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Type a few words from any quotation. This searches everything in the museum — 650 lines in the galleries, and 24 that have been investigated properly. If we have not examined something, it will not pretend otherwise.

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Examined, with a verdict

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.Edmund BurkeMisattributedIt does not appear in Burke's known writings, despite being credited to him constantly.
Play it again, Sam.Casablanca (1942)MisquotedNo one says it. Both characters ask for the song — neither in those words.
If you're going through hell, keep going.Winston ChurchillMisattributedNo. It appears nowhere in Churchill's writings or speeches, and his own archivists say so.
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.ConfuciusMisattributedNo. The earliest trace is a Princeton professor in 1982, quoting an unnamed old-timer.
Survival of the fittest.Charles DarwinMisattributedNo — Herbert Spencer coined it in 1864. Darwin borrowed it, reluctantly, five years later.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.Albert EinsteinMisattributedThere is no evidence Einstein ever said or wrote this. It appears long after his death.
Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.Albert EinsteinMisattributedNo record of Einstein saying it. The image predates him and the attribution is modern.
Be the change you wish to see in the world.Mahatma GandhiMisattributedNot in this form. Gandhi expressed a related idea in different — and more interesting — words.
Elementary, my dear Watson.Sherlock Holmes / Arthur Conan DoyleMisattributedNot once in the canon — 56 stories and 4 novels, and the four words never appear together.
The ends justify the means.Niccolò MachiavelliMisattributedHe never wrote the sentence, in Italian or English. It is a summary that hardened into a quotation.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.Nelson MandelaVerifiedYes — he said it more than once. Only the pronoun drifts between 'we' and 'you'.
Let them eat cake.Marie AntoinetteMisattributedThe story predates her reign. She was a child in Austria when the anecdote was written down.
Money is the root of all evil.The BibleMisquotedThree words are missing, and they reverse the meaning. The verse condemns the love of money.
What does not kill me makes me stronger.Friedrich NietzscheVerifiedYes — from Twilight of the Idols (1888). But it means something different from what most people think.
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.Mark TwainMisquotedHe said something like it — but shorter, and better. The famous wording was polished by others.
Well-behaved women seldom make history.Eleanor Roosevelt / Marilyn MonroeMisattributedNeither. It was written in 1976 by the historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich — who is still with us.
I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.VoltaireMisattributedWritten by his biographer Evelyn Beatrice Hall in 1906 to summarise his outlook.
Power corrupts.—IncompleteThe fuller version is genuine — and the two dropped words carry the whole argument.
Blood is thicker than water.—IncompleteThe famous 'full version' appears to be a modern invention — the short proverb is the original.
Curiosity killed the cat.—IncompleteThe ending is real but late — added roughly three centuries after the proverb, and the original was not about curiosity at all.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.—IncompleteGenuine, and the missing clause is the part that explains what he meant.
Jack of all trades, master of none.—IncompleteThe flattering ending is modern, and the popular attribution to Shakespeare is chronologically impossible.
Money is the root of all evil.—IncompleteThree missing words, and the meaning inverts — the verse condemns the appetite, not the thing.
God is dead.—IncompleteGenuine — but it is spoken by a distraught character, and it is a lament, not a boast.

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