I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha flags and explains the many misquotes attributed to the sage. It’s collected and maintained by Bodhipaksa, a Buddhist author since 1982 and a member of the Triratna Buddhist Order.
They’re everywhere you look: Twitter, Facebook, blogs, quotes sites — even in books by well-known Buddhists. Fake Buddha Quotes abound.
To those who are familiar with the Buddhist scriptures, these Hallmark-style quotes attributed to the Buddha ring false, but it seems many people are preferentially attracted to the fake variety.
It’s hard sometimes to pinpoint why they sound fake. Usually it’s the language, which may be too flowery and poetic. Sometimes it’s the subject matter, which sounds too contemporary. The thing is, that although the Buddhist scriptures are vast (way larger than the Bible) they’re often not very quotable, or at least they tend not to have the immediate appeal that some of the fake variety has.
Bonus: Real Buddha Quotes that sound fake, such as “People with opinions just go around bothering each other.”