Misquotes you hate

[Aetera]

I don't know if this counts as a misquote; It's less a verbal misquote and more of a performance misquote of a scene.
I will let Lit Major Lemur explain my point.

Spoiler

So much rage.

EDIT: Oh, also "let them eat cake." Marie Antoinette never said that.

 

[Anarchemitis]

"Houston, we have a problem." is from the present-tense in order to make a scene more dramatic in the movie Apollo 13 starring Tom Hanks.

"Hey, we've got a problem here."
"... this is Houston, say again please?"
"Uh Houston, we've had a problem." is from the actual Apollo 13 flight by John Swigert and Commander James Lovell.

 

[BioHazardMan]

People who quote Einstein and say he was religious, he was at most a Deist or a man who used God as another way of saying laws of the natural world.

This. It seems like theists like to make Einstein sound religious. He believed in a god in the worldly/secular manner, he wasn't Christian or even religious.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

It always seems to end up butchered and made to fit into whatever they are trying to say.

"Methinkest thou doth protesteth too much." is the form I constantly hear. Like they are trying to really be poetic and are making a very witty observation in butchered Shakespearean. Like I'm supposed to have my mind blown by their attempt.


This isn't really a quote, but I also hate when someone asks, "Do you mind?" I say, "Yes.", and then they go and do it anyway. What it means when I say Yes is:

"YES, I do mind - cease what you are doing!"

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

You know what bothers me? People who think they know exactly what was said by people who lived centuries ago and were often documented in biased sources. Seriously, misquotes are frustrating when people use a phrase that is generally attributed to a historical figure to prove a point the quote does not make, that I see but arguing that one word was different in the quote, or that the speaker actually believed something else... that's really just kind of pretentious and ridiculous.

 

[Paragon Fury]

"BUY ODIN'S BEER!"

Seriously, you think they could have taken the time to space the words out to make it more clear in games....

 

[New York Patrick]

Everyone seems to have a favourite quote, and sometimes it seems like everyone loves some quotes, but very few people actually understand what they are saying sometimes.

For example one of the most common misquotes I've heard is It is better to be feared than loved, however out of all the people I've heard use that quote I don't think I've ever met one that actually had a clue what it means, or what Machiavelli was actually saying. It's not "better" it's safer and ideally one wants to be both at the same time if at all possible.

It drives me to distraction every time I hear someone spew that quote without any concept of what they are actually talking about.

Got any you hate you want to share?

I know exactly what you mean, ESPECIALLY when it comes to Machiavelli misquotes.

My favourite one is the liberal use of the quote "The Ends Justify the Means" that seems to keep repeating itself throughout my High School. This is the official response from ANY of the teachers at my highschool when you ask why they have arbitrarilly labeled a character in a novel as a Machiavellian villian. Apparently, this goes double for history and social science courses. (example: In no way, shape, or form is it remotely arguable that George W Bush was a Machiavellian villain... and yet...)

 

[New York Patrick]

"Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither."

[HEADING=1]Wrong[/HEADING]

Those who sacrifice essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

That essential and temporary is very important!

I've heard worse:

"Those who sacrifice security for liberty get neither..."

They then proceeded to argue with me over who was right about the quote...