Don't quote me...

By Hermione Gray

�

SOME of the most commonly used quotes today are misquotes, or attributed to the wrong person. Here are a few of the most famous...

�

Nobody in Star Trek said,� 'Beam me up, Scotty.' Captain Kirk was more likely to ask: 'Could you beam me up now, Mr Scott '

�

Charles Dickens's Mr Bumble actually says: 'The law is a ass - a idiot.'

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

�

George Bernard Shaw's: 'He who can does, he who cannot teaches,' is often misquoted as 'he who can does, he who cannot criticises or teaches.'

�

Humphrey Bogart did not say: 'Play it again, Sam.' It was Ingrid Bergman who said: 'Play it once, Sam, for old times' sake.'

�

Mark Twain did say: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics,' but he was quoting Benjamin Disraeli at the time.

�

WC Fields did not say that: 'Anyone who hates children and dogs can't be all bad.' That was Leo Rosten, who was introducing Fields at the time.

�

Groucho Marx actually said: 'I don't care to belong to any club that accepts people like me as members.'

�

Voltaire never said: 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your fight to say it.' That phrase was created by a British biographer, Beatrice Hall, who confessed to paraphrasing his original quote: 'Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.'

�

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's most famous quote: 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself' had previously been uttered by Francis Bacon ('Nothing is to be feared but fear') and Thoreau ('Nothing is so much to be feared but fear.')

�

Among Shakespeare's misquotes are: 'Alas! Poor Yorick. I knew him well.' ('Alas! Poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio'), 'Discretion is the better part of valour' ('The better part of valour is discretion.')

�

Shakespeare is often credited with: 'Music has charms to soothe the savage beast,' but it was actually William Congreve, an English dramatist who wrote it, and it was 'savage breast' not 'savage beast.'

�

William Congreve himself is often misquoted. His 'Hell has no fury like a woman scorned' was originally 'Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, or hell a fury like a woman scorned.'

�

Greta Garbo never said: 'I want to be alone,' it was 'I want to be let alone.'