<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>There are various web pages that list misattributed,
misunderstood, or just plain false quotations. But they are
generally popular, and not open to submissions or reliably
monitored. What is needed is something of the reach and
reliability of Snopes, a place where false quotations can be
reported.</p>
<p>And rather than a soundbite, a virus would perhaps be a more
appropriate analogy, as such falsities spread, as the saying has
it, like the plague. My own recent encounter with a similar fake
quotation came in connection with writing an introduction to a
reissue of Ernest Bramah's <i>What Might Have Been</i> (1907,
reissued in 1909 as <i>The Secret of the League</i>). Every
bookseller advertising a copy of this book seems to have to
include the claim that George Orwell acknowledged the book as a
source or inspiration for <i>1984</i>. Even Bramah's biographer
Aubrey Wilson, repeats the claim, asserting that "in his letters"
Orwell made this acknowledgement. None of these claims is backed
up by evidence from the letters or elsewhere, although there is
evidence that Orwell was familiar with a number of Bramah's books.
For those interested, the next number of <i>Notes and Queries</i>
will have a short piece by me questioning the claim.</p>
<p>All this confirms that when we impress upon students the need to
check sources and to provide full references, we are doing
something important.</p>
<p>Jeremy<br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 26.06.2018 09:44, Sarah M. Hall via
Vwoolf wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2081835103.3164436.1529999096576@mail.yahoo.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<div style="font-family:verdana, helvetica,
sans-serif;font-size:13px;">
<div style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;">
<div style="font-size: 13px;">This is the most common Woolf
misquotation, it seems. Googling just now gave <span></span>51,600
results for the fake and 5,190 for the real one. It looks as
though truth is a casualty not just of war*, but of the
soundbite.<span><br>
</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 13px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 13px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 13px;"><br>
</div>
<div style="font-size: 13px;"><br>
</div>
<div style=""><font size="1">*Which itself is a contested
quotation; see <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21510,00.html"
rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="" style=""
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-21510,00.html</a>.
Some think the original of this is Samuel Johnson's '<span>Among
the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the
diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which
interest dictates and credulity encourages.' But you may
prefer to believe that Aeschylus had already come up
with a snappier version.</span></font><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>