Who attached wings to the catchphrases of famous people

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In social networks, sparkling catch phrases are very popular, which are considered to be quotes from certain historical figures. But sometimes the authors of the aphorisms are completely different people from other eras. This review presents famous phrases of people who have never spoken them.

1. "If they have no bread, let them eat cakes."

Marie Antoinette. Martin van Meitens, 1767

It is generally believed that Marie Antoinette, being Queen of France, once asked why the Parisian poor are constantly rebelling. The courtiers answered her that people had no bread. To which the queen said: "If they have no bread, let them eat cakes." The result of this story is known to everyone: the head of Marie Antoinette flew from her shoulders.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau - French philosopher, writer

The phrase attributed to the queen, she never uttered. The author of the expression is the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his novel “Confession” you can read: “Finally I remembered what way one princess came up with. When she was told that the peasants had no bread, she replied: "Let them eat brioches." Brioches are buns, but that doesn't change the mocking nature of what is said.

When Rousseau was creating his novel, Marie Antoinette was still in her native Austria, but 20 years later, when the queen ravaged the country with her extravagant antics, it was the French who attributed to her the expression about buns.

2. "Religion is the opium of the people"

Shot from the movie "12 chairs"

In the novel by Ilf and Petrov "12 chairs" Ostap Bender asks Fyodor's father: "How much is opium for the people?" It is generally accepted that the protagonist is quoting Lenin. However, the phrase that became an aphorism was first used by Karl Marx, formulating it as follows: "Religion is the opium of the people."

Charles Kingsley - English writer and preacher

But Marx himself borrowed this idea from the English writer and preacher Charles Kingsley. He wrote: "We use the Bible simply as a dose of opium to soothe an overwhelmed beast of burden - to maintain order among the poor."

3. "We have no irreplaceable people"

Joseph Stalin

The authorship of this famous phrase is attributed to Joseph Stalin. However, it was first spoken by Joseph Le Bon, Commissioner of the French Revolutionary Convention, in 1793. He arrested the Viscount de Giselin, and he begged him to save his life, citing that his education and experience would still serve the Revolution. Commissioner Le Bon replied: "There are no irreplaceable people in the Republic!" This really turned out to be true, because soon he himself went to the guillotine.

4. "The Franco-Prussian War was won by a German school teacher"

Otto von Bismarck - First Chancellor of the German Empire

This famous phrase is attributed to the "iron" chancellor Otto von Bismarck, but it is not he who wrote it. These words were spoken by the professor of geography from Leipzig Oskar Peschel. But he did not mean the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871), but the Austro-Prussian war (1866). In one of the newspaper articles, the professor wrote: "… Public education plays a decisive role in the war … When the Prussians beat the Austrians, it was a victory of the Prussian teacher over the Austrian school teacher." It follows from this that the popular phrase is an allusion to the fact that a more educated and cultured nation will definitely triumph over the enemy.

5. "If I fall asleep, but wake up in a hundred years, and they ask me what is happening in Russia now, I will answer without hesitation: they drink and steal."

Portrait of the satirist Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin. Ivan Kramskoy, 1879.

Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin became famous for his sparkling satire, which is relevant to this day. However, he did not utter the phrase attributed to him. For the first time the expression “If I fall asleep, but wake up in a hundred years, and they ask me what is happening in Russia now, I will answer without hesitation: they drink and steal” appeared in Mikhail Zoshchenko’s collection of everyday stories and historical anecdotes “Blue Book” in 1935 year.

Mikhail Zoshchenko is a writer and playwright.