27 Famous Quotes That Are Constantly Misused

‘Birds of a feather flock together, until the cat comes’
27 Famous Quotes That Are Constantly Misused

Context isn’t a resource that’s in plentiful possession these days. Even phone screen. Does that lead to false interpretations and meanings? Of course, but when you eliminate information from something, what you create is called a “curiosity gap,” and it’s pure gold in the content game.

Shakespeare before you fire off some of his best chestnuts. Even on a smaller, more reasonable scale, though, there are many quotes that have, over time, lost pretty important pieces. 

Below, Redditors relate quotes that we’re constantly hearing half of, sometimes entirely changing the energy of what they really mean.

 . 6y ago Money is the root of all evil. The actual verse reads the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.
dataphile . 6y ago . Edited 6y ago The race is not (always) to the swift. The full quote is: the race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. The point isn't so much that persistence is sometimes enough to overcome skill, but rather that sometimes everyone is unlucky.
tjdelgado : 6y ago Now is the winter of our discontent. Actual quote: Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York. The now modifies made, not is. Richard III is describing a good thing, that the seasons are changing for him and things are looking up. Basically the complete opposite of what you get by stopping half way through the quote.
Omnibus_Dubitandum . 6y ago Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive. ...That ... tension will not go away.
adeon . 6y ago My country, right or wrong. People use it to justify blind patriotism and ignoring the bad things that their country does but forget the rest of the quote: if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.
Joekerr99 . 6y ago History repeats itself. First as tragedy, then as farce. People often forget the second part!
Radegast 6y ago To pull yourself up by your bootstraps was initially meant to imply doing the impossible.
hikingplattypus . 6y ago The mountains are calling & I must go & I will work on while I can, studying incessantly.- John Muir, father of our national park system
ElSatchmo . 6y ago Edited 6y ago Don't mistake my kindness for weakness. The full quote: Don't mistake my kindness for weakness. I am kind to everyone, but when someone is unkind to me, weak is not what you are going to  about me -- Al Capone Not necessarily misused, but I think the full quote is so much more.
flaflashr . 6y ago As happy as a clam
AnAnonymousSource_ 6y ago Why then the world's mine oyster which with sword I will open.
 . 6y ago . Edited 6y ago Great minds think alike, but fools rarely differ.
androgenoide . 6y ago Not sure if it's misuse but everybody re Lord Acton's Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. but few  that the quote continues... great men are almost always bad men even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by authority.
bipolarcavity . 6y ago God is dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? Nietzsche
non clever name 6y ago People refer to bad apples meaning some group is fine, there's just a couple of bad people in it that aren't representative of the whole. That's the exact opposite meaning of the full quote a few bad apples spoil the bunch.
BiWaffleesss 6y ago Jack of all trades, master of none is usually what people say, in my experience to push people to go to college or whatever, but the end of the quote is but better than master of one so in the end it is more valuable to have more than one skill.
Ddudegod . 6y ago Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.
MakesErrorsWorse a 6y ago Cant find the exact quotes, but Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market. It is often cited as a justification to limit regulation of business. But in the same book, almost in the same breath, Smith goes on to say how if you let businessmen gather together they will conspire against the public interest; in other words that they must be regulated. No one actually reads the book, though.
TheCygnusLoop . 6y ago . Edited 6y ago Those who travel fastest travel alone, but those who travel farthest travel together.
kingu_crimmsonn . 6y ago Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness. I'm sure there's something to be learnt here but I'm too stupid to teach it.
pleekerstreet 6y ago People should consume 8 glasses of water a day. Full quote: People should consume 8 glasses of water a day. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods. Most of what you eat is water. Drink some water if you're thirsty.
SoWeirdQuestion . 6y ago I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.
dangernoodles628 . 6y ago Birds of a feather flock together, until the cat comes
DashboardMonk . 6y ago The customer is always right in knowing what they want.
autoposting_system 6y ago Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. I mean I'm not a Marxist but that's a nice hunk of prose
drh1138 . 6y ago The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.
ObtuseSage . 6y ago Machiavelli: It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

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