David Petraeus Quotes

I think people have a tendency to read into more than there is.

Headlines are so great in a sense that they can take a little bit from an article completely out of context and blow it into something it's not. Some people really only read headlines.

I may have exaggerated a bit when I said that 80 per cent of the top 100 women are fat pigs. What I meant to say was 75 per cent of the top 100 women are fat pigs.

When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute.

When people sometimes misquote me, I don't know if they understand what I'm saying.

Things definitely got out of perspective.

I'm the most misunderstood, misquoted person I know, honestly.

The problem with merely writing so that you can be understood is that the wrong people, in advancing their agendas, are only too ready to misunderstand you. Writing so that you cannot be misunderstood anticipates and preempts those who would willfully distort what you are trying to say.

Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.

For years, I've been interviewed, and they write what they thought I thought or what they thought I said. Sometimes it's accurate, and often it isn't.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.

People misinterpret what I say all the time: They think I'm being offensive, when really, I'm only being opinionated.

I'm surprised sometimes at how some of my actions are misinterpreted.

A lot of things get misinterpreted with me, I guess.

Sometimes, words are twisted and don't reach people in their intended way.

There are some people in this world who always turn and twist the spoken word out of proportion.

People will hear one thing and just run with it.

Online, your quotes can now be picked up around the world, twisted, translated, and interpreted to mean the opposite of what you have actually said.

I am the most misunderstood and misrepresented of men. Misrepresented because misunderstood.

When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion.

Who hears wrong, replies wrong.

You could put it that way if you wanted to cause people concern. On the other hand, you could report it as I said it.

Any order that can be misunderstood, will be misunderstood

I've had it up to my ears with the personal mythology. It's getting kind of personally sickening. The personal stuff just turns out to be misinterpreted. I've had such an earful for so long, it's gotten tedious. I figure if you stay away from it, you're safe.