My Favorite One-Liners: Part 41

In this series, I’m compiling some of the quips and one-liners that I’ll use with my students to hopefully make my lessons more memorable for them.

Every once in a while, my brain, my lips, and my hands get out of sync while I’m teaching, so that I’ll write down what I really mean but I’ll say something that’s different. (I don’t think that this affliction is terribly unique to me, which is why I err on the side of grace whenever a politician or other public figure makes an obvious mistake in a speech.) Of course, such mistakes still have to be corrected, and often students will point out that I said something that was completely opposite of what I meant to say. When this happens, I jocularly wave my fingers at my class with the following playful admonition:

Do what I mean, not what I say.