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One of the first rules of journalism is to get your facts straight before sitting down to write. Sadly, even the biggest publications fail to do that sometimes.

Sifting through the interwebs to find a new catchy quote for our audience, I came across this inspiring piece of writing that most sites attribute to Mark Twain, the famous 19th century author and humorist.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

The words are erroneously attributed to Mark Twain, as many other citations for that matter. In fact, according to some, this particular one is the most commonly misattributed quote on the web.

So we’re glad to be doing this public service and inform our readers that these words of wisdom, in fact, belong to the mother of H. Jackson Brown, an American author best known for his inspirational volume, “Life’s Little Instruction Book. The actual quote – which Brown himself attributes to his mother – can be found in his 1991 book, “P.S. I Love You: When Mom Wrote, She Always Saved the Best for Last” (page 13).