Famous Misquotes

“Let them eat cake” is perhaps one of the most iconic quotes of all time. The phrase, believed to be uttered by the last queen of France Marie Antionette after hearing that the people of France were starving, never left the lips of the Austrian-turned-French queen. The quote, according to All That’s Interesting, was said to have come from another royal woman, also named Marie almost one hundred years before. This Marie, however, actually said, “Let them eat pastry.” I believe that this misquote achieved so much fame because it would not have been too surprising if Marie Antionette had actually said it. She lived a very lavish lifestyle and was known for her gambling, wasteful spending, and taking her hairstyles and clothing to new extremes. 

“Nice guys finish last” is a very widely-known phrase that I myself have heard hundreds of times. It is often used in dating situations to state that boys that are nice don’t often get the girl. The quote comes from a man named Leo Durocher in a 1946 baseball game, but his actual quote is “Take a look at them. They’re nice guys, but they’ll finish last. Nice guys. Finish last.” This quote was taken out of context and used in a completely different way than he had originally intended. According to All That’s Interesting, he even described the famous misquote situation in his 1976 autobiography. The misquote is much funnier when applied to dating, and shockingly accurate, and so that is why it caught on as a piece of dating advice. 

“Houston, we have a problem.” An absolutely iconic quote, that is absolutely incorrect. It is widely believed to have been uttered by Jim Lowell, an American astronaut on a space expedition in the Apollo 13 spaceship in 1970, but this is far from the truth. The actual quote is “Ok Houston, we’ve had a problem,” after a small explosion in the aircraft caused alarm for the astronauts on the ship. It wasn’t even Jim Lowell who said it. It was actually John Swigert, another astronaut on the mission. The misquote was popularized by Tom Hanks after he said it in a film about the Apollo 13 aircraft. It is much catchier than the original quote. 

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Who hasn’t heard this one besides those who are still living in caves? Everyone in America can attribute this quote to Neil Armstrong, but I’ll bet most don’t know that they are missing one very important word. A. The real quote is “One small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind.” Now the quote makes much more grammatical sense, as “man” is sometimes used to describe mankind as a whole. A man makes much more sense as Neil is describing his actual first steps onto the lunar surface in 1969. The misquote is often attributed to the fact that there was an interference with the video transmission from the moon to earth, which caused static and the “a” in the sentence to be left out, according to All That’s Interesting.

“Stop being poor” is a phrase that was pictured on a tank top worn by Paris Hilton in a photo that circulated online in 2013. The tank top, however, actually pictured a different phrase and was photoshopped and spread online by an anonymous source. The real and undoctored photo was taken in 2005, where the Hilton heiress was wearing a shirt that said “stop being desperate” at a party. The photo is still very popular, and the quote has been attributed to Paris ever since, according to the website Gizmodo. When I first saw the photo, I believed it was real because