…If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart; if you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.
This is another quote that falls victim to “Shakespeare said” syndrome, where somebody decides to tack those two magical words onto an otherwise unattributed quote to make it sound better. And, of course, they stick.
I’d never heard this quote, and it doesn’t make particular sense to me (would you really want to be constantly on someone’s mind if they were just constantly relishing in the hatred they had for you?), but it’s apparently very popular on the SMS circuit. I can’t tell you how many shorthanded, randomly spelled versions of it I saw when I went searching for an original.
No idea where it came from. This is the sort of quote that could well have been written by some 13-year-old on MySpace who’d just broken up with her boyfriend. We’ll never know.
thanks for setting the record straight!
I don’t think that there is any record straightening happening here. I see no proof that this in fact is not Billy Boy’s quote.
Fair enough, Shawn, though proving a negative is a bit tricky. Wouldn’t it be more logical for someone to show evidence that Billy Boy *did* write it?
For my part, I’ve got multiple versions of Shakespeare’s works in searchable format, including the Clusty engine which is linked over in the sidebar under Tools and you’re welcome to use. Shakespeare only used the word “favor” 6 times, and never in the quoted context. If you prefer, he did tend to use “favour” more often…but “my favour”? He used 7 times. And, again, never like that.
I could do that, repeatedly, with most of the partial phrases in that quote. “in your heart” comes up 4 times – but “be in your heart”? Never. At what point would it be enough to prove it?
I think this quote is a perversion of Sonnet 90. But that’s just my opinion.
Well, I think that sufficient proof that Billy did not write this lies in the fact that it uses “you” for the singular subjective and “your” for possessive. Proper Shakespearean English would be “thou” and “thy.” While it may be possible that he did, I think it is highly unlikely to such a degree to make it severely improbable. As Jim said, if anything, it’s a perversion.
A reasonable point, Jonathan, though a bit oversimplified. “You” and “your” were valid words to Shakespeare, and he used each thousands of times. “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended, that *you* have but slumbered here….” to name just one off the top of my head. And, later in that same speech, “If *you* pardon, we will mend.”
I will have to check into Jim’s idea about Sonnet 90, I hadn’t thought of that.
Thanks for this info. I posted it wrong in my FB status. Lolz.
Godspeed! =)
First time I read this quote it was used by someones signature in referance to an Anime I liked. I thought it was bleach or naruto. Research lead me to notbyshakespeare which wasnt exactly the answer I was looking for :). Maybe my hint can help someone else researching. The quotes referance in the storyline was said by something not quite human but seeking immortality.
Hi Mike!
Sorry it wasn’t what you were looking for :). If you find an actual source please let us know, I much prefer being able to state definitively where a quote did come from, instead of just saying “Trust me, not Shakespeare.” We certainly know that it’s not in anything he wrote, but it’s always nicer to be able to say who did say it.
It is by swami vivekananda
Thanks, Shahi. Any chance you can prove that? Do you have a link or citation?
really it is not by Swami Vivekananda for which Ramakrishna math monks agree
I just saw some use this quote on their page, & I thought to myself Shakespeare would never write something so typical that reads like a Hallmark card written by Jack Handey. His works, along with the simplest of quotes are written in Old English which would certainly guarantee a bit of deciphering.
Technically what Shakespeare wrote in is in fact considered Early Modern English, if you can believe it. But yes, I agree completely on the “Hallmark card” nature of the quote.
This is the best I could find so far to back up the fact that it’s swami vivekananda:
http://rishikajain.com/2011/08/17/like-me-or-hate-me-both-are-in-my/
This was said by Swami Vivekananda.
If there’s this much controversy about the quote, then I doubt anybody knows for a fact who said it to begin with. I’ve personally always read that it’s Shakespeare’s, and until somebody invents a time machine and travels back to ask him, I don’t think we’ll ever know for certain. So I’m just as content giving Shakespeare the quote as anybody else.
Stranger, we don’t need a time machine; we need a manuscript that attributes it to him and there is none. Grown-up English Literature scholars to that; they look for sources. Without that, it is just as likely that Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, or Fran Lebowitz wrote it and there is no reason to attribute it to Shakespeare, and in fact, we should only assume that he didn’t write it unless someone produces a source.
A friend posted the quote with Shakespeare’s name attached to it, and being such a big fan of Shakespeare’s work I had to Google it. First off, it just doesn’t sound like Shakespeare, he writes so eloquently and doesn’t use the wordage we use today.
CORRECTED: Please disregard the previous submission of this post! Somehow, I left the other “t” off my last name.
THIS IS MY QUOTE! I created this quote off the top of my head (as all my quotes are) and posted on my radio show Facebook page, some years ago. Some hater decided they liked it but instead of them giving me the credit, they put Shakepeare’s name on it! I’m temporarily out of radio but I have hundreds and hundreds of quotes, some of which get treated this same way! I have haters, because I am known to speak my mind/opinion about stuff and the hater who did this did not want me to become popular…as a matter of fact, I just went to another former radio show hosts page yesterday (which I do often), who has millions of people on his page and he posted a “one of the best quotes” thingy for 2014 and one of the quotes was mine but at the bottom he put his name on it!
PEOPLE ARE EVIL! I can be found on facebook under. http://Facebook.com/iamkimmewyatt (Now That’s What I’m Talking About) but be warned, I have removed all of my quotes, documents and will be eventually moving them to my new g+ page here: https://plus.google.com/108285572919220532141.
MYSTERY SOLVED!
– KimMe Wyatt
I have no idea about Shakespeare’s works. However, I thought someone who wrote this quote was quite desperately fallen in love. He or she either be loved or harted, just wanted to be in one’s heart and mind.
I love this quote and makes total sense to me don’t know what you guys are on about!!! maybe you guys just don’t know the feeling unlike some of us (me) 🙁
As mentioned here in a previous post, This Is My Quote, not Shakespeare’s and I have NEVER heard of this Swammi person. I just clicked the link to this page from doing a search on my name, remembered posting here and noticed I mention I’m on Faceboo. CORRECTION, I promote G+, so, I’m here: http://plus.google.com/+KimMeWyatt and I have a Quotes By KimMe Wyatt collection. You can see some of my works there and please Follow…Thanks!
Whence these lines? Sonnet N°… ?