I like quotations. I’ve always liked quotations. But really, who doesn’t?
In the world or politics and government, quotes by famous people run rampant in debates and speeches. The reason for this is quite simple: quoting someone who is more well respected than you are adds perceived power and authority to the rest of your statement. In America, people from all across the political spectrum—although, so-called conservatives use the tactic more than anyone else—like to quote the founding fathers in an effort to demonstrate that anyone from Madison to Washington agrees with them and their particular positions. In debates this is used thusly, “Well, if you disagree with me on this position then you also disagree with Thomas Jefferson!” While this tactic can be valid and effective, it’s often played poorly and cheaply as nothing more than an arbitrary appeal to authority.
One of the foremost problems of this method of persuasion is the mindset of many of its worst abusers which can be summed up in the following statement: “John Adams agrees with me.” Most people hunting for quotes from authority figures aren’t generally interested in what those figures actually had to say but only in finding statements that strengthen their own position. While this sort of thing seems legitimate at first glance, beneath the obvious surface of what many of us have been guilty of at one time or another is a vast problem—the sort of problem that, if left unchecked, tends to pollute the thinking the philosophy of anyone.
America’s founders came before us and if we’re to learn from what they’ve said it’s best that we find ourselves agreeing with them, not them agreeing with us. It’s subtle, but it changes the playing field significantly in the way we think from the bottom up. Do you engage in debate and study merely to prove your own ideas and hypotheses or do you do so to test your ideas, refine your hypotheses and put yourself on a path of discovery? If you truly prescribe to the ideas of a particular person, shouldn’t you concern yourself with falling in line with that person rather than contorting that person’s words to match your own? What would happen if most Christians were less interested in following the words of Christ and more interested in using the words of Christ to grant license to their actions and ideas? (Oh wait, that is what has happened.)
Authority figures, including the Founding Fathers, are not perfect nor are they always correct. Just because Patrick Henry made statements that appear to be in harmony with your position doesn’t mean that your position is anymore correct than his was capable of being. That being said, it’s perfectly acceptable to disagree with Hancock or Monroe or anyone else for that matter. Many of the Founding Fathers certainly disagreed with one another and they couldn’t all be right, could they?
At the end of the day, what’s important is that you either develop your own political identity and philosophy, looking to the ideas of others for understanding and support or you adopt someone else’s and follow it. (The former is preferred by those who want to be “thinkers.”)
With that rant out of the way, let’s move on to what is perhaps an even greater gripe about the use of quotations in political speeches, discussion and debate: misquoting people and doing it so much that it becomes a reality. This phenomenon happens because at some point somewhere someone has what they believe to be a brilliant little quip but since this someone is no more than a John Q. Nobody they attribute it to someone famous person out there. The quip, on its own, is good enough that other people think, “Man, that’s great. I’m going to use that in my next essay!” The more it gets used, the more it becomes a “real” quote and the more it continues to get misquoted. The internet has turned this into a full blown epidemic.
Here are some examples:
I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
This was supposedly stated by Thomas Jefferson. This quote is used on hundreds of “tax truth” sites and has been included in books and movies on the subject. Unfortunately, no one who passes this quote around seems to be able to give a legitimate source for it. What’s more troubling is that the use of “inflation” and “deflation” as economic terms weren’t used during Jefferson’s lifetime.
There is an insidious campaign of false propaganda being waged today, to the effect that our country is not a Christian country but a religious one—that it was not founded on Christianity but on freedom of religion. It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by “religionists”, but by Christians—not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.
This one, attributed to Patrick Henry, is very popular among fanatical Christian political organizations. The problem is that this quote, despite the fact that it’s quite consistent with Henry’s beliefs, didn’t appear until the mid-1950s. It has been attributed to a speech given to the House of Burgesses in May 1765, but there’s no record of this. If we use that citation it poses another problem. It would mean Henry uses the term “nation” in 1765 which is quite unlikely.
We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind of self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.
This time it’s James Madison supposedly saying something. This also appears to be a product of the 1950s. If he did, it’s not recorded anywhere. However, it’s not just the Christians that take artistic license with Madison:
The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.
It looks like they got to John Adams too:
God is an essence we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is gotten rid of there will never be any liberal science in the world.
Finally, my personal favorite:
I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet.
George Washington did not chop down his father’s cherry tree for no apparent reason and thus had no reason to tell the truth about his arbor bloodlust.
Worthy of special recognition is a quote attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America:
In the end, the state of the Union comes down to the character of the people. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. In the fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there. In her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits, aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
It’s not in the book. It’s not in any of de Tocqueville’s writings. Someone just made it up.
Before concluding, a few things should be noted:
- Just because a quote is misattributed doesn’t mean the content is wrong, it just means that somewhere along the line someone attached a famous name to their own statement.
- Source your quotes and do a little bit of research before regurgitating it. Just become some guy put it up on his quotes page and has an animated American flag on the page doesn’t mean it’s legitimate.
- If you cannot find a source but also cannot find valid disputation, at least state that the quote was “attributed” to the person. Just because there is no source, doesn’t mean it wasn’t said. (Also, see #1.)
- There is nothing wrong with making a statement on your own. Do it enough and someday perhaps someone will find you to be such an authority that they can misattribute their own words to you!