Once, due to office duties, this reporter followed a session at the former Paulista Academy of Letters, in Largo do Arouche, in downtown Sao Paulo.
It was early March and the meeting of academics, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, brought stories starring female writers.
At one point, Lygia Fagundes Telles (1918-2022) asked to speak and delivered an impassioned speech. His intervention was directed against “Internet“. Not because of any idiosyncrasy, but because on the network of networks there were many people attributing the authorship of “beautiful phrases” to her great friend, Clarice Lispector (1920-1977).
‘And Clarice wasn’t one to write sentences’corny'”snapped Telles, who praised the literary depth of the colleague, whose signature was attached to thousands of posts of dubious quality on social networks.
Although Facebook and the like have contributed to the spread of quotes falsely attributed to personalities, this kind of misrepresentation is not new and can be found even in old history books.
Below, BBC News Brazil mentions seven phrases from seven characters that have become very famous, but cannot be taken as true.
1. What they attribute to Voltaire
“I don’t agree with what he says, but I will defend to the death his right to say it.”
Yes, the above sentence could well represent the views of the French Enlightenment philosopher François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (1694-1778). Too bad it was never said by him.
As historians Paul F. Boller Jr. and John H. George state in “They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes and Misleading Attributions,” this phrase, which became the principle of the right to freedom of expressionwas invented by the English writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall (1868-1956), in her 1906 book The Friends of Voltaire, a biography of the philosopher.
In 1935, Hall herself addressed the matter.
“I never intended to claim that Voltaire used exactly those words. and I would be very surprised if that phrase were found in any of his works,” the biographer replied.
2. Due to interference
“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
Here the fault lies with technology. And the astronaut Neil Armstrong (1930-2012) himself came to give explanations in interviews, but the error was already so widespread that there was no way to avoid it: This is how the first statement of a human being when stepping on the Moon went down in history.
What happens is that the meaning of the phrase, as it ended up going down in history, compromises the idea of contrast planned by its author, Armstrong. He was contrasting collective humanity with the achievement of a single individual.
He claims he would have said “One Small Step for a Man” (emphasizing the lonely individual sense), and not for “the man”, which, in this sense, seems to have the same sense of humanity.
As the astronaut would later say, the misunderstanding was due to static from the transmission.
3. Not even Christ is saved
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
It is in the Bible in three of the four gospels: Mark, considered the oldest of them, Matthew and Luke.
The phrase would have been Jesus’ response when asked if it was lawful to pay taxes to Roman rulers. And until today it is interpreted by Christians as a justification of the need to rabide by earthly rules and authorities.
However, for historian André Leonardo Chevitarese, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and author of the book “Jesus of Nazareth: what history has to say about him”, probably It was not exactly this expression that Jesus used.
This is because there are similar quotes in the apocryphal gospels, such as Thomas and Egerton, and further analysis leads researchers to understand that it was a later creation.
“In Egerton, this saying circulated independently, with another context, which may suggest that the story contained in Mark may not be original, but rather a creation of the evangelist himself“, explained Chevitarese to BBC News Brazil.
In any case, even appearing in different narrations, the message itself would be true.
“The central core of the story seems to be as a whole authenticthat is, the orientation on paying or not paying taxes to the authorities”, affirmed the historian.
4. What the last emperor of Brazil did not say
“If I hadn’t been an emperor, I would have wanted to be a school teacher. I don’t know of anything as noble as directing young minds, preparing the men of the future.”
The phrase is attributed to Dom Pedro II (1825-1891), the last emperor of Brazil. And it usually appears as recognition of the monarch’s human virtues. So far so good. The problem is that, contrary to what is stated, this phrase does not appear in any of the lines of his diaries.
“Everyone says that she wrote that sentence in her diary, but she doesn’t exist anywhere”the researcher and writer Paulo Rezzutti, a biographer of various figures in the Brazilian monarchy, including the two emperors, told BBC News Brazil.
According to Rezzutti, the closest mention to this is when he says that he was a man “born to dedicate himself to letters and sciences rather than to hold political office.”
“And if he had to choose something, he preferred to be president of the Republic or a minister rather than emperor, because, in his opinion, that would give him more time to study and dedicate himself to what he really liked”, the monarch would have said.
“They say that he spoke of being a school teacher in France and that the Baron of Rio Branco [el diplomático José Maria da Silva Paranhos Júnior (1845-1912)] wrote it,” added the researcher. “But Don Pedro himself never left it registered anywhere“.
5. Creating a black legend
“If they don’t have bread, let them eat cakes”
According to the best known version, Queen Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), upon being informed that the French people were starving and did not even have bread, would have said this insensitive phrase.
But all point to it was an invention, created to reinforce the negative reputation of the monarch among the population of the time. The historian Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) once said that this story – or variations of it – was circulating in Europe like an old joke long before Marie Antoinette was born.
The phrase would have been eternalized thanks to the book “The Confessions”, by the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
In the sixth volume of the autobiographical work, Rousseau tells that, at one point, he wanted bread to accompany some wine.
“At last I remembered the story of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and she replied: ‘let them eat cakes“.
He does not mention the name of such a nobleman.
But it might not be Antoinette, since although “The Confessions” were not published until 1782 (after the author’s death), the texts were written in the 1760s, when the future queen of France was still a child.
6. An improved version
“If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”
Isaac Newton (1641-1727), right? It is true that the great English physicist, who went down in history as the one who formulated the law of gravity, wrote that modest sentence, but it was not his original idea.
As historians Boller and George point out, Newton used the phrase in a letter to fellow scientist Robert Hook (1635-1703).
It turns out that the same idea appeared in the book “The anatomy of melancholy”, published before Newton’s birth by English scientist Robert Burton (1577-1640). And the father of the theory of gravity knew the work of Burton.
“The pygmies leaning on the shoulders of the giants see more than the giants themselves”was the original sentence.
It wasn’t even that original. According to Boller and George, there are similar constructions in both 12th century works and 6th century texts. In other words: as the phrase itself says, there were waves of authors who were based on waves of giants from before…
7. Another case of bad publicity
It is said that the then young Louis XIV (1638-1715), at the height of his absolutism, uttered this phrase.
Boller and George, in their book, recount what happened when he entered the Parliament of Paris, interrupting a debate that was taking place there.
However, although the phrase helps high school students to memorize the precepts of French absolutism, nothing indicates that it actually happened.
“There is no evidence that he did, but he certainly believed the words attributed to him,” say historians Boller and George.
This text was originally published on BBC News Brazil, you can read the original text in Portuguese by clicking click here.
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