Comment Not Marie Antoinette (Score 0) 265
The attribution to Marie Antoinette, according to the first few sites I googled, is incorrect, but neglecting that, this is not what I have always understood the quote to mean.
The original quote was ""Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". Brioche, according to wikipedia, is "a light but rich French bread made with a yeast dough and eggs, milk, butter and sugar."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brioche)
The quote refers to a huge disconnect between the ruler and his or her subjects. The original utterer (if there was one) didn't understand that people were starving because they had no bread. He/she assumed that they, like her, had a choice between bread and 'cake', and if they ran out of one, they could simply munch on the other for a while.
The original quote was ""Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". Brioche, according to wikipedia, is "a light but rich French bread made with a yeast dough and eggs, milk, butter and sugar."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brioche)
The quote refers to a huge disconnect between the ruler and his or her subjects. The original utterer (if there was one) didn't understand that people were starving because they had no bread. He/she assumed that they, like her, had a choice between bread and 'cake', and if they ran out of one, they could simply munch on the other for a while.
