“Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
This is attributed to Lincoln in the 1960 film adaptation of Pollyanna. In reality, it was fabricated by screenwriter and director David Swift, who had to have thousands of lockets bearing the false inscription recalled after Disney began selling them at Disneyland.
Misattributed
“Those who look for the bad in people will surely find it.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Jodi Picoult (1966) Author
Variant: If you choose to be looking for something, you'd better be ready for whatever it is you are find. Because it may not be what you've been expecting.
Source: Vanishing Acts
“If you are unable to find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”
Dogen (1200–1253) Japanese Zen buddhist teacher
Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet
Y si cuanto encuentras es en cuanto buscas, siempre, en vano encuentras, en vano buscas.
Voces (1943)
“Redemption is never where you expect to find it.”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist
Source: Fire and Ice
“For a ballad's a thing you expect to find lies in.”
Samuel Lover (1797–1868) Irish song-writer, novelist, and painter
Paddy Blake's Echo; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 56.