“The rich are different” – and so are politicians and the French

FAMOUS QUOTE AND COUNTERQUOTE: F. Scott Fitzgerald: “The rich are different from you and me.” Ernest Hemingway: “Yes, they have more money.”        Their legendary quote-counterquote exchange

UPDATED COUNTERQUOTE: “The rich are different from you and me: they cheat more on their taxes.”        Lynn Brenner        American financial writer        Newsday, April 2, 1995

POLITICIANS VERSION: “Politicians are different from you and me. The business of reaching for power does something to a man…he instinctively calculates each new situation and each new situation and each other man with the simplest question: What can this do for me.”        Richard Reeves        American presidential historian          in his book A Ford, not a Lincoln (1975)

NAKED TRUTH VARIATION “The French are different from you and me, assuming, of course, that you're not French, in which case the French are different from me, and the Americans are different from you.”        Leslie Nielsen        Canadian actor and comic genius        In his book The Naked Truth (1994)

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You are what you eat, think or know (or were you?)

FAMOUS QUOTE: “You Are What You Eat”        Dr. Victor Hugo Lindlahr (1895-1969)        Pioneering American health food advocate        The title of his 1942 book, which popularized the phrase

CRITTERS COUNTERQUOTE: “YOU ARE WHAT THEY EAT.”        Ad slogan for the movie Critters 3 (1991)         One of Leonardo DiCaprio’s early films

BUDDHA’S VERSION: “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”        Buddha (c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE)        Indian spiritual teacher        The Dhammapada (c. 300 BCE)

BURKE’S VERSION: “You are what you know.”        James Burke (b. 1936)        British science historian        In his book The Day the Universe Changed (1985)

TABLOID VARIATION: “You are what you were: expert reveals how past lives control everything you do – TODAY!”        Headline from The Weekly World News (Nov. 6, 2001)        The world’s ONLY reliable news source (now online)

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“A House Divided”

FAMOUS BIBILICAL QUOTE: “Every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”        Jesus        Quoted in the Bible, Matthew 12:25        The inspiration for Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote

STUDENT COUNTERQUOTE: “A horse divided against itself cannot stand.”         A “student blooper”         Quoted by Richard Lederer in The Bride of Anguished English

ANTHROPOLIGIST’S VERSION: “A cultural system divided against itself cannot behave in a rational manner.”        Leslie Alvin White (1900-1975)        American anthropologist        Comment in 1975, quoted by Jack P. Gibbs in Control: Sociology’s Central Notion

GEORGE DIVIDED VARIATION: “You see, right now I have Relationship George. But there is also Independent George...If Relationship George walks through this door, he will kill Independent George. A George divided against itself cannot stand!”         George Costanza (actor Jason Alexander)         In the “Pool Guy” episode of Seinfeld (Season 7, Episode 8, 1995)

More from Richard Lederer and Leslie A. White…

“A House Divided” – the Political Pundits Versions

LINCOLN’S FAMOUS QUOTE: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”        Abraham Lincoln         Speech at the Republican State Convention, June 16, 1858

OBERMANN’S VERSION: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half smart and half stupid.”        Keith Olbermann        Liberal media pundit        Comment on Republican Congressman Joe Wilson yelling "You lie! at President Obama        On MSNBC's Countdown TV show, Sept. 10, 2009

BECK’S ODD VERSION: “Over 50% of the African-American community now believes that the cure of AIDS exists but the Government won’t release it because AIDS kills poor people. That’s frightening. A house divided against itself cannot fail.”        Glenn Beck        Conservative media pundit        On his radio show, March 24, 2008

COLBERT QUIP: “A house divided against itself cannot stand, but it's worth squat in this market anyway.”        Stephen Colbert        The supposedly faux political pundit        On his Colbert Report TV show, Jan. 13, 2009

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It means never having to – say what?

The latest QuoteCounterquote.com video… 

Ryan O'Neal in Love Story (1970)
                      vs.
Vincent Price in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
                      vs.
Steven Weber in The Shining (1997)
                      vs.
Klaus Kinski in Buddy Buddy (1981)
                      vs.
Jackie Gleason in The Toy (1982)

You can view this video and more quote humor videos on my YouTube channel.

More movie quote stuff…