--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: But if two and two and fifty make a…" description: "\"But if two and two and fifty make a million,...\" — Pete Seeger" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/796/pete-seeger-1942_fifty_but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-mill_1878293.png" --- # But if two and two and fifty make a million,... ![“But if two and two and fifty make a million,...” quote by Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/796/pete-seeger-1942_fifty_but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-mill_1878293.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/796/pete-seeger-1942_fifty_but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-mill_1878293.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/796/pete-seeger-1942_fifty_but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-mill_1878293.png) > “But if two and two and fifty make a million,...” [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. He humorously critiques how small amounts can be exaggerated into large sums, warning against manipulation. **In simple terms:** Small numbers can be blown up to seem huge. Key Takeaway Question the inflation of simple facts. Themes economics critique humor politics truth Mood skeptical alert Type cautionary educational When to use this quote - political campaign - advertising - budget planning - media analysis Key Concepts propaganda statistical distortion Questions to Reflect On - When have you seen numbers misused? - How can we verify claims? A Different Perspective Oversimplification can hide underlying issues. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Fifty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fifty/) [Ifs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ifs/) [Inspirational](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/inspirational/) [Make](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/make/) [Make Million](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/make-million/) [Mathematical](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/mathematical/) [Million](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/million/) [Millions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/millions/) [Two](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/two/) ## Related quotes > [I make $7 million per year. I'm not going to be mad at a guy making $10 million. 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I'd like to make another movie, but I don't want to go back and \[do\] what they want you… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-waters/maybe-i-ll-just-write-books-i-d-like-to-make-another-movie-but-i-don/) [John Waters](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-waters/) > [For chat-room tyros who expect to make their first million day-trading by age 27, paging through the Sunday newspaper with a pair of scissors…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alex-berenson/for-chat-room-tyros-who-expect-to-make-their-first-million-day/) [Alex Berenson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alex-berenson/) > [The nation did not begin to realize the extraordinary possibilities of the vast Western territory until its attention was thus suddenly and definitely concentrated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-moody/the-nation-did-not-begin-to-realize-the-extraordinary-possibilities/) [John Moody](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-moody/) > [I do not know an instance of a major mathematical advance initiated by a man past fifty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-h-hardy/i-do-not-know-an-instance-of-a-major-mathematical-advance-initiated/) [G. H. Hardy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-h-hardy/) > [No mathematician should ever allow him to forget that mathematics, more than any other art or science, is a young man's game. ... Galois…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/no-mathematician-should-ever-allow-him-to-forget-that-mathematics/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [CNN stands to make a hundred million dollars more than it's expected lift for the election cycle, due to the phenomenon that is Donald…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-folkenflik/cnn-stands-to-make-a-hundred-million-dollars-more-than-it-s-expected/) [David Folkenflik](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-folkenflik/) > [ People think \[baseball players\] make $3 million and $4 million a year. They don't realize that most of us only make $500,000. ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-incaviglia/people-think-baseball-players-make-3-million-and-4-million-a-year/) [Pete Incaviglia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-incaviglia/) > [A shrewd person would one day start a religion based on coincidence, if he hasn't already, and make a million.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/a-shrewd-person-would-one-day-start-a-religion-based-on-coincidence/) [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) > [This is Wall Street, and today is important. Because tomorrow, July 4th, I intended to make my first million dollars--an excitingday in a man's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/abraham-polonsky/this-is-wall-street-and-today-is-important-because-tomorrow-july-4th/) [Abraham Polonsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/abraham-polonsky/) ## More by Pete Seeger > [Honest songs aren't written for money.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/honest-songs-aren-t-written-for-money/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [My father, Charles Seeger, got me into the Communist movement. He backed out around '38. I drifted out in the 50's.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/my-father-charles-seeger-got-me-into-the-communist-movement-he-backed/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [In the sixties, during the Vietnam war, when anarchists and pacifists and socialists, Democrats and Republicans, decent-hearted Americans, all recoiled with horror at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/in-the-sixties-during-the-vietnam-war-when-anarchists-and-pacifists/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [Now somebody will ask me, Pete, how can you prove these songs really make a difference? And I have to confess I can't prove…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/now-somebody-will-ask-me-pete-how-can-you-prove-these-songs-really/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [The truth is a rabbit in a bramble patch. All you can do is circle around and say it's somewhere in there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/the-truth-is-a-rabbit-in-a-bramble-patch-all-you-can-do-is-circle/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [I was about 16 years old years when my father took me to a square dance festival in North Carolina. For the first time…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/i-was-about-16-years-old-years-when-my-father-took-me-to-a-square/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [It was Rachel Carson's famous book 'Silent Spring' that got me involved with the environment. I read it in The New Yorker, in installments.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/it-was-rachel-carson-s-famous-book-silent-spring-that-got-me-involved/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [When you play the 12-string guitar, you spend half your life tuning the instrument and the other half playing it out of tune.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/when-you-play-the-12-string-guitar-you-spend-half-your-life-tuning/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [Folks out in the country couldn't afford to pay for anybody else to make music. They had to make their own. So the peasantry…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/folks-out-in-the-country-couldn-t-afford-to-pay-for-anybody-else-to/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [If there's something wrong, speak up!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/if-there-s-something-wrong-speak-up/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [This world is so full of hypocrisy, the only way you can be honest is to be a hermit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/this-world-is-so-full-of-hypocrisy-the-only-way-you-can-be-honest-is/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [There is a big, beautiful world that could be destroyed by selfishness and foolishness. We musicians have it within our power to help save…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/there-is-a-big-beautiful-world-that-could-be-destroyed-by-selfishness/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [And the people in the houses All went to the University And they got put in boxes Little boxes all the same, Little boxes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/and-the-people-in-the-houses-all-went-to-the-university-and-they-got/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [A good song reminds us what we're fighting for.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/a-good-song-reminds-us-what-we-re-fighting-for/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [Most conservatives just want to turn back the clock to a time before the income tax - 100 years or so. I would like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/most-conservatives-just-want-to-turn-back-the-clock-to-a-time-before/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) [Explore all 196 Pete Seeger quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) ## More Fifty quotes > [When you find someone you want to spend forever with you, you don't let them go, whether forever turns out to be a day…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-williams/when-you-find-someone-you-want-to-spend-forever-with-you-you-don-t/) [Nicole Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicole-williams/) > [What comes to mind when you think of heaven? 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Touching to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rose-macaulay/it-wasn-t-really-touching-to-be-young-it-was-touching-not-to-be-young/) [Rose Macaulay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rose-macaulay/) > [Emma was a shocking driver, simultaneously sloppy and petrified, and for the first fifty miles had been absent-mindedly driving with her spectacles on top…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-nicholls/emma-was-a-shocking-driver-simultaneously-sloppy-and-petrified-and/) [David Nicholls](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-nicholls/) > [If I were entering adulthood now instead of in the environment of fifty years ago, I would choose a career that kept me in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-lindbergh/if-i-were-entering-adulthood-now-instead-of-in-the-environment-of/) [Charles Lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-lindbergh/) > [Instead of finding himself in nerd heaven—where every nerd gets fifty-eight virgins to role-play with—he woke up in Robert Wood Johnson with two broken…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/junot-diaz/instead-of-finding-himself-in-nerd-heaven-where-every-nerd-gets-fifty/) [Junot Diaz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/junot-diaz/) > [In North America and Western Europe, ten percent of the population of the world consumes fifty percent of its energy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yehuda-levi/in-north-america-and-western-europe-ten-percent-of-the-population-of/) [Yehuda Levi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yehuda-levi/) > [...that in spite of living in a mansion an American is not above wearing a pair of secondhand pants, bought for fifty cents.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jhumpa-lahiri/that-in-spite-of-living-in-a-mansion-an-american-is-not-above-wearing/) [Jhumpa Lahiri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jhumpa-lahiri/) > [The process of maturing is an art to be learned, an effort to be sustained. 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Puerto Penasco, 60 miles south of our border, just had five people and a police officer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jan-brewer/fifty-thousand-people-in-mexico-have-been-murdered-puerto-penasco-60/) [Jan Brewer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jan-brewer/) [Browse all 1,246 Fifty quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fifty/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "But if two and two and fifty make a million,...", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pete Seeger" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-million/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Fifty" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-million/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/796/pete-seeger-1942_fifty_but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-mill_1878293.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/796/pete-seeger-1942_fifty_but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-mill_1878293.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/796/pete-seeger-1942_fifty_but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-mill_1878293.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“But if two and two and fifty make a million,...” — Pete Seeger", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Pete Seeger", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "But if two and two and...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-million/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/but-if-two-and-two-and-fifty-make-a-million/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```