Historical/Philosophical/religious mis-citations and contextual distortions

[Stand_watie]

 The first two that spring to my mind are from the New Testament of the Bible

"Money is the root of all evil" from 1 Timothy (incorrectly quoted)

and

"Judge not lest ye be judged" from Matthew 7 (grotesqely yanked from proper context)

Your pet peeves? Marx, T. Jefferson, Ghandi, Buddah, Darwin, Christ, G.W. Bush - who is misquoting them and how?

[Chuck Dye]

Consistency is not the hobgoblin of little minds, a foolish consistency is.

[Stand_watie]

Consistency is not the hobgoblin of little minds, a foolish[/] consistency is.

Great one Huck! I've seen that one mis-quoted umpteen-million times!

[bstrambo]

"turn the other cheek" taken to mean let a criminal or enemy do whatever they want (pacifism).  Not true, a slap in the face is an insult, it means don't respond to insults or be quick to anger, not let a criminal rape your wife, then offer your daughter.

"eye for an eye" to justify revenge.  Again not true.  In the Middle Eastern culture, punishments are often more severe than the crime, revenge/honor are big things.  So, that is saying don't go overboard, at most...the punishment should fit the crime exactly no more.  An eye for an eye, not a stoning to death for an eye.

[Stand_watie]

Good comment here...

"Turn the other cheek" demands of the Jewish/Christian man that he submit to the authority of Roman soldiers who were legally allowed to *slap*, but not to punch Jewish men who they encountered.

The demand of "turn the other cheek" was, and is (in my opinion) a requirement that Christians submit to lawful authority over themselves, and take a step further in proving that they are submissive to their government and good citizens...regarding wives and daughters, we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves..protecting our wives and daughters  against rape surely trumps the principle of "turning the other cheek". We are commanded to love our wives as Christ loves the church... Does Christ allow the church to be raped? Or does he die to protect her?

[Iain]

 "If you're not Liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not Conservative when you're 35, you have no brain."

Attributed to Churchill. Only there is no record of him ever having said it.