Quote Verification
Quote Verification
Investigating whether sayings attributed to religious teachers, philosophers, scientists, writers and public figures are authentic, misquoted, paraphrased, unsupported or fabricated.
Each investigation separates two questions: whether the person actually said or wrote the words, and whether the words accurately represent that person's documented views.
The rule
A familiar saying is not evidence of authorship.
TBR separates the wording of a quotation from its attribution. Primary texts, authoritative editions and identifiable translations are preferred over quote websites, memes and unsourced compilations.
Browse verified voices
People in the quotation archive
Select a name to see the quotations currently associated with that person.
The Buddha
11 verified quotes
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Aristotle
10 verified quotes
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Epictetus
10 verified quotes
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Marcus Aurelius
10 verified quotes
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Marcus Tullius Cicero
5 verified quotes
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Plato
5 verified quotes
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Socrates
5 verified quotes
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Quotation library
Search the evidence
“You may be unconquerable, if you enter into no combat in which it is not in your own control to conquer.”
Epictetus
Elizabeth Carter translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be.”
Epictetus
Elizabeth Carter translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.”
Epictetus
Elizabeth Carter translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“Don't be prideful with any excellence that is not your own.”
Epictetus
Elizabeth Carter translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”
Epictetus
Elizabeth Carter translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“The best way of avenging thyself is not to become like the wrong doer.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“If any man is able to convince me and show me that I do not think or act right, I will gladly change.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“Be not ashamed to be helped; for it is thy business to do thy duty like a soldier in the assault on a town.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.”
Marcus Aurelius
George Long translation, MIT Internet Classics Archive
“He who is to exercise the art rightly never does what is best for himself, but what is best for the subject.”
Plato
Paul Shorey translation, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5–6 (1969), Perseus Digital Library
“The chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse if a man will not himself hold office and rule.”
Plato
Paul Shorey translation, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5–6 (1969), Perseus Digital Library
“Unless either philosophers become kings in our states or those whom we now call our kings and rulers take to the pursuit of philosophy seriously and adequately, there can be no cessation of troubles.”
Plato
Paul Shorey translation, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5–6 (1969), Perseus Digital Library
“Only in such a state will those rule who are really rich, not in gold, but in the wealth that makes happiness—a good and wise life.”
Plato
Paul Shorey translation, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5–6 (1969), Perseus Digital Library
“What we require is that those who take office should not be lovers of rule.”
Plato
Paul Shorey translation, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5–6 (1969), Perseus Digital Library
Verification method
What TBR checks before calling a quotation verified
Find the source
Locate the primary text, speech, recording, canonical text or authoritative scholarly edition.
Check the wording
Identify the exact passage and record the translator or edition when the words originated in another language.
Check the attribution
Separate authorship, reported speech and traditional or canonical attribution from later paraphrase or invention.
Continue researching
Move from a quotation to the evidence around it
A quote should be an entry point into a person's ideas, source texts and the wider evidence—not an isolated slogan.
ThinkersExplore philosophers, religious figures and influential minds.
SourcesTrace claims to texts, documents and source records.
GuidesRead durable explanations and foundational TBR conclusions.
FindingsSee evidence-led conclusions reached elsewhere on TBR.
ArticlesFollow current analysis, investigations and developing ideas.
Belief SystemsPut religious quotations into the tradition that preserved them.