Familiar Contextomies

Introduction: A contextomy is a quote that has been taken out of context in such a way as to create a misleading impression of its meaning. A "familiar contextomy" is a contextomy that finds its way repeatedly into print or conversation, usually to support a particular point.

You will not find the following types of misleading quotes here:

  • Bogus Quotes: Quotes that have been fabricated and falsely attributed.
  • Misattributions: Quotes attributed to the wrong person.
  • Misquotes: Garbled quotes that are similar to what the quoted person actually said.
  • Mistranslations: Quotes garbled in translation.

What you will find are accurate quotes that give a false impression when removed from their context, together with that context. Moreover, each example has been used to advance some argument, thus committing the fallacy of quoting out of context. If you know of any familiar contextomies that should be included, wonder whether some quote is in fact a contextomy, or have any comments or questions about this feature, please let me know.

Index: Adams, John | Cheney, Richard | Hecht, Ben |
Holmes, Oliver Wendell | Kennan, George | Lee, Robert E. |
Wilson, Charles

John Adams

Contextomy:

This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!

Exposition: This quote is sometimes cited by people who argue against religion and want to appeal to Adams' authority, or who use the quote as evidence that the Founding Fathers were opposed to religion.

Context:

Twenty times, in the course of my late Reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, "This would be the best of all possible Worlds, if there were no Religion in it"!!! But in this exclamati[on] I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly [Adams' boyhood parish priest and Latin school master]. Without Religion this World would be Something not fit to be mentioned in public Company, I mean Hell.

Exposure: The contextomy is in quotation marks in Adams' letter, which is an important part of the context, since it shows that Adams is not endorsing that sentiment, but in fact rejecting it.

Sources:

Resources:

Example: Joan Porte, "Evangelical Religion vs. Our Founding Fathers" Op Ed News.

Richard Cheney

Contextomy:

We believe he [Saddam Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.

Exposition: This quote has been used repeatedly by people who opposed the invasion of Iraq, and who use it as evidence that the Bush administration had justified that invasion on the basis of Iraq possessing nuclear weapons.

Context:

Tim Russert: What do you think is the most important rationale for going to war with Iraq?

Cheney: Well, I think I've just given it, Tim, in terms of the combination of his development and use of chemical weapons, his development of biological weapons, his pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Russert: And even though the International Atomic Energy Agency said he does not have a nuclear program, we disagree?

Cheney: I disagree, yes. … Let's talk about the nuclear proposition for a minute. … In the late '70s, Saddam Hussein acquired nuclear reactors from the French. 1981, the Israelis took out the Osirak reactor and stopped his nuclear weapons development at the time. Throughout the '80s, he mounted a new effort. I was told when I was defense secretary before the Gulf War that he was eight to 10 years away from a nuclear weapon. And we found out after the Gulf War that he was within one or two years of having a nuclear weapon because he had a massive effort under way that involved four or five different technologies for enriching uranium to produce fissile material. We know that based on intelligence that he has been very, very good at hiding these kinds of efforts. He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.

Exposure: The context makes it clear that Cheney was claiming―probably falsely―that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program, not that it had acquired actual nuclear weapons. Most contextomies get passed around among advocates of a position to the point that their original source is obscured. This is a rare contextomy whose source is known, namely, an article by Dana Milbank that appeared the day after the interview from which the quote was contextomized. Milbank later used the quote in the "Verbatim" feature of his column, and a correction from Cheney's office was soon appended, but it was too late. The contextomy had metastisized, spreading so rapidly among critics of the war in Iraq that it was impossible to stop, no matter how often or publicly it was corrected.

Sources:

Resources:

Example: Timothy Noah, "Whopper of the Week: Donald Rumsfeld", Slate, 5/23/2003

Ben Hecht

Contextomy:

One of the finest things ever done by the mob was the crucifixion of Christ. Intellectually it was a splendid gesture. But trust the mob to bungle. If I had charge of executing Christ, I would have handled it differently. You see what I would have done was had him shipped to Rome and fed to the lions. They never could have made a savior out of mince meat.

Context:

The context of the quote is a novel in which it is spoken by a fictional character. There is no more reason to think that it represents the views of Ben Hecht than there is to think that the words of Iago represent the opinions of Shakespeare.

Exposure: Boller and George trace the use of this quote back to a 1964 antisemitic leaflet, and the quote continues to be used today by Christian antisemites to whip up anger at Jews among Christians. The quote can be found on many antisemitic sites on the web.

Source:

Paul F. Boller, Jr. & John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions, pp. 44-45.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Contextomy:

Truth is the majority vote of that nation that could lick all others.

Exposition:

This quote is usually used as evidence that Supreme Court Justice Holmes was advocating a "might makes right" view of truth that supposedly has badly affected subsequent jurisprudence.

Context:

I used to say when I was young, that truth was the majority vote of that nation that could lick all others. …I think that the statement was correct insofar as it implied that our test of truth is a reference to either a present or an imagined future majority in favor of our view.

Exposure:

One part of the context that is usually omitted from this quote is that it comes not from a court decision, but from a law review article. Moreover, in that article Holmes is not asserting the comment, but quoting and correcting his younger self. One may well disagree with Holmes' view of truth, but it is not the straw man that is usually attacked when this contextomy makes an appearance.

Source: Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Natural Law", The Harvard Law Review (1918)

Example: C. Everett Koop & Francis A. Schaeffer, Whatever Happened to the Human Race? (Revised Edition, 1986), p. 6.

George Kennan

Contextomy:

[W]e have about 50% of the world's wealth, but only 6.3% of its population…. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity…. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives…. We should cease to talk about vague and…unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.

Exposition: This quote is usually used to argue that Kennan was advocating American imperialism or domination over the rest of the world without regard to moral concerns. It at least makes his "realism" about foreign policy sound callously cynical.

Context:

My main impression with regard to the position of this Government with regard to the Far East is that we are greatly over-extended in our whole thinking about what we can accomplish, and should try to accomplish, in that area. …

It is urgently necessary that we recognize our own limitations as a moral and ideological force among the Asiatic peoples.

Our political philosophy and our patterns for living have very little applicability to masses of people in Asia. They may be all right for us, with our highly developed political traditions running back into the centuries and with our peculiarly favorable geographic position; but they are simply not practical or helpful, today, for most of the people in Asia.

This being the case, we must be very careful when we speak of exercising "leadership" in Asia. We are deceiving ourselves and others when we pretend to have the answers to the problems which agitate many of these Asiatic peoples.

Furthermore, we have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction.

For these reasons, we must observe great restraint in our attitude toward the Far Eastern areas. The peoples of Asia and of the Pacific area are going to go ahead, whatever we do, with the development of their political forms and mutual interrelationships in their own way. … All of the Asiatic peoples are faced with the necessity for evolving new forms of life to conform to the impact of modern technology. This process of adaptation will also be long and violent. It is not only possible, but probable, that in the course of this process many peoples will fall, for varying periods, under the influence of Moscow, whose ideology has a greater lure for such peoples, and probably greater reality, than anything we could oppose to it. All this, too, is probably unavoidable; and we could not hope to combat it without the diversion of a far greater portion of our national effort than our people would ever willingly concede to such a purpose.

In the face of this situation we would be better off to dispense now with a number of the concepts which have underlined our thinking with regard to the Far East. We should dispense with the aspiration to "be liked" or to be regarded as the repository of a high-minded international altruism. We should stop putting ourselves in the position of being our brothers' keeper and refrain from offering moral and ideological advice. We should cease to talk about vague and―for the Far East―unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.

Exposure: In context, Kennan's position was almost the exact opposite of the way it is portrayed by this contextomy. For one thing, the quote comes from a discussion of American policy towards Asia. Moreover, Kennan was arguing that the United States had limited power in Asia, and should not overestimate its ability to advance idealistic objectives, such as democratization. Therefore, Kennan suggests that the U.S. not attempt to impose its own political ideals on Asian countries, for whom such ideals are "unreal". The most misleading ellipsis in the passage is the final one, omitting the phrase "for the Far East", which indicates that Kennan is not saying that the objectives of human rights, rising living standards, and democratization are "unreal" for him, or for the U.S., but "for the Far East". One may well disagree with this claim, but it is a far different one from that suggested by those who use this contextomy.

Source:

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948 (1976), Volume 1, Part 2, pp. 523-525.

Example:

Anatol Rapoport, "Conceptions of World Order: Building Peace in the Third Millennium" (1997), p. 10 (PDF).

Robert E. Lee

Contextomy:

There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil.

Exposition: This quote from Lee is used as evidence that Lee opposed slavery, which is sometimes part of an argument that he was not attempting to defend slavery by fighting against the Union.

Context:

There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil. It is idle to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it is a greater evil to the white than to the colored race. While my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my sympathies are more deeply engaged for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things. How long their servitude may be necessary is known and ordered by a merciful Providence. … While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is still onward, and give it the aid of our prayers, let us leave the progress as well as the results in the hands of Him who sees the end, who chooses to work by slow influences, and with whom a thousand years are but as a single day.

Exposure: The context of the quote shows that Lee's attitude toward slavery was not as simple as opposition. While he did consider it "a moral and political evil", he seems to have viewed it as a necessary evil, at least for the foreseeable future, for the benefit of the slaves themselves.

Source: Robert E. Lee, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee (1886), pp. 83-84.

Example: Richard Poe, "The Lessons of Robert E. Lee", Front Page Magazine, 11/8/2001

Charles Wilson

Contextomy:

What's good for General Motors is good for the country.

Exposition: This quote is used to suggest that large corporations and those who lead them take the unpatriotic attitude of putting the interests of their corporation before the national interest.

Context:

…[F]or years I thought what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.

Exposure: Wilson was not reporting what he currently thought, but what he formerly thought. In fact, the quote as usually phrased turns his words around, since he did not say "what's good for G.M. is good for the country" but the reverse, though the substance of the quote is contained in the two words "vice versa".

Source: Paul F. Boller, Jr. & John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions, p. 131.

Resources:

Fallacy Watch: How to Read a Poll
fallacist@fallacyfiles.org