It is wrong to attribute something to a famous person in the hopes that it will make it more acceptable. These things are all over the internet with the latest craze being "troll quotes' where the quote is enscribed on a picture of the person.
An early example of a quote attributed to another person were these words:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." — Nelson Mandela at his inaugural address
There is no record of Mr. Mandela speaking those words at either of his 2 inaugural speeches or any speech that he ever gave. But this was everywhere: printed in catalogs, emails, web sites, whatever. The first time my wife saw it she was surprised that Mr. Mandela had read
A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson. Since that is the origin of the quote not Nelson Mandela. This is a type of plagiarism where a famous person's name is ripped off to give authority to a quote. In the Chief Joseph "quote" it was done by the writer himself, in the Mandela "quote" the plagiarist is anonymous.
Sorry for the long rant but stirring words should be attributed to the person who uttered them and if they are unknown than to anonymous. It ill serves us and the person who said them to attribute their words to others.
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