Sometimes, a misquotation (especially one done on purpose) can be pretty funny. For example, the hilarious meme below:
However, in almost all other circumstances, a misquotation is annoying and potentially embarrassing. A few weeks ago, I was looking up some romance/love quotes from favorite novels of mine so that I could use them for scrapbooking or for other creative projects. I came across one that read "When I fall in love, it will be forever." The quote was attributed to Jane Austen, from her novel Sense and Sensibility. I have read the book, but it has been a while, so instead of wondering why that quote didn't immediately sound familiar, I assumed I just didn't remember it and went on with being excited to find such a perfect quote.
It is simple yet powerful, and it states exactly how I feel. I had planned to use it on future wedding programs (when that time comes along). I'm not sure the exact site I found the quote on, but here is a likely one where the quote can be seen about halfway down the list of quotations, attributed to S&S:
http://www.romantic-ideas-online.com/jane-austen-quotes.html.
Just the other day, as I was searching for some more Jane Austen quotes, I can across a different site which attributes the quote to "Sense and Sensibility The Screenplay;" http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/72339. Uh-oh, I thought. Maybe the quote is NOT from the novel, but from a screenplay, or a movie? I was slightly miffed, so I started looking stuff up. I looked up the screenplay, which was apparently written by Emma Thompson and became a movie in 1995 (starring her). I found the screenplay transcribed online and used control-F to search for the quote. It was not to be found. Then, I had my boyfriend help me search some more. We looked up Sense and Sensibility on Gutenberg, opened the HTML file, and used the magical control-F to search for the quote there. No luck.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that the word "forever" is not even used one time in Sense and Sensibility.
So, now I am pretty annoyed. The super-awesome quote is NOT from the novel. It definitely should not be attributed to Jane Austen at all. And, I could not even find the quote in the screenplay, so now I am thinking the quote is ... I dunno, totally made up? I'm very upset, because I almost made a fool of myself (although nobody but me would have known) by using that quote and attributing it to Jane Austen.
What I'm thinking might possibly have happened is that when the screenplay became a movie, some lines were changed or added, and that quote got inserted. I really don't know that for sure, because I have not seen the 1995 movie. **If someone has, they should comment on this post and tell me whether the quote is in there or not, so I don't go nuts.** I could imagine that someone might have seen the movie, heard the quote, and VERY mistakenly assumed that the quote came straight from the novel, and therefore they posted it somewhere as a Jane Austen quote. I could see that happening, but it still makes me pretty annoyed. I didn't want a great movie quote, I wanted a great book quote, and my hopes were raised by misquoters and then cruelly dashed when I found out the truth!
