24 Famous Quotes You Don’t Actually Know the Meaning Of

The road most taken has made all the difference
24 Famous Quotes You Don’t Actually Know the Meaning Of

No matter what your metalhead dad may claim, the tight-pants-ed men of Van Halen weren’t insufferable divas hellbent on banishing brown-hued chocolates from their dressing rooms. Contrary to popular belief — and the scathing interpretation of the “no brown M&M’s” expression — the band’s penchant for colorful candy came from a pretty pragmatic place: Assuring their onstage safety. 

“Van Halen was the first band to take huge productions into tertiary, third-level markets. We’d pull up with nine 18-wheeler trucks, full of gear, where the standard was three trucks, max,” lead singer David Lee Roth recalled of the group’s early years. “And there were many, many technical errors — whether it was the girders couldn’t support the weight, or the flooring would sink in, or the doors weren’t big enough to move the gear through.” 

As such, Lee Roth and the band’s tour crew decided to test venue staffers, hiding a clause insisting on “no brown M&Ms” within “the technical aspect of the rider.” “If I saw a brown M&M in that bowl, well, line-check the entire production,” Lee Roth continued. “Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.”

But Van Halen isn’t alone in being grossly misinterpreted. From the oxymoronic meaning of picking oneself up by the bootstraps to the truth of “The Road Not Taken,” here are a few famous quotes you don’t actually know the meaning of. 

red_ravenhawk 1y ago romeo, oh romeo, wherefore art thou romeo? juliet is not asking where romeo is. she's asking him WHY he is romeo montague 206 Award Share ... CivilRuin4111 1y ago Everyone always asks where is Romeo. Never asks why is Romeo. 183 Award Share ...
slagaholic 1y ago Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Leaving out the adjective foolish changes the meaning significantly. Emerson's full quote is A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. 99 Share Award ... + 6 more replies
WaifuxSerenade 1y ago Money is the root of all evil. It's often misquoted; the original is For the love of money is the root of all evil. The misinterpretation might make you think any money is bad, but it's really about greed causing problems. 941 Award Share ...
microgiant 1y ago The exception proves the rule. What this means is that if you acknowledge the existence of an exception to a rule, you are implicitly acknowledging the existence of the rule itself. If | put up a sign saying No parking on Tuesdays then | am acknowledging that parking is generally allowed on other days. 696 Award Share ...
loopywolf 1y ago A rolling stone gathers no moss is commonly used to mean you should up sticks and leave any place before too long. I mean.. who wants to grow moss? The original intent was the opposite. If you never put down roots, you'll never build much of anything. From the dictionary: PROVERB - a person who does not settle in one place will not accumulate wealth or status, or responsibilities or commitments. - 65 Award Share ...
CrazyDazyMazy 1y ago To thine own self be true is generally used to justify a rather selfish approach, yet the full quote actually means the opposite: This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. To really be true to oneself means to treat others properly, as evidence of one's own good character. 279 Award Share ...
JMellor737 1y ago Edited 1y ago People always use the road less traveled as an expression of the courage to be yourself, but that is not what the phrase and the poem are about at all. The poem by Robert Frost is not called The Road Less Traveled. It is called The Road Not Taken, and the distinction is critical because the poem is not, despite what many people seem to think, about being yourself and having the courage to take the path that is less popular. It is about how we cannot take back our choices, and the decisions
ATF AlphaTangoFoxtrt 1y ago This isn't an peace treaty, it's a 20 year armistice. Said by Ferdinand Foch on the treaty of Versailles. Не was of course right. But people think he wanted a lighter treaty, because a big catalyst for Germany radicalizing was the harsh terms of the treaty of Versailles. Foch wanted HARSHER terms. Не basically wanted to dissolve Germany back to the individual states and have France permanently occupy the Rhineland. 21 Award Share ...
Svifir 1y ago Edited 1y ago The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. - hate this one, it's not the definition of insanity, Einstein said this about quantum physics where quantum entanglement was random and he didn't like it, and he was wrong on that one, and you can expect different results from doing the same thing, and he also probably didn't say it lol 128 Award Share ...
Groovy_Chainsaw 1y ago Andy Warhol's  In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes i is misunderstood. Не didn't mean that everyone would be famous, he meant that everyone who would be famous would ONLY be famous for 15 minutes -- it pertains to shortening attention spans. 16 Award Share ...
Rodby 1y ago When Alexander looked upon the breadth of his domain he wept, for there were no worlds left to conquer. Misquote. The actual quote is: Alexander, whan he herde Anaxarchus argue that there were infynite worldes, it is said that he wept. And whan his frendes asked hym what thing had happened him to be wept for: 'Is it nat to be wept for, quod he, syns they say there be infynite worldes, and we are nat yet lorde of one? The original quote implies Alexander wept because he conquered so much land there was nothing left for
igomhn3 1y ago Money can't buy happiness. It's not aimed at poor people to make them feel better. It's aimed at rich people to criticize them for consumerism. 27 Award Share ... + 1 more reply
myfriendsbeingdumb 4y ago Curiosity killed the cat. They always forget the second part. The entire saying is: Curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back 31 Award Share ...
seraph089 4y ago Pick yourself up by your boot straps is supposed to mean something that is literally impossible to do. Not that hard work can accomplish it. - 39 Award Share ... Fytemebr0 4y ago That is indeed pretty amusing. 8 Award Share ... + 9 more replies
allothernamestaken 4y ago One bad apple spoils the bunch People often use this to play down something negative - it's only one bad apple - while ignoring the rest of the phrase. Award Share 11 ...
avataruto0403 4y ago Don't mess with Texas started as an anti-littering campaign but people took it literally like: Yeah don't fuck with us 9 Award Share ... + 1 more reply
 4y ago Blood is thicker than water.... - 23 Award Share ... camyok 4y ago According to Albert Jack and Richard Pustelniak, at least, the water in question referes to the water of the womb, while blood refers to the one spilled in battle or drawn for a covenant. But the earliest recorded forms of the proverb go I also hear it said, kin-blood is not spoiled by water, which would suggest the modern meaning is not that far from the original. 15 Award Share ...
middlenamefrank 1y ago Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing by Vince Lombardi quoting an earlier source. It sounds awful without the context of his full pep talk. Не said on his deathbed that he was talking about focus. Okay, the rent is late, the car is being repossessed, the kids are acting up. But for the next sixty minutes, none of that matters. Winning truly isn't everything, but for the next hour, it's the only thing. 10 Award Share ...
Cum_on_doorknob 1y ago Do as I say, not as | do It's not about some prick doing whatever they want and forcing you to obey some rule. It's about teaching people proper fundamentals in a skill, while, you as an expert, are able to skirt beyond those fundamentals due to experience. Example: Roger Federer would not teach SABR to a novice tennis player. Award Share 19 ...
degobrah 1y ago Religion is the opiate of the masses It doesn't mean that people are idiots for believing in a higher power. It means that, like opium, it can have a soothing effect on those suffering, but that it can also have a delibilitating effect if overdone. While Marx himself might have been disdainful of religion, he was not disdainful of the proletariat who practiced it. I've explained this quite simply and would love to have someone else explain it further 47 Award Share ...
Elevenst 4y ago YOLO. It means if you only live once, you should be more careful with decisions that may effect your life, not doing things as if you have another back-up life. You only live once, so don't fuck it up. 9 Award Share ...
wuau_zhang 4y ago Jack of all master of none. The complete quote is: A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. 14 Award Share ...
bitterred 12y ago The Brown M&M Clause in Van Halen's contract. The (out of context) story makes them seem like rich assholes...cancel the show because there were brown M&M's backstage? But in actuality it was there way to check to see if their contract was being adhered to. It's hard to go through and make sure everything is safe before the show, but a quick and easy way to make sure that someone followed the contract was to see if there were any brown M&Ms. - 131 Award Share ... BlueEyedMind 12y ago I always wondered if they actually WERE
FalseGix 1y ago Edited 1y ago Einstein quote Do not worry about your difficulty in math, I assure you mine are greater had been widely interpreted to mean that Einstein was bad at math, but no, he was a genius, he excelled at math, he was referring to the extremely difficult problems he was trying to solve using complicated non-euclidean geometry. So basically saying everyone struggles with the math that is at the level they are working at 607 Award Share ...

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