. One recent president (I forget which one, but I believe he had just signed or negotiated an international agreement) referred to the wisdom of Robert Frost in saying, "Good fences make good neighbors." He clearly did not realize that Frost had quoted this remark from someone else as an example of a stupid saying that people repeat without thinking. Again, Robert Kennedy used to say, "Some people look at things as they are and ask, ''Why.' I dream of things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'" The line comes from G B Shaw's play, "Back to Methuselah," where it is spoken in Eden, by the Serpent. Again, Ronald Reagan, speaking in New Jersey, referred to Bruce Springsteen's song, "Born in the USA," as if it were a cheerful celebration of how well off everyone in this country is, when in fact the lyrics are far gloomier than that.

From Ecclesiastes, many Sunday-school teachers quote (3:11) "He hath made everything beautiful in its time," without noticing that the speaker is complaining that God tantalized us with things that are beautiful but do not last, like an iridescent bubble. Others quote (3:1-9) "There is a time to mourn and a time to dance," or, "a time to kill and a time to heal," or other pairs of opposites from the same section, as if they meant that there are times when it is appropriate to dance (or kill), without noticing that the speaker is complaining that life is a pointless round of getting up and going to bed, gathering objects and scattering them, with nothing accomplished or changed in the long run.

A partial defense is to read a verse in several translations before you quote it, and to read (at least) the whole chapter.

Yours, James Kiefer