The original quote comes from Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions: "Finally, I recalled the make-shift of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread and who replied: �Let them eat brioche�. " ("Je me rappelai le pis-aller d�une grande princesse � qui l�on disait que les paysans n�avaient pas de pain, et qui r�pondit, qu�ils mangent de la brioche. "). He could not have been speaking of Marie-Antoinette, as she was 10 when he wrote this, and not yet born at the time of the incident. It has been speculated that he was actually referring to Maria Theresa of Spain or various other aristocrats, though no evidence has ever been offered for this; most likely it was his own invention.