At the beginning of the MGMT video for the song "Kids" the viewer is met with a quote by Mark Twain:

"Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster; and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you.

-Mark Twain"

Great quote. The only problem is that Mark Twain never said it. It was actually by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The quote above is a rough translation (some vary) from Beyond Good and Evil. It also made an appearance in the popular graphic novel, The Watchmen, and thereby after ended up on millions of internet blogs, forums and casual pseudo-philosophical discussions. And this is where I'd presume MGMT got the quote from; Anywhere but from Nietzsche's works. Therefore, MGMT should read more books if they wish to quote great books correctly.

I know the song "Kids" has been out for awhile, and I had it in my playlist for quite a long time. But today was the first time I saw the video and I couldn't believe the error went largely unnoticed (after searching the internet for an explanation). How has this managed to fly under the radar of the camera men, studio, director, manager, band, and fans? Did MGMT purposely credit Mark Twain with a Nietzsche quote? I don't get why they would, since it doesn't make sense in context of the video. It seems more likely that they simply threw in a witty quote to add to the depth of their video and messed up.

If I'm wrong and they purposely mis-credited the quote then please let me know in the comments.