404·Quotes

Now showing — the permanent collection

Gandhi did not say this. Neither did Einstein say his, nor Voltaire his. Every plinth in this wing is empty for the same reason.

The museum of things nobody said

This is a gallery of famous quotations, curated the way a museum curates objects: every exhibit carries a label, and every label carries its provenance. Where a quotation turns out to have no author, we do not quietly drop it. We leave the plinth empty, light it, and tell you what was supposed to be there.

Most quote sites are confident about everything, because they never checked anything. We check, we publish the evidence, and when we have not finished checking, the label says so.

Today’s exhibit

One line a day, on the plinth by itself. Only lines with an exact source are chosen for it, and it changes at your midnight.

Acc. 404·Q·0011·17On the plinth

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
Marcus Aurelius

What it means. An instruction to look up, from a man writing on a military frontier. The second clause puts the observer inside what is observed.

Meditations VII.47

See it in its room — Mindfulness

Asked often

What is 404 Quotes? A museum of famous quotations where every exhibit carries its provenance. Quotes that turn out to be misattributed are displayed as empty plinths, with the evidence for why the attribution fails and the real origin where one is known.

Which famous quotes are fake? Among the best documented: Einstein's "definition of insanity", which comes from 1981 addiction-recovery literature; Gandhi's "be the change you wish to see in the world", which he did not say in that form; and Voltaire's "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it", which was written by his biographer Evelyn Beatrice Hall.

How do you decide whether a quote is real? Each quote is checked against primary sources where they exist, then reference works, then reporting. A quote is only labelled sourced when it can be traced to a named work. Where a source cannot be confirmed, the label says attributed. Where nothing has been checked yet, the label says so rather than guessing.

Three ways in

The permanent collection

17 rooms, arranged by theme. Every line comes with what it means and who really said it — and any of them can be made into a print.