Shaquille O’Neal may want to co-opt his former coach’s phrase for his own devices: “You know ‘Big Aristotle’ is just a nickname, right?”
Reader’s Digest apparently did not get the memo. In its “Quotable Quotes” section in the June issue, the magazine printed a saying once tweeted by Dr. O’Neal, Ed.D., only the Digest must not have been aware that writing something on Twitter is not the same as coining a phrase.
“Excellence is not a singular act; it’s a habit. You are what you repeatedly do,” O’Neal wrote, according to the Digest.
Well, O’Neal did say that, but it did not originate with him. In fact, it was Aristotle — the Greek philosopher, not the one who wore No. 36 for the Celtics — who said, “You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not a singular act; it’s a habit.” Not only did O’Neal not make up the motto, but he also got it backward.
Reader’s Digest printed a correction in the July edition. As for any future “Quotable Quotes” features, we’d like to advise the magazine ahead of time that O’Neal’s signature yell, “Can you dig it!” is from the movie The Warriors and was not invented by the Big Cochise. Also, he’s not really made of steel and he never moonlighted as a genie.
H/T Ball Don’t Lie
