Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Book ·285 of 348
"The pot calling the kettle black."
They never said that.
What people say
"The pot calling the kettle black."
What was actually said
"Said the pot to the kettle, "Get away, blackface."" Thomas Shelton, Don Quixote translation (1620)
Why it stuck
The earliest English form imagines the pot speaking. Modern usage freezes it as a third-person description — the dialogue that made the proverb bite is lost.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.