Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Speech ·2 of 348
"A dog is man's best friend."
They never said that.
What people say
"A dog is man's best friend."
What was actually said
"The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world… is his dog." George Graham Vest — Senator George Graham Vest, closing speech in Burden v. Hornsby, Warrensburg, Missouri (1870)
Why it stuck
Vest's three-minute eulogy for a shot foxhound won the case and was reprinted across the US. The shorter idiom is its distilled residue.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.