We all love the pithy quote, the clever put-down, the witty bon mot, the scintillating turn of phrase. We store them away in our conversational jewelry boxes, waiting for just the right occasion to decorate our speeches with their sparkle. What we often don’t realize is that many of these glittering linguistic gems are not the real thing, but mere costume jewelry.
7 August 2018 One of the most famous of America's Founding Fathers might have agreed with this sentiment, but we found no evidence that he wrote it.
7 August 2018 A quote incorrectly attributed to the former British prime minister was spread on social media by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
31 July 2018 For critics of President Trump, an old quotation about "treason from within" was relevant in 2018. But who actually came up with it?
1 July 2018 The anachronistic use of the word "media" is just one reason to be skeptical of a quote often attributed to American author Mark Twain.
19 June 2018 Nixon's former Secretary of State once said Trump could go down in history as "a very considerable president," but he never praised him as the "one true leader."
7 June 2018 In a 1998 article about the pitfalls of making predictions about technological progress, the Nobel Prize-winning economist questioned the future role of the Internet.
5 June 2018 An opinion piece arguing that the United States is in the midst of a Civil War was incorrectly attributed to a veteran and emeritus professor at Eastern Michigan University.
29 May 2018 A meme falsely claims Melania Trump plagiarized a Memorial Day statement made by Michelle Obama in 2014.
18 May 2018 The former Facebook vice president supposedly advocates solving global problems by exterminating 90 percent of the human population.
15 May 2018 A quote supposedly from the California Congresswoman about impeaching President Trump was digitally added into an old still from a CNN broadcast.
7 May 2018 The origins of many marriage-related rituals are arcane, but we can safely rule out this explanation.
19 April 2018 A quote attributed to the San Antonio Spurs small forward about Gregg Popovich's criticism of the president is fake.
