Sort of like the Hadith?

Spurious Thoughts

I found the following interesting materials here.

"Abraham Lincoln Quotations and Sayings. Spurious"

Spurious, Hearsay, and Obscure Quotations

Compilation and Commentary

Excerpts from newspapers and other sources

From the files of the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection

Bulletin of the Lincoln National Life Foundation ------ Dr. Louis A. Warren, Editor,

Published each week by The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, Indiana . . . .

Number 750

Fort Wayne, Indiana

August 23, 1943

Did Lincoln say it?

One of the most certain proofs of the immortality of a man is the tendency to emphasize the importance of the epigrams he used. The anthology of Lincoln's pointed sayings, approaches in wisdom, the proverbs of Solomon, and they have contributed immeasurably to the fame of the prairie philosopher. It is not known, generally, that the writings and printed speeches of Abraham Lincoln, in total wordage exceed the complete works of Shakespeare.

Lincoln wrote more than Shakespeare! I did not know that. But even more interesting is the following:

Another element which confirms the eternal fame of a man is the tendency to put in his month, as it were, words presenting some certain philosophy of life which the ghost writer desires to advance. We are now in that stage of the Lincoln apotheosis when a great mass of spurious quotations are being credited to Lincoln which he never recited.

The hadith - 'wise' things that Muhammad said and did - can be shown to have expanded in a very similar manner. Muslims themselves have noted this and have tried to identify the false attributions.