Quotes get misattributed or mangled all the time, especially "inspirational" ones: as Morton notes, Thoreau didn't quite say "go confidently in the direction of your dreams!" and Gandhi didn't say "be the change you wish to see in the world". "Quotations," to quote the critic Louis Menand, "are prostheses", allowing you to borrow "another person's brainwaves and [put] them to your own use" – and borrowing Mandela's brainwaves is simply more impressive than borrowing Marianne Williamson's.
- Oliver Burkemen
- Oliver Burkemen
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