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In standard usage of the phrase "in the immortal words of...", are there any restrictions on the mortality of the speaker? I typically only hear it used for deceased speakers who once walked the Earth. In my mind it conjures up images of people with great historical significance, but perhaps it's not limited in that regard. Consider the following examples.

Case 1: The speaker is deceased.

In the immortal words of John F. Kennedy, "Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly."

Case 2: The speaker is alive, at least at the time of quoting.

In the immortal words of Stephen Hawking, "Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."

Case 3: The speaker is fictional.

In the immortal words of John Rambo, "I'm no tourist."

Are all of these situations typical uses of the phrase?

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    In my experience the phrase is just as likely to be used ironically: "In the immortal words of Gene Simmons, 'I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day.'"
    – phenry
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 16:01
  • I don't even see irony in that. The lyric remains recognizable now, and is likely to remain recognizable for quite some time. After all, it's the words, not the man, that we call immortal here.
    – Gary Botnovcan
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 16:27
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    The irony lies not in its recognition-factor but in its lack of gravitas.
    – TimR
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 17:08
  • The formula is sub-optimally successful with very brief utterances: I put it to you that "In the immortal words of General de Gaulle, Non!" is unsatisfactory, while "In the immortal word of General de Gaulle, Non!" is equally lacking, but in a slightly different way.
    – Erik Kowal
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 7:34

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For starters, it is not the speaker of the words that is ascribed immortality, but the words themselves.

So even if I quote somebody who has proven not to be immortal, their words can still be considered immortal.

However, like so many positive adjectives, immortal has been plagued by overuse. Sure, when I talk about the "immortal words of Jesus", one could argue that "love thy neighbour" has come close to immortality. On the other hand, referring to the immortal words of my dad “don't push when the sign says "pull"”, the words are not likely to be really immortal.

As happens often in these cases, the word actually loses its meaning and may even acquire an opposite meaning: unless you are really quoting words that have survived for a very long time or obviously deserve to do so, the immortal words are likely to be an interesting remark that will soon be forgotten.

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  • Thank you for your thoughtful answer. I know the phrase doesn't imply that the speaker is immortal, only the words are. I suppose what I meant to ask was whether the speaker being alive, dead, or fictional has any impact on whether the words can be considered immortal, perhaps in the sense that the words live on beyond the person's death.
    – Alex A.
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 15:46

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