Getty Jax Taylor attends the 2019 E! People's Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on November 10, 2019 in Santa Monica, California.
Jax Taylor drew ridicule from fans on social media after he posted a tweet with a quote that he misattributed and wrote incorrectly.
The former “Vanderpump Rules” star posted on April 19, “Small minds discuss people….Great minds discuss ideas and events~Denzel Washington.” The tweet didn’t get much traction on Twitter but it was quickly shared on Reddit as fans pointed out that the former Bravolebrity wrote the quote incorrectly and misattributed it to Denzel Washington.
Small minds discuss people….Great minds discuss ideas and events~Denzel Washington
One person screengrabbed the tweet and shared it in a Reddit thread with the title, “I’m howling at Jax’s quote attribution for this (commonly attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, though may be older- but def not Denzel).”
Follow the Heavy on Bravolebrities Facebook page for the latest breaking news, rumors and content!
There Were Many Critical Reactions to the Version of the Quote Shared by Taylor
In response to the Reddit thread, one person replied, “this looks like one of my facebook statuses from when i was 12 and trying to be ‘mature.'” A few people commented on the thread and said Taylor has spoken about other people many times in the past. “Also funny considering he is like the most gossipy current or former cast member, lol,” one person wrote. Another added, “Yes! Like he made his living for years by talking about other people.”
Another person said, “It reminds me of Michael Scott quoting himself quoting Wayne Gretzky,” referencing an iconic moment on The Office. Someone pointed out, “Well, Denzel said it during an acceptance speech once. My guess is he saw a clip and didn’t investigate further.”
One Redditor commented, “That’s not even the quote.” Another wrote, “Lmaooooooooo. This cannot be real… not only did he quote the wrong person, he butchered the quote.” Someone said, “Just imagining Jax discussing an idea, any idea made my mind smaller,” while another agreed, “What kind of ideas do you think he ‘discusses’ lol.”
Washington did bring up the quote during a speech accepting the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019 and quoted it in full then attributed it to Eleanor Roosevelt. The original statement is most often quoted as, “Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.” However, while it’s usually attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, that is also false and the true author is unknown.
According to Quote Investigator, the first known written remark addressing conversations about people, events, and ideas came in a 1901 autobiography by Charles Stewart, who quoted history scholar Henry Thomas Buckle and wrote, “Buckle said, in his dogmatic way: ‘Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas.'”
This statement was later condensed and shared over the next several decades but with no true attribution for the version known to many today until it was falsely attributed to Roosevelt for the first known time in 1987.
Taylor Has Come Under Fire by Fans in the Past for Sharing Quotes on His Social Media
It’s not the first time that Taylor’s sharing of quotes has drawn criticism from fans. Recently, the former Bravo star shared an unattributed quote about parenthood on his Instagram Stories which stated, “Parenthood is updating your baby’s wardrobe every 3 months while you wear clothes you’ve had since 2015.”
Fans were quick to call out Taylor and asked him what he’s been wearing since 2015, with some criticizing the Bravo star for “negativity.” At another point, he was blasted by fans for another quote, this time an unattributed quote about childhood. He wrote in part:
If you were raised on bologna, drank Pepsi, played in the dirt, got your butt spanked, had 3 TV channels & had an outside antenna, school started with ‘The Pledge’, had a bedtime, rode in back of pickup trucks, recorded songs from the radio using cassette tapes, drank from a hose, played in the creek, said sir and ma’am… and you still turned out OK, say d*** right.
Quite a few Reddit users criticized Taylor’s take, with many of them questioning whether Taylor “turned out OK.”
READ NEXT: Former Reality Star Blasted as ‘Disgusting’ After Bravo Appearance