Trent Horn - What the Saints Never Said: Pious Misquotes and Subtle Heresies

The villain clad in black raises his fist at the hero and says, Luke, I am your father! The dashing captain unfolds his communicator and gives the order, Beam me up, Scotty. A mysterious jungle man sets down the woman hes rescued and she teaches him to say, Me Tarzan, you Jane. What do these three things have in common?

You might say theyre lines from famous movies: The Empire Strikes Back , Star Trek , and Tarzan the Ape Man respectively. But then you remembered this is a book about fake quotations and you changed your answer: theyre misquotations from famous movies.

In The Empire Strikes Back , Luke Skywalker accuses Darth Vader of killing his father. Vader responds, No, I am your fathernot Luke, I am your father. The crew of the Starship Enterprise often asked Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott to beam them up via the transporter, but no one in the Star Trek films or television shows ever said, Beam me up, Scotty. Finally, in the 1932 classic Tarzan the Ape Man , Tarzan only says Tarzan. Jane. Tarzan. Jane, not Me Tarzan, you Jane.

Misquotations arent restricted to fictional characters, either. George Washington never admitted to chopping down a cherry tree by saying, I cannot tell a lie; Albert Einstein never said, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results; and Vince Lombardi didnt coin the phrase, Winning isnt everything, its the only thing. In this book youll see which famous sayings attributed to the saints of the Catholic faith are misquotations, misattributions, and in some cases total fabrications.

Whats the Big Deal?

Before I continue, I need to address readers who might be rolling their eyes or muttering the word nitpicker. Does it really matter if people get one word wrong in a line from a Star Wars film? Who cares if the cute story about George Washington and the cherry tree never happened? Why cant you just leave the saints alone and write about something important? But accurately recording the wisdom of saints and other well-known Catholics is important because truth is important.

We are ambassadors for Christ and our testimony about him needs to be trustworthy (2 Cor. 5:20). If people see us carelessly passing along information or stories that arent true, then they may doubt us when we quote the wisdom of Christ or tell the story of salvation that has taken place through him. As St. Teresa of Avila once said, Never affirm anything unless you are sure it is true.

Its also important to give credit where credit is due. Imagine that your daughter broke a sports record and a friend of yours mistakenly praised your son for breaking that record. Youd gently remind this friend that it was actually your daughters accomplishment, not your sons, because youd want her to receive the praise she deserves for her hard work. Likewise, the saints are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and so we should do our best to accurately praise their wisdom and deeds that lead people closer to our Lord.

But the most important reason we should challenge false quotes from saints is because in some cases they contradict the Faith these saints embraced. I wouldnt be surprised if some of the saints are charitably yelling from heaven, No! I actually said the opposite of that! The major fake quotes in this book are not merely paraphrases of saintly wisdom or harmless pieces of advice that have been falsely attributed to the saints, although I do cover those kinds of quotes, too. Instead, each chapter in this book addresses a theme embodied in a well-known quote that is contrary to our Faith.

Part I addresses quotes that misunderstand the relationship between faith and works. They teach lessons like Dont talk about Jesus with other people, Good works matter more than being holy, and Rely on yourself before you rely on God. Part II covers quotes that misunderstand the relationship between faith and reason and teach lessons like Dont worry about defending the Faith, God always wants you to be happy, and Faith is belief apart from reason.

Tracking Down Fake Quotes

Most people come across fake quotes on popular quote websites or see them in online memes that contain pictures of famous people next to inspirational quotes. My favorite one of these memes has a picture of Abraham Lincoln next to this text: The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity.

Writing this book has shown me, however, that it is easier to prove an authentic quote than disprove an inauthentic quote.

To prove a quote is authentic, you only have to produce the work from which the quote comes. In some cases, the person to whom the quote is attributed may not have left behind any writings, and so a citation from a reliable secondary source can suffice. For example, during his earthly ministry Jesus did not write anything down, so the record of what he said is recorded in the Gospels. But even these are not exhaustive. St. Paul, for example, recites a saying of Jesus that is not recorded in the Gospels: It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). St. John tells us that there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written (John 21:25).

This leads to the problem of proving that a certain quote is inauthentic. What John says about Jesus is true, generally speaking, about most people. People say and do much more than what is recorded about them in biographies or even their own autobiographies and memoirs. Therefore, when I say that a certain quote is inauthentic or fake, Im not saying it is certain the person never uttered the words in question. Instead, Im saying that we have no reason to believe they said these words because they do not exist in either a primary source or a reliable secondary source that describes what he or she said and did.