Misquote Quotes
Shmoop will make you a better lover...of quotes
ALL QUOTES POPULAR BROWSE BY AUTHOR BROWSE BY SOURCE BROWSE BY TOPIC BROWSE BY SUBJECTSource: Misquote
Speaker: Joseph Goebbels
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.
Context
This quote is attributed to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels regarding the propaganda technique "The Big Lie."
Anyone who's read 1984—heck, anyone who has glanced at the cover of 1984—wouldn't be surprised to know that someone in charge of propaganda would be capable of lying.
Goebbels wasn't talking about himself here, though. He was talking about the English, whom he believed "keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous" (source).
Not that the Nazi party would ever do anything like that... (Yeah, that's a propaganda-dismantling technique known as "sarcasm.")
Where you've heard it
This one gets dropped a lot when talking about propaganda.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
Apparently this quote isn't attributable to Goebbels at all (source). Does that make this quote propaganda about propaganda?