Famous people's catch phrases that they never uttered

Walking around the world, aphorisms sometimes change not only the original meaning, but also the authorship. It often happens that a politician uses some catchphrase in a memorable speech, after which he is considered the author of these words, although this is not the case. Sometimes it even comes to the point of absurdity: a person is attributed a phrase that he never uttered.

1. " No person — no problem»

Many believe that this is what Joseph Stalin said, but there is no documentary evidence that he said anything like that. The true author of this turn is the writer Anatoly Rybakov, who attributed it to Stalin in the novel "Children of the Arbat". They say that Rybakov heartily laughed at publicists and politicians who in their speeches cited this phrase as Stalinist.

2. " If I fall asleep, and 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»

The mass media often cite this joke with the note: "As Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote..." And sometimes the phrase is attributed to the historian Nikolai Karamzin. In fact, it appeared in the" Blue Book " by Mikhail Zoshchenko with reference to the notebooks of Pyotr Vyazemsky, who, in turn, refers to conversations with Karamzin.

3. " Stalin took Russia with a plough, and left it with an atomic bomb»

Winston Churchill really treated the Soviet leader with caution and respect, as he mentioned in the famous Fulton speech. But he didn't say anything about soha. For the first time, as a quote from Churchill, this phrase was used by the Stalinist Nina Andreeva in the article "I can't give up my principles". And the idea, obviously, was drawn from an article in the Encyclopedia Britannica about Stalin: "The essence of Stalin's truly historical achievements is that he accepted Russia with a plough, and left with nuclear reactors."

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

In fact, something similar was composed by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In the "Confessions" we read: "Finally I remembered what a way out came up with a princess. When she was informed that the peasants had no bread, she replied: "Let them eat brioche." The novel was published in 1789, just at the time when Marie Antoinette was ravaging France with her antics. She didn't say anything like that, but people thought it was her style.

5. " Any cook can run the state»

Since the late 80's, this phrase has been actively used by critics of the Soviet system. Without entering into a dispute on the topic of whose ability to manage the state is higher — the Russian cook of the beginning of the XX century or the Russian deputy of the beginning of the XXI century, let's say that in this case we are talking about a deliberate distortion of the real Lenin phrase.

In the article " Will the Bolsheviks Retain state Power?» Lenin wrote: "We are not utopians. We know that any laborer and any cook are not capable of entering into the government of the state at once… But we demand an immediate break with the prejudice that only the rich are able to manage the state, to carry out the everyday, everyday work of government…»