I made a terrible mistake.
Well, ok, not terrible. More like terribly common. I misattributed a quotation.
How do misattributions happen?
In my last newsletter, I used a semi-famous quote by the very famous austrian author, journalist, political activist, commentator and generally fantastic Karl Kraus: ‘Die Lage ist hoffnungslos, aber nicht ernst.’ (‘The situation is hopeless, but not serious’)
It’s a great play on words and makes fun of the austrian tendency to over-dramatise not very serious situations and at the same time down-play very serious ones. In any case, we like to go for the extreme.
A friend pointed out on Instagram that it wasn’t Karl Kraus who said that. It’s most likely that it was Alfred Polgar who used it in a play.
So, what happened here?
According to wikiquote, there are at least five ways a text can me misattributed:
- innocent errors in translation or restatement of an original quote
- incorrect identification between two authors of similar quotes
- use by a later author of a quote actually by an earlier author
- slander of the purported author by attributing detestable comments to that author
- overzealous defense of a belief by attributing statements in support of that belief to an authoritative figure
With all the motivational, inspiring, and thoughtful quotes floating around the internet, the most common reason appears to be the last one: Inflating an idea and shielding it from criticism by attributing it to some famous, and mostly uncontroversial person.
Like Albert Einstein, or another historic person widely considered to be very successful. Because if you’re successful, you must be smart. And if you’re smart, what you say must be true.
It is a logical fallacy called ‘argumentum ad verecundiam’.
This whole idea of authority is interesting, because authority can so easily spill over other areas.
Say, you might be inclined to believe something Albert Einstein said about physics. After all, he is one of the most famous physicists of all times. But what would make you believe things he said about psychology or religion?
Because you’re very very good at one thing appears to give you such an aura of success and genius, that everything you say and do seems credible, even in fields where you have zero expertise.
Misattributed quotations are such a widespread phenomenon that one person even set out to write a book about them.
And just how widespread is ‘widespread', exactly? Well, here’s a list of 10 famous quotations that are commonly misattributed to wet your appetite.
And here’s an even more comprehensive list by wikiquote, who I suppose have quite a bit of experience with that sort of thing.
So, although some misquotations happen because someone makes an honest mistake or even tries to slander someone (we’ve seen these sorts of attacks on political opponents), most of the misattributions you see on the internet seem to be some sort of Argument ad Verecundiam, the dressing-up of a thought with the name of a famous person to give it some sort of authority.
I cannot say if this is true for the quote I misattributed to Karl Kraus because the original author is himself an accomplished author (although probably not as widely known as Kraus), but it might well be.
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