[Ads-l] Quote Investigator Makes the News

[Peter Reitan]

Ironically, perhaps, the "fake" or mistaken Lincoln quote Trump posted can also be found in the official papers of President Barack Obama.  At a State Dinner in the White House in 2009, the Prime Minister of India toasted Obama using that quote, while attributing it to Lincoln. (found on HathiTrust)


Also, in the comments section of one of the articles that referred to Quote Investigator's piece about the mistaken Lincoln attribution, a Trump critic used an alternate Lincoln quote to shame Trump:


"I am a firm believer in the people.  If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis.  The great point is to bring them the real facts. -- Abraham Lincoln."


Ironically, and hilariously, when I googled the quote, the top result was Barry Popik's site which revealed that this purported Lincoln quote actually originated with General McArthur.


You can't  write this stuff.


________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 5:01 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Quote Investigator Makes the News

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Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Quote Investigator Makes the News
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There is a controversy raging about a fake Lincoln quote promulgated by the=
 GOP, and of course people are turning to Quote Investigator for the facts:


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-posts-fake-lincoln-quote_us_58a0b77=
8e4b094a129ec104c?


Congratulations to Garson O'Toole, whose quoteinvestigator.com website has =
clearly become the place the Internet goes to for the truth about popular q=
uotations.  This is not a trivial status, as our society is currently facin=
g assaults on the very notion of truth, assaults unimaginable before Electi=
on Day.  Quotations play a significant role in political discourse, and we =
are lucky to have Quote Investigator available as a bulwark of quotation ac=
curacy.


Fred Shapiro

Editor

Yale Book of Quotations (Yale University Press)

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org