Misattributing popular quotes is a congressional pastime

Researchers at book-summary platform Blinkist analyzed 25 years of the Congressional Record to find the most frequently misattributed quotes by members of Congress. Here are the Top 10:

1. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

- not Albert Einstein

The origin of this expression is unknown, but there is no evidence Einstein ever said it. Try telling that to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, though. He said it on the Senate floor at least 13 times in three years.

2. "Let them eat cake."

- not Marie Antoinette

This expression first appeared in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Confessions" in 1782, when Marie Antoinette was only a child, so it probably didn't originate with her. Send complaints to Rep. John Larson, a Connecticut Democrat who misquoted this on the House floor in 2000.

3. "Government that governs least, governs best."

- not Thomas Jefferson

While this expression and its variants may be in line with Jefferson's political beliefs, he never said it, according to the encyclopedia maintained by Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Former GOP congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough does not appear to know this. In fact, he misattributed that quote 18 times in seven years, Blinkist said, more than any other lawmaker.

4. "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

- not Voltaire

You may have noticed the pattern here by now: Voltaire never said this. Evelyn Beatrice Hall did, in her 1906 book "The Friends of Voltaire." Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican, misquoted it on the House floor as recently as November 2018, in an address he called "The Speech Police" - to which we say: You are busted.

5. "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

- not Mohandas K. Gandhi

What Gandhi actually wrote was a lot less pithy: "If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do."

Former Rep. Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat, was the first to misquote this in records Blinkist analyzed, in 2004.

6. "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

-still not Jefferson

This expression appears to originate during the Vietnam War era, which was a little bit past Jefferson's heyday. It has been misquoted by not one but two former Democratic senators from Massachusetts - Edward Kennedy and John Kerry - and by current Sens. Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat.

7. "There are only two certainties in life - death and taxes."

- not Mark Twain or Benjamin Franklin or William Hazlitt

Honestly, there are three: death, taxes, and political leaders misattributing this quote, which actually comes from British actor Christopher Bullock in 1716. Former Republican congressman turned pundit J.D. Hayworth couldn't resist quoting it in 2004.

8. "An army marches on its stomach."

- not Napoleon Bonaparte

And a misquote travels on the lips, including those of Grassley, again, and the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina Republican.

9. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

- still not Gandhi

This one is contested. The Yale Book of Quotations says the Gandhi family believes this is a legitimate quote of the famed Indian leader, although no printed record exists. The first record of this expression appears in a 1914 speech in the Canadian House of Parliament against capital punishment. It was not attributed to Gandhi, who was a 45-year-old lawyer in South Africa at the time.

In any case, McDermott did not cite this complication when he said it on the House floor in 2009.

10. "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

- not Maya Angelou

This one is so commonly misattributed to the great poet that the official Twitter account for Angelou's estate tweeted it May 4.

But the sentiment appears to have originated with Carl Buehner, a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1960s and 1970s. (The website Quote Investigator has a fascinating and thorough explanation for the misattribution.)

Sen. Thomas Carper, a Delaware Democrat, cited this quote in a tribute on the Senate floor to outgoing Vice President Joe Biden in 2016.

And in the days of hyperpartisanship, the study would not be complete without answering the question: Which party is misquoting more?

The answer, according to Blinkist, is Democrats, and it isn't close. Of the misattributed quotes identified in the past 25 years, 63 percent were made by Democrats, 37 percent by Republicans.