Wikiquote talk:Misattribution

No Credible Claim

Wouldn't quotes that meet the criterion of "strong evidence provides no credibility to any claim of his or her authorship" be unsourced and thus ineligible for inclusion? Gilbertson49 02:07, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Same quote, two people
Suppose that A.B. said "something memorable." Later C.D. also said "something memorable." Assuming that C.D. didn't attribute the quote to A.B., would the quote be on both pages with a cross reference on both? Or does the original author get full credit, even if there's no evidence that the second author knew his/her remark was first made by someone else? I guess this is a case where I think misattribution is the wrong characterization, but the situation should be noted. Gilbertson49 02:13, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Attributing Quotes to Authorities for Credibility
Biblical scholars dispute the authorship of some of Paul's letters. Another author has not been identified. Paul is traditionally cited as the author of the disputed letters, but commentaries note the dispute. There are undoubtedly similar situations with other ancient texts. Rather than wade into this quagmire, I would suggest dropping the example. Gilbertson49 02:19, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * The example provides a contemporary instance of a quote that is not in any sense traceable to the attributed author. I think that is a different enough situation to avoid having biblical figures brought into it, as there is a difference between a disputed quote and a clearly misattributed quote. BD2412 T 03:45, 26 November 2010 (UTC)