Misinformation Quotes

• Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.

  Mark Twain

  Truth, Way, Strict

  Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.5702, Delphi Classics

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• Beware of ignorance when in motion; look out for inexperience when in action, and beware of the majority when mentally poisoned with misinformation, for collective ignorance does not become wisdom.

  William J. H. Boetcker

  Ignorance, Inexperience, Majority

  32 Copy quote

• If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. It really is public brainwashing and misinformation.

  Robert Kane Pappas

  Lying, Believe, People

  "Can the Corporate Media Turn Lies Into Truth?". Interview with Mark Karlin, www.scoop.co.nz. August 12, 2011.

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice.

  Gore Vidal

  Public Opinion, Prejudice, Superstitions

  Gore Vidal (1969). “Reflections Upon a Sinking Ship. (1. Ed.)”, Boston : Little, Brown

  45 Copy quote

  Show source

• There's so much active misinformation and it's packaged very well and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on your television. If everything seems to be the same and no distinctions are made, then we won't know what to protect.

  Barack Obama

  Protect

  Source: www.foxnews.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Like it or not, we're still a primitive tribe ruled by fears, superstition and misinformation.

  Bill Maher

  Superstitions, Tribes, Primitive

  28 Copy quote

• Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Real, Lying, Facts

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”, p.92

  120 Copy quote

  Show source

• The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives - has overrun real journalism.

  Carl Bernstein

  Real, People, Ordinary

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• You can't be distracted by the noise of misinformation.

  James Daly

  Noise, Distracted

  22 Copy quote

• There is so much misinformation out there. If you give people even a little bit, it gets blown out of proportion then you have to go put out fires. So it's much easier to say, 'No comment.'

  Oren Peli

  Fire, People, Giving

  "Scare-meister Oren Peli Talks Horror Movies, Spoilers and What's Next on The River!". Interview with Damian Holbrook, www.tvguide.com. March 6, 2012.

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's ironic that this amazing invention of the Internet has made information gathering easier available than ever, but that this platform also helps spread misinformation.

  will.i.am

  Ironic, Gathering, Information

  Source: thesource.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no rest stop on the misinformation highway.

  Dahlia Lithwick

  Highways

  4 Copy quote

• One of the greatest sources of problems in our society arises from people having loads of wrong theories in their heads - often theories that are critical of others - that they won't test by speaking to the relevant people about them. Instead, they talk behind people's backs, which leads to pervasive misinformation.

  Ray Dalio

  Life, People, Growth

  15 Copy quote

• We all get misinformation growing up about people who are different from ourselves.

  Beverly Daniel Tatum

  Growing Up, People, Different

  23 Copy quote

• Democracies die behind closed doors. . . . When government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation.

  Damon Keith

  Government, Doors, People

  60 Copy quote

• The priceless galaxy of misinformation called the mind.

  Djuna Barnes

  Mind, Priceless, Galaxy

  Djuna Barnes, Thomas Stearns Eliot (2006). “Nightwood”, p.159, New Directions Publishing

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.

  Thomas Jefferson

  President, Newspapers, Freedom Of The Press

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.400, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be a flattery which their own good sense must despise.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Country, Passion, Errors

  Alexander Hamilton, John Church Hamilton (1850). “The Works of Alexander Hamilton: Miscellanies, 1774-1789: A full vindication; The farmer refuted; Quebec bill; Resolutions in Congress; Letters from Phocion; New-York Legislature, etc”, p.447

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• The dark ages still reign over all humanity, and the depth and persistence of this domination are only now becoming clear. This Dark Ages prison has no steel bars, chains, or locks. Instead, it is locked by misorientation and built of misinformation. Caught up in a plethora of conditioned reflexes and driven by the human ego, both warden and prisoner attempt meagerly to compete with God. All are intractably skeptical of what they do not understand. We are powerfully imprisoned in these Dark Ages simply by the terms in which we have been conditioned to think.

  R. Buckminster Fuller

  Dark, Thinking, Persistence

  25 Copy quote

• Until we have a better relationship between private performance and the public truth, as was demonstrated with Watergate, we as the public are absolutely right to remain suspicious, contemptuous even, of the secrecy and the misinformation which is the digest of our news.

  John le Carre

  News, Literature, Secrecy

  32 Copy quote

• I mean a global warming advocate is as wrong as anybody could be about anything, folks. It's a hoax. There is no man-made global warming. It has been thoroughly debunked. The fact that it's a hoax has been proven, by them. E-mails that were uncovered at East Anglia University in Great Britain show that they worked together to perpetuate the hoax, that they lied about data, that they eliminate data that contradicted their political belief. So you'd have to assume from that that they are political advocates disguised as scientists who are purposely engaging in misinformation.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Mean, Men, Data

  4 Copy quote

• Change comes with both fear and some pain. Those two ingredients create mistrust, misunderstanding and misinformation. Such is the process of democracy.

  David Mixner

  Pain, Two, Democracy

  9 Copy quote

• Although it is easier to find information these days, it is easier than ever before to find misinformation, pseudo-facts, unsupported and fringe opinions, and the like. Children should be taught at an early age what constitutes evidence, how to detect biases or distortions in newspaper accounts, and that there exist hierarchies of information sources. In the medical field, for example, a controlled experiment published in a peer-reviewed journal is a better source than a blog by the Ginseng Growers Association, promoting the health benefits of their own product.

  Daniel Levitin

  Children, Age, Peers

  "Daniel J. Levitin Q&A: 'We've created more information in the past few years than in all of human history before us'". Interview with Lisa O'Kelly, www.theguardian.com. January 18, 2015.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do know that if you can name certain things and understand them, it allows you to make better choices. Unfortunately, there's so much misinformation that towers over a person's head, it's really difficult to make the right decisions. Consequently, we just go along because it's way too hard to sift through the information.

  Jimmy Santiago Baca

  Names, Choices, Decision

  Interview with Barbara Stahura, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. January 31, 2003.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity. Credulity is a greater evil in the present day than it ever was before, because, owing to the growth of education, it is much easier than it used to be to spread misinformation, and, owing to democracy, the spread of misinformation is more important than in former times to the holders of power.

  Bertrand Russell

  Truth, Evil, Growth

  Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel, Beryl Haslam (2000). “Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22”, p.360, Psychology Press

  13 Copy quote

  Show source