evidence: The average person could hardly be faulted for thinking the stirring words quoted above were spoken by former South African president Nelson Mandela, as they have been attributed to him in numerous web sites, films, books, and motivational posters, often cited as a passage from the speech Mandela gave upon his inauguration as the first black president of South Africa. [...] This oft-reproduced reflection about "our deepest fear" originated with the 1992 work A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles, the best-selling first book by author Marianne Williamson (who later sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination). Of the misattribution of her words, Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people.