Drink Deep, or Taste Not the Pierian Spring

摘要

Most famous quotations are fabricated; after all, who can concoct a high witticism at a moment of maximal stress in battle or just before death. A military commander will surely mutter a mundane "Oh hell, here they come" rather than the inspirational "Don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes." Similarly, we know many great literary lines by a standard misquotation rather than accurate citation. Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam," and Jesus did not proclaim that "he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword." Ironically, for this special issue on learning, the most famous of all quotations bungles the line and substitutes "knowledge" for the original.