Okzharp, Mantha Ribane B U (2016)
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” In the virtual realm, this quote ranges among the most popular ones credited to Irish writer Oscar Wilde—even though the author of The Importance of Being Earnest and The Picture of Dorian Gray never wrote or said it.
There are other examples of misattributed quotes: Albert Einstein, for example, gets the credit for the line "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." You can buy a plethora of t-shirts, mugs and other bits and bobs that feature the line in combination with Einstein’s face or name. But it is nowhere to be found either in his writings or documented speeches. (Actually, feminist writer Rita Mae Brown should get credit for the statement…)
The explanations for the phenomenon of quote misattribution are manyfold: Complex ideas often are broken down into succinct statements that are easy to remember. Over time, these simplifications are attributed to the person whose ideas inspired them. In other cases, the name of a famous person simply is attached to a witty sentence to make it seem more significant. And then there is confirmation bias: People tend to believe things that fit their preconceived ideas about a person.
Oscar Wilde, for example, did actually write several remarks about the (self-)perception of people that are related to the quote above in some way or another. But most of the time his thinking went along other lines.
Tapping into the idea of being true to oneself—and we do have evidence here!—is a duo consisting of producer Okzharp and singer and dancer Manthe Ribane. “Be you, be your dream come true, for real,” Ribane sings in their bass-heavy song “B U”, which was released in 2016. It is our song of the day.
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