Ivanka Trump was mocked on Twitter Tuesday morning after she appeared to misattribute a motivational quote to ancient Greek philosopher Socrates.
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new,” President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser tweeted.
However, some folks noted that Socrates the philosopher didn’t actually coin the phrase. Instead, they said, it was originated by a gas attendant charactercalled Socrates in author Dan Millman’s bestselling fictionalized memoir, Way Of The Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives.
The Millman book theory was backed up by old posts on the QuoteInvestigator.com and WikiQuote.org websites.
Trump’s tweet was deleted after around 30 minutes of being online. It was later replaced with this post, which clarified that the Socrates she cited was indeed “a fictional character.”
The flub predictably caused much mirth online: