouncing the letter W.[[/note]] 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.

* ''The Prophecies of Michael UsefulNotes/{{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 (the Hister-Hitler connection in particular is a favorite among theorists0; however, what ''isn't'' up for debate is that Nostradamus ''never'' predicted COVID-19 using anything close to these words:

* ''The Prophecies of Michael UsefulNotes/{{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:

* 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.