I sat down to write this column over a quote I saw on a poster in the Baker University Collins Library. The quote read, “Be the change you wish to see.” While many sources attribute these words to Mahatma Gandhi, turns out there’s no reliable documentation of him ever saying any such thing.

Suddenly, it didn’t seem appropriate to write about why people should be inspired by that quote and continually strive to make the world a better place through their own small actions because, in fact, Gandhi is not the only one who has had words put in his mouth.

Our founding fathers are quoted as saying a lot of things about a lot of issues and surprisingly, many of these quotes cannot be proven. In fact, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation has a list of dozens of quotes that have been attributed to Jefferson on their website, Monticello.org. These “spurious quotes,” as the website calls them, have never been found in any of Jefferson’s writings and yet many continue to circulate.

One in particular is often used in gun control debates. It says, “When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

One can see how this would be a perfect quote to use in a debate on gun control, almost too perfect. In fact, the earliest known appearance of this quote in print wasn’t until 1989, when it appeared in an article arguing that the founding fathers gave individuals the right to keep and bear arms. According to Monticello.org, the quote then appeared in a number of articles in quick succession in the mid-1990s.

So while I think it’s despicable that someone would use a founding father as a puppet just to try to win an argument, I can’t say I’m all that surprised it happens. That just shows how important it is to be a critical thinker and sift through the information you’re given. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself declaring to be on one side of an issue just because you think your favorite author or historical figure had that opinion.

Apparently the saying, don’t believe everything you hear (even if you’re told it was a founding father who said it) still holds true today.