GOP Posts Fake Lincoln Quote, Twitter Appropriately Goes Nuts

Let's keep Abe honest.
The Republican National Committee honored President Abraham Lincoln's 208th birthday with a quote that he most likely never said.
The Republican National Committee honored President Abraham Lincoln's 208th birthday with a quote that he most likely never said.
faustasyan via Getty Images

If weโ€™ve learned one thing so far this year, itโ€™s that not everything you see on the internet is true.

The Republican National Committee celebrated what would have been President Abraham Lincolnโ€™s 208th birthday on Sunday by gifting him with a quote that he likely never said.

The GOP shared a photo of the Lincoln Memorial on Twitter, and accompanied it with a quote attributed to the 16th president: โ€œAnd in the end, itโ€™s not the years in your life that count. Itโ€™s the life in your years.โ€

Problem is, thereโ€™s no evidence that Lincoln ever used that expression, according to Quote Investigator.

The site, which is run by quote sleuth Garson Oโ€™Toole, says the line was probably first used in the 1940s to advertise a book on aging by Dr. Edward J. Stieglitz.

โ€œThe important thing to you is not how many years in your life, but how much life in your years!โ€ the ad read.

Adlai Stevenson II, a former governor of Illinois and Democratic presidential nominee, reportedly used a similar version of the quote in speeches a few years later.

Twitter users were quick to point out this gaffe, as well as suggest some other lines Lincoln could have said โ€” but we can all but guarantee he didnโ€™t.

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