Let them eat cake

A statement attributed to Marie Antoinette from the French Revolution. Peasant crowds were gathering and complaining that there was no bread in the bakeries so they were starving. When Marie asked what the problem was, her response was "Let them eat cake!"

In some history books this is widely noted as an indicator of how out of touch the ruling class was from their populace and an example of why the revolution was justified because "The people are starving? Then let them eat desert."

As wildly obvious as this may seem, it is just wrong. Cake today is universally (ok, at least here in the USA) seen as a wonderful sweet treat. The term cake in the context of Antoinette's reference is the crumbly leftovers at the bottom of the oven when bread or pastries are baked. So instead this is an indicator of how out of touch the ruling class was from their populace and an example of why the revolution was justified because "The people are starving? Then let them eat crumbs."

When informed that the lower classes of France were starving, their supply of moldy bread running out, Marie-Antoinette has been thought to have said four insensitive little words that would forever brand her as cruel and greedy: "Let them eat cake."

- from the book "Confessions," by Jean Jacques Rousseau