Winston Churchill once said, “if you’re going through hell, keep going”. Except that he didn’t say that at all. He also didn’t say the more amusing alternative, “if you’re going though hell, don’t stop to take pictures.”
I also like the quote:
“Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become deeds.
Watch your deeds; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.”
This wasn’t said by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Gandhi, or Margaret Thatcher, although a variation on the quote can be attributed to Buddha.
Does the source of our favorite quotes matter? Is the inspiration you get from them the same? Certainly you’re more likely to share those that were once said by someone you respect, whether that be an author or a sporting coach.
And as the quotes evolve, they become more pithy, more catchy, and the words become better framed for the time. Afterall, who today would share the thoughts, words, deeds quote if it had been written: “as a newspaper in the Colchester town of England once wrote, in 1856, ‘Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. You sow an act, you reap a habit…'” ?
I like cool words when they are elegantly hung together. So maybe it doesn’t matter whether they were said by the Dalai Lama, or an obscure 17th century shopkeeper. But the ease with which misinformation spreads across social media makes it more dangerous. We’re lazy. We believe what we want to believe. We also believe what we fear to be true. (Wizards First Rule.) Hilary Clinton did NOT actually say X. Donald Trump did NOT actually do Y. Maybe they DID say say or do variations on these themes, but those subtleties are important to understand. However, many of us have made our minds up, and facts can get in the way. Or we might value facts, but it takes time – and it can be hard – to verify whether the news we’re reading is correct; we rely on editors to check for us, where they even exist.
It seems we need to take this upon ourselves. It seems we need to become less lazy. And it seems “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Thomas Jefferson didn’t say that. But Abraham Lincoln did once say, “you can’t believe everything you read on the internet”. (I just wish I knew who once said Abraham Lincoln once said that.)
