Prophecy Quotation
A quoted statement about the future, remembered mainly because of how it turned out.
A prophecy quotation is any line predicting what will happen, preserved and re-circulated once the outcome is known. Its power is retrospective: the words gain weight only when the reader already knows the ending.
Two families exist. Vindicated predictions are quoted as evidence of insight, and failed predictions are quoted as evidence of arrogance — 'There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home' is famous only because it was wrong.
Because hindsight distorts, prophecy quotations are unusually prone to misattribution and trimming. Always check the surrounding sentences: many confident-sounding predictions were hedged in the original, and the hedge is what gets cut.
Common mistake: presenting a lucky guess as foresight. Quote the reasoning alongside the prediction when you can — the reasoning is what shows whether the speaker actually understood the situation.
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
Keep reading the glossary
A quote attributed to a famous person that they almost certainly never said.
Assigning a quote to the wrong person — the most common error in quotation.
A research tradition (and a well-known website) devoted to tracing the true origin of famous quotations.
An authoritative pronouncement — a saying with the weight of a verdict.