Hesketh Pearson? Stephen Gwynn? Lord Byron? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: The human brain is not designed to precisely remember quotations. Unintentionally paraphrasing or altering quotations is common. A popular writer once suggested that misquotations were the pride and privilege of the learned. Unsurprisingly, I do not remember the precise phrasing of this remark. Would you please help me to trace this expression?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The English writer Hesketh Pearson was a popular biographer. He wrote works about George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, and many others. In 1934 he published “Common Misquotations” which contained the following passage in the introduction. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely. He can retain the thought, but seldom the structure, of a phrase. There are exceptions, of course—Dr. Johnson for one—but it is broadly true to say that a person who wanders throughout the domain of literature cannot remember in detail any particular part of it.
QI believes that Pearson’s observation may have been true in 1934, but it is now incomplete. There are many reference tools currently available to facilitate the use of accurate quotations such as Wikiquote, “The New Yale Book of Quotations”, ‘Oxford Dictionary of Quotations”, “Brewer’s Famous Quotations”, the Google Books database, and the Quote Investigator website. Also, reference tools in digital format are electronically searchable. Using genuine quotations with accurate attributions helps to reduce the spread of misquotations.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1809 the famous English Romantic poet Lord Byron published the satirical work “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers”. He attacked critics as talentless hacks who employed misquotations. The phrase “jokes from Miller” referred to compilations such as “Joe Miller’s Jests” which was filled with unimaginative stale jokes:2
A man must serve his time to ev’ry trade
Save censure—critics all are ready made.
Take hackney’d jokes from Miller, got by rote,
With just enough of learning to misquote;
A mind well skill’d to find or forge a fault;
In 1901 Irish writer Stephen Gwynn made a remark which was thematically related to the observation under examination. Gwynn complimented English writer Charles Lamb. The word “chemic” means “chemical”. In the following context, the word was used figuratively:3
It is a perilous thing to say—but to misquote as Lamb did is the mark of good memory and a well-stored mind: the man who does so carries his reading in his head and the sentences there undergo a chemic change.
In 1934 Hesketh Pearson published “Common Misquotations” as mentioned previously. Pearson wrote the following:
Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.
In addition, Pearson provocatively suggested that the phrasings used in misquotations were often superior to the original statements:4
The large majority of familiar quotations are improvements on the original quotations. Many clarify the meaning, some even change the meaning, nearly all enhance the beauty or the force of the original text.
Pearson further suggested that misquotations were more memorable and less likely to be altered:5
But misquotations are made by the people, not the poets; their author is that most famous and prolific of all writers, known familiarly as Anon. Moreover, they are final and usually unimprovable. Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted.
In 1934 Pearson’s book “Common Misquotations” was mentioned in “The Age” newspaper of Melbourne, Australia. The discussant made the following comment:6
Mr. Hesketh Pearson, whose collection of Common Misquotations, was so interestingly reviewed in “The Age” Literary supplement, says truly that misquotations are made by the people, not the poets.
In 1946 the “Sunday Independent” of Dublin, Ireland published an article about misquotations, and Pearson’s comments were reprinted:7
An authority on the subject put his argument thus:
“Misquotation is in fact the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.”
In 2006 historical lexicographer Elizabeth Knowles published “What They Didn’t Say: A Book of Misquotations” which included the following:8
The critic Hesketh Pearson, considering this phenomenon in 1934, added in the idiom of his time: ‘A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.’
In conclusion, Hesketh Pearson deserves credit for the words he wrote in the introduction to the 1934 book “Common Misquotations”. Pearson’s attitude toward misquotations was more generous and forgiving than others who have been harsh and censorious.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to the anonymous person whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Special thanks to Dave Wilton who accessed the book “Common Misquotations” via the Princeton University Firestone Library. Also, thanks to the archival storage organization ReCAP: Research Collections and Preservation Consortium. Also, thanks to Nigel Rees who mentioned Pearson’s comments in his “The Quote … Unquote Newsletter” issues dated April 2017 and July 2019.
Image Notes: Green quotation marks from Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program).
- 1934, Common Misquotations, Collected by Hesketh Pearson, Chapter: Introduction, Quote Page 9, Hamish Hamilton, London. (Verified with scans; thanks to Dave Wilton and the Princeton University Firestone Library; also thanks to ReCAP: Research Collections and Preservation Consortium) (Note: This book does not list a publication date; this book was discussed in “The Age” of Melbourne, Australia on December 22, 1934; the library checkout card lists Jun 4, 1937 as the first checkout date) ↩︎
- 1809, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers: A Satire by Lord Byron, Second Edition, Lines 75 to 78, Printed for James Cawthorn, British Library, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1901 April 13, The Saturday Review, Volume 91, Number 2372, Quotability (by Stephen Gwynn), Start Page 464, Quote Page 465, Column 1, Published at the Office of The Saturday Review, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1934, Common Misquotations, Collected by Hesketh Pearson, Chapter: Introduction, Quote Page 9, Hamish Hamilton, London. (Verified with scans; thanks to Dave Wilton and the Princeton University Firestone Library; also, thanks to ReCAP: Research Collections and Preservation Consortium) ↩︎
- 1934, Common Misquotations, Collected by Hesketh Pearson, Chapter: Introduction, Quote Page 9, Hamish Hamilton, London. (Verified with scans; thanks to Dave Wilton and the Princeton University Firestone Library; also, thanks to ReCAP: Research Collections and Preservation Consortium) ↩︎
- 1934 December 22, The Age, Letters to the Editor, Shakespeare, Dickens and Mr. Pearson, Quote Page 13, Column 6, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1946 August 18, Sunday Independent, There’s Method in Misquotation by Thomas Kelly, Quote Page 9, Column 6, Dublin, Ireland. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2006, What They Didn’t Say: A Book of Misquotations, Edited by Elizabeth Knowles, Chapter: Introduction, Quote Page v, Oxford University Press, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎