Dear Quote Investigator: The rise of the hacktivist group “Anonymous” reminded me of an artwork I saw by the graffiti provocateur Banksy. He (or she, or they) created a pink television set with a screen that displayed this message:

In the future everyone will be anonymous for fifteen minutes

Lasting pieces of art are always ambiguous, and I am not certain what motivated Banksy. Maybe the proliferation of pseudo-celebrities has flattened the notion of fame. Thus, in the future each person will become an interchangeable semi-star.

Perhaps the loss of privacy from ubiquitous cameras, internet tracking, and DNA fingerprints means each of us will be able to retain our secrets and autonomy for only fifteen minutes. Possibly each one of us will join some protest group like “Anonymous” but only for a quarter of an hour.

Naturally, Banksy, himself or herself, has been anonymous for much longer than fifteen minutes. Can you determine who first spun Warhol’s famous prediction to create this new statement?

Quote Investigator: As the questioner suggests, this saying is a twist on a famous pronouncement attributed to the Pop artist Andy Warhol concerning the velocity of modern fame:

In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.

The earliest instance found by QI of a saying similar to the one in Banksy’s artwork was printed in the music magazine Spin in 1989. It appeared in a hostile profile of the singer and songwriter Richard Marx by the journalist and critic John Leland. In the following text the term “the 90s” referred to the near future [SPRM]:

A success story for the 90s — when everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes — Marx is rock’s invisible man. No one has sold so many records and made so little impact on the culture. Even his press kit, the expensive, glossy cardboard portfolio of a major star, reads more like a corporate annual report than the story of a life.

The passage above is about the transposable and indistinguishable elements of fame. By May 1996 an interesting variant quotation was circulating that was aimed at another topic: the computer-mediated invasion of privacy. This maxim had different implications because “cyberspace” was substituted for “the future”. The periodical “PJ: Privacy Journal” reported on the saying and credited a legal academic [PJGG]:

“In cyberspace, everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes.”

Graham Greenleaf, associate professor of law at University of New South Wales and member of the New South Wales Privacy Committee in Australia.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Cyberspace is often associated with the future, but it is also being implemented in the present. In August 1996 Greenleaf published an article in the journal “Privacy Law & Policy Reporter” and he employed the saying again. In a footnote he acknowledged two individuals who had inspired his remark [JHGG]:

It has been said with appropriate irony that ‘in cyberspace, everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes’. [1] Cyberspace presents both an unexpected opportunity for private (and even anonymous) communications and transactions over distance, and the potential for a panopticon, surveillance more extensive than any previous form of social control.

[1] I stole this quip from John Hilvert, via Andy Warhol and who knows who else …

In 1998 the social critic Neal Gabler deployed a version of the adage in his book “Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality” while discussing the increase in the number of marginal demi-celebrities [LMNG]:

Indeed, the profusion of celebrity was so overwhelming that it also seemed to void another oft-quoted dictum. In the future everyone would not be famous for fifteen minutes, as Andy Warhol had prophesied. In the future, it seemed, everyone would be anonymous for fifteen minutes.

The adage was further disseminated in a New York Times interview with Gabler [NYNG]:

In the fame-driven future he envisions, everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes, but Mr. Gabler, looking every bit the cultural critic (Armani black, stubbly salt-and-pepper whiskers), doesn’t seem overly worried. “Anyone who writes seriously about American culture is not in danger of becoming a celebrity,” he said.

A photo dated September 15, 2006 that was taken by Peggy Archer at a show in Los Angeles captured Banksy’s TV art piece [PABK]. In 2008 an interview and profile of the actor Dennis Hopper at the website of The Telegraph (UK) included a picture of Hopper adjacent to Banksy’s modified TV [DHBK]:

Upstairs, he poses for a final shot next to a sculpture by another friend, the elusive British graffiti artist Banksy: a TV set sprayed with the words, ‘IN THE FUTURE, EVERYONE WILL BE ANONYMOUS FOR 15 MINUTES.’

In 2010 the adage credited to Greenleaf was given as the solution to a puzzle in the book “Cracking Codes & Cryptograms for Dummies” [CCGG]:

Puzzle 247: In cyberspace everyone will be anonymous for fifteen minutes. Graham Greenleaf

In 2011 a New York Times article about a fashion show in Milan, Italy invoked Banksy [MFBK]:

Banksy said it best: “In the future, everybody will be anonymous for 15 minutes.” The British graffiti artist and prankster’s inversion of the weary Warhol dictum about fame comes as a tonic in an age of self-promotion and so-called social media.

In conclusion, the expression pre-dates the piece created by Banksy. Indeed, more than one variant was in circulation before 2000. The phrasings and the meanings were fluid. The statement by Neal Gabler seems to be the closest precursor to the words painted on the TV.

[SPRM] 1989 December 1989, SPIN, The Invisible Man by John Leland, Quote Page 13, Volume 5, Number 9 Published by SPIN Media LLC. (Google Books full view) link

[PJGG] 1996 May, PJ: Privacy Journal: An Independent Monthly on Privacy in a Computer Age, Editor Robert Ellis Smith, Quotable, Page 2, Providence, Rhode Island, (Verified on paper)

[JHGG] 1996 August, Privacy Law & Policy Reporter, The inevitability of life in cyberspace, [Privacy and cyberspace: An ambiguous relationship] by Graham Greenleaf, Volume 3, Number 5, Prospect Publishing. (Online archive of Privacy Law & Policy Reporter) link  link  link

[LMNG] 2000 (Copyright 1998), Life the movie: how entertainment conquered reality by Neal Gabler, Page 160, Vintage Books. New York. [Reprint of Alfred A. Knopf 1998 edition] (Amazon Look Inside)

[NYNG] 1998 December 8, New York Times, At Lunch with: Neal Gabler: Roll ‘em: Life as a Long Starring Role by Ralph Blumenthal, Page E1, New York. (ProQuest)

[PABK] 2006 September 15, Photos from Banksy’s LA show, flickr photosteam by Peggy Archer, 25 photos. (Accessed at flickr.com in January 27, 2012) link  link

[DHBK] 2008 September 25, The Telegraph (UK), Dennis Hopper: the ride of his life by Sheryl Garratt, Telegraph Media Group Limited, London. (Accessed at telegraph.co.uk on January 27, 2012) link

[CCGG] 2010, Cracking Codes & Cryptograms for Dummies  by Denise Sutherland and Mark Koltko-Rivera, Page 316, Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. (Google Books preview)

[MFBK] 2011 January 19, New York Times, Fashion Review: Designers Anonymous by Guy Trebay Page E1, New York. (New York Times online archive) link

Dear Quote Investigator: I work at Google, and a colleague of mine who leads our Search Education efforts pointed out your site as a great resource for people learning to search smarter. I love the site!

There is a quotation credited to the influential and award-winning science fiction author William Gibson that we’ve used on multiple occasions. But we are not certain whether Gibson said it:

The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.

If you’d care to investigate, you’d have at least a couple thankful fans here.

Quote Investigator: Gibson is a brilliant author, and this is a perceptive and piquant quotation. In 1990 he appeared in a documentary called “Cyberpunk”, and he discussed the differential access to technological developments based on wealth and location. He also stated a version of a key part of the maxim [CPWG]:

The future has already happened.

The earliest evidence for the full version of the saying was found by top quotation expert Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, who kindly shared the citation with QI. In 1992 the San Francisco Examiner published an article about the nascent technology of virtual reality, and the journalist Scott Rosenberg credited a version of the adage to Gibson [WGSF]:

Once whole worlds can be simulated for the senses, the only way to assure the integrity of the public imagination will be to get the power to create those worlds out of the hands of an elite and into general circulation. As William Gibson put it: “The future has arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

With the help of Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of Wired magazine and a pivotal neoteric thinker, QI was able to obtain a comment from William Gibson about the genesis of this saying and where it might have appeared initially. Kelly relayed that “Gibson does not remember when he first said it, but it was not something he wrote.” Gibson stated [KKGO]:

The problem is that the idea would have preceded its first recorded public utterance by quite some time, in the way of these things. I would assume I thought it, then eventually said it to friends, and that by the time I said it in an interview (the most likely scenario) it had become an idea I took for granted. It wasn’t something generated to give a talk, nor was it in some essay or article.

Gibson can be heard employing a version of the maxim during a 1999 interview on National Public Radio. He was complimented for the accuracy of his predictions by the interviewer and was asked if he read the technical literature. Gibson said that he “read very little technical literature at all” and then he downplayed his predictive skills [NRTN]:

…actually I spend a lot of my time, a lot of my media time trying to disown my prescience…

… as I’ve said many times the future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

A central part of the quotation under investigation asserts that the future has already arrived. This is only part of Gibson’s trope, but it is a vital piece, and it has been expressed by several other thinkers in the past. In 1967 an article about the famed communication theorist Marshall McLuhan criticized him because the author felt he misjudged the time-sequence of developments [CTFA]:

McLuhan suffers also from a mixed-up time sense. He believes the future has already happened. He often says most people can see thru the rearview mirror, but he seems to have the opposite fault. He appears to think total automation is upon us, that the whole world is linked as “global village” by TV, that even space travel is now a reality.

In 1982 the well-known futurist Alvin Toffler expressed a thematically related idea. He emphasized the immediacy of the future [CSAT]:

In his first major book since the prize-winning “Future Shock,” Alvin Toffler says, the future already has begun. Or, put another way, the present has long since begun to grind to a halt.

In September 1989 the UK newspaper The Independent printed an article that rhetorically conflated the future and the present. The correspondent singled out one particular locality where he claimed that the future was already manifested [JPFH]:

Tokyo: last stop before the planet Mars: In Japan, the world’s most technologically sophisticated society, the future has already happened, says Peter Popham

Japan is the country where the future has already happened. Three weeks ago in Tokyo, computer whizz Ken Sakamura unveiled his ‘Tron Intelligent House’, the first working prototype of the totally computerised home.

Implicit in the above description is the notion of a future that has arrived with an uneven distribution. Japan is one of the foci of present-tense futurity. But the author Popham never eloquently and compactly stated this thesis as Gibson did later.

In October 1989 the famous management consultant, Peter Drucker, published an article in the Economist with the title “The futures that have already happened” [PDFH]:

The trends that I have described above are not forecasts (for which I have little use and scant respect); they are, if you will, conclusions. Everything discussed here has already happened; it is only the full impacts that are still to come. I expect most readers to nod and to say, “Of course”. But few, I suspect, have yet asked themselves: “What do these futures mean for my own work and my own organisation?”

In 1990 a documentary titled “Cyberpunk” was released that featured extensive interview footage with William Gibson. He expressed the two primary themes embodied in the quotation:

(1) The uneven distribution of technological advancements

(2) The presence of the ‘future’ within the present

The documentary has been split into five parts that can be viewed on YouTube. Here is an excerpt of Gibson’s remarks [CPWG]:

I think in some very real sense part of the world’s population is already posthuman. Consider the health options available to a millionaire in Beverly Hills as opposed to a man starving in the streets in Bangladesh.

The man in Beverly Hills can, in effect, buy himself a new set of organs. I mean, when you look at that sort of gap, the man in Bangladesh is still human. He’s a human being from an agricultural planet. The man in Beverly Hills is something else. He may still be human, but he, in some way, I think he is also posthuman. The future has already happened.

In 1992 the journalist Scott Rosenberg writing in the San Francisco Examiner credited William Gibson with the maxim as mentioned previously in this article. This is the earliest citation known to QI [WGSF]:

As William Gibson put it: “The future has arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

In September 1993 a profile of Gibson was printed in USA Today. He did not employ the quotation, but he made a consonant remark [USWG]:

Just don’t ask Gibson to talk about tomorrow. The modern-day George Orwell says: “I’m not trying to predict the future. I’m trying to let us see the present.”

In April 1994 an article in “The Seattle Times” titled “Job Opportunities along the Information Superhighway” concluded with an invocation of the words attributed to Gibson. This is the second earliest citation for the quotation known to QI [STWG]:

Ultimately, cyberpunk science-fiction author William Gibson may have the best assessment of what’s going on: “The future has arrived – it’s just not evenly distributed yet.”

In September 1995 the “Rocky Mountain News” of Denver, Colorado printed a version of the saying [RMWG]:

“There’s a great (cyberpunk writer) Bill Gibson line: ‘The future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed,’ ” said Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow.

In July 1996 the Washington Post published a story discussing research on wearable computer systems. In the mid-1990s systems using bulky visors and head-mounted video cameras resulted in a Borg-like appearance. The journalist John Schwartz deployed an entertaining variant of the adage under investigation [WPBT]:

The future is already here, it’s just in beta testing, the high-tech world’s final smoothing-out of kinks before products and services go public.

In conclusion, the evidence is strong that William Gibson used this expression and QI believes that he created it. However, the precise wording varies and the earliest citations do not appear in Gibson’s writings.

(Many thanks to Elizabeth who inquired about this saying at the Freakonomics website, and thanks to Jason Freidenfelds who inspired the formulation of this question.)

[CPWG] 1990, Cyberpunk (Documentary), Directed by Marianne Trench, Produced by Peter von Brandenburg, An Intercon Production. [Excerpt occurs in Part 3 of 5 parts; Timecode 12:20 of 14:59] (Video available in 5 parts on youtube; Viewed on 2012 Janaury 24) link

[WGSF] 1992 April 19, San Francisco Examiner, Section: Style, “Virtual Reality Check Digital Daydreams, Cyberspace Nightmares” by Scott Rosenberg, Page C1, San Francisco, California. (WestLaw Campus)

[KKGO] Private communication via email from Kevin Kelly to Garson O’Toole dated November 14, 2011. The message contained an excerpt of a response from William Gibson.

[NRTN] 1999 November 30, National Public Radio: NPR: Talk of the Nation, The Science in Science FIction, Interview with William Gibson, [Quotation is spoken around 11:50] (Accessed npr.org on 2012 January 19) link

[CTFA] 1967 June 11, Chicago Tribune, The Last (The Very Last) Word On Marshall McLuhan by Ralph Thomas, Start Page I29, Quote Page I51, Chicago, Illinois. (ProQuest)

[CSAT] 1982 February 12, Christian Science Monitor, Section: Monthly Book Review, “Pick of the paperbacks; The Third Wave, by Alvin Toffler”, Page B3, Boston, Massachusetts. (LexisNexis)

[PDFH] 1989 October 21, The Economist, The futures that have already happened, Section: World politics and current affairs; Peter Drucker’s 1990s, Page 19 (UK Edition Page 27), The Economist Group, London. (LexisNexis)

[USWG] 1993 September 2, USA Today, “William Gibson’s cy-fi reality – His future is closer than you think” by Elizabeth Snead, Section: LIFE, Page 1D, Gannett Co., Inc. (NewsBank)

[STWG] 1994 April 3, The Seattle Times, Job Opportunities Along the Information Superhighway by Steven Spenser, Section: Business, Page J1, Seattle, Washington. (NewsBank)

[RMWG] 1995 September 1, Rocky Mountain News, Conflict Certain in Cyberspace By Cyrus McCrimmon, Page 78A, Denver, Colorado. (NewsBank)

[WPBT] 1996 July 3, Washington Post, The Site-Seers’ Guide to Some Way-Out Internet Futures by John Schwartz, Page: A1, Washington, D. C. (NewsBank)

Dear Quote Investigator: After major news events people often start exchanging jokes related to the subject matter. The recent tragic cruise ship accident has caused two versions of a comical anecdote to enter circulation. The punch line has been attributed to the statesman Winston Churchill and to the playwright Noel Coward. Examples of this joke are visible now [on January 21, 2012]  when one searches for the phrase “women and children” on Twitter. Here is an example credited to Coward:

I only travel on Italian ships. In the event of sinking, there’s none of that ‘women and children first’ nonsense!

Could you explore this quotation?

Quote Investigator: The earliest instance of this joke found by QI appeared in a Missouri newspaper in 1917. A travel writer, Henry J. Allen, described leaving a Paris railroad station and attempting to obtain transport in a taxicab; however, the number of taxicabs available was inadequate. The writer was reminded of a joke that he attributed to a “New York traveler” [KCNY]:

When we reached the outside our trouble began. There were some thirty or forty women from the train and as we watched the scramble for the very small number of taxicabs and 1-horse vehicles we were reminded of the reason a New York traveler once gave for traveling on a French liner: He said, “there is no foolishness about women and children first.”

Early instances of this barb were aimed at French vessels and crew and not Italian vessels. In March 1932 the name Joe Drum was attached to the tale by the syndicated gossip columnist O. O. McIntyre. But the fame of Joe Drum has faded with time, and today he is largely unknown [OOJD]:

Drum was sailing one day on a French ship. “I choose to cross with the gallant chevaliers of France,” he said, “where there is no hanky-panky about women and children first.”

In 1932 the saying was also credited to a more prominent individual, Noël Coward. Over the decades the attributions and embellishments have changed. By 1946 a more elaborate variant that mentioned food and drink was credited to an American Rear-Admiral. By 1985 the quip was ascribed to W. Somerset Maugham, and by 1993 an ornate version was credited to Winston Churchill.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In August 1932 an Associated Press writer published a short profile of Noël Coward. In a sub-section titled “King of the Jesters” the author commented on Coward’s use of the expression under investigation [NCAN]:

… some years ago, he said facetiously that he was sailing on a French boat where “there is none of this nonsense about women and children first.” Several humorless persons accepted the statement as a serious one and criticized Coward severely.

In 1936 the Los Angeles Times ascribed to Coward the following brief version of the statement [NCLT]:

Noel Coward once went on record as disapproving of this “women and children first foolishness.”

In 1946 the book “Cross-Channel” by Alan Houghton Brodrick was released and it presented a longer version of the saying in a footnote. The words were credited to an anonymous American naval officer who reportedly spoke them in the 1920s [CCAB]:

As late as 1925 an American Rear-Admiral on the active list joked that he always preferred to travel on the French ship because the food was better, the drink was better, it was “all wide open” and “if anything happens, why, then there’s none of this women and children first nonsense.”

In 1948 the remark appeared in the popular gossip column of Leonard Lyons, and the words were again attributed to Noël Coward. However, the quotation was indirect and based on the comments of a prominent Hollywood actor, Frederic March [LLNC]:

Frederic March who recently returned from England for the premiere of his new movie, “Live Today for Tomorrow,” saw Noel Coward in London just before he sailed. Coward expressed his preference for travelling on French ships. “But why?” asked March … “Because in case of disaster at sea,” Coward replied, “they don’t have that silly rule about women and children first.”

In 1960 a movie review in the Washington Post began with a line ascribed to Coward [WPNC]:

Noël Coward, commenting on a celebrated steamship line, once acidly observed: “Ah, splendid! None of that nonsense about women and children first.”

In 1967 The Saturday Review published an issue about travel modalities in the era between 1947 and 1967. The author Geoffrey Bocca discussed the perception of the prestigious Cunard Line when contrasted with other passenger ship lines of the past [GBCL]:

… the Cunard Line had done such a brilliant job of brainwashing in its emphasis on the incomparable Cunard service that one felt that after the Cunarders there was nowhere to go but down, and when one thought of going down one was reminded of the old joke about French sailors; “no nonsense about women and children first.” Attitudes changed later, but this was 1947.

In 1985 a version of the quip was ascribed to the well-known literary figure W. Somerset Maugham in “The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes” [LBSM]:

Asked why he always chose to sail in French ships, Maugham replied, “Because there’s none of that nonsense about women and children first.”

In a 1993 collection of material for speech makers titled “More Podium Humor” an anecdote was presented concerning Winston Churchill. Italian ships were targeted instead of French ships in this variant of the gibe. The author stated that Churchill was questioned by a journalist about why he travelled on Italian cruise ships versus British ships, and he replied as follows [WCPH]:

“THERE ARE THREE THINGS I LIKE ABOUT ITALIAN SHIPS. FIRST, THEIR CUISINE, WHICH IS UNSURPASSED. SECOND, THEIR SERVICE, WHICH IS QUITE SUPERB.” And then Sir Winston added, “AND THEN, IN TIME OF EMERGENCY, THERE IS NONE OF THIS NONSENSE ABOUT WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST.”

On January 17, 2012 the BBC Radio 4 broadcast a short interview with Lord West of Spithead, and he referred to a version of the quip with Italian ships [BBLW]:

Although Noel Coward did mention once in his jokey way that he liked being on Italian ships because there was no nonsense about women and children first. But that was very much Noel Coward.

On January 20, 2012 the historian Richard M. Langworth wrote that the quotation attributed to Winston Churchill was “entirely bogus”.  Langworth is the author of “Churchill by Himself” an authoritative collection of Churchill quotations. The statement about Italian cruise ships did not appear in this large collection, and the quotations about women and children that were included expressed very different sentiments. Langworth stated [RLWC]:

Nei­ther this quo­ta­tion nor key words from it can be found in dig­i­tal scans of Churchill’s 15 mil­lion pub­lished words in books, arti­cles, speeches and pri­vate papers. Nor can I find any record of Churchill cruising on an Ital­ian liner after his retire­ment as Prime Min­is­ter in 1955.

In conclusion, the earliest version of this basic jest known to QI was credited to an anonymous New York traveler in 1917. Over time the words were attached to several famous individuals, and the telling was elaborated. Evidence suggests that Noël Coward did use this quip, but he was probably repeating a joke that already existed. The variants that discuss cuisine and service were apparently built from the basic joke. QI has not yet located compelling direct evidence that Maugham or Churchill employed this joke.

Update history: On January 26, 2012 information about Richard M. Langworth’s article dated January 20 were added to this post.

(Many thanks to David A. Daniel and Thomas S. Acton whose inquiries inspired the formulation of this question and gave impetus to this exploration. Special thanks to researcher Stephen Goranson who rapidly identified the early association with Noël Coward. Also, thanks to commenter Nelson Bridwell.)

[KCNY] 1917 September 13, Kansas City Star, Diving for French Verbs: Henry J. Allen Finds Language as Exciting as War, Page 4, Column 2, Kansas City, Missouri. (GenealogyBank)

[OOJD] 1932 March 01, Charleston Gazette, “McIntyre: Day By Day” by O. O. McIntyre, Page 6, Column 3, Charleston, West Virginia. (NewspaperArchive)

[NCAN] 1932 August 14, Aberdeen Daily News, A New Yorker At Large by Mark Barron, [Associated Press], Page 4, Column 4, Aberdeen, South Dakota. (GenealogyBank)

[NCLT] 1936 July 15, Los Angeles Times, Surf Calls to Families, Page 3, Column 1, Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest)

[CCAB] 1946, Cross-Channel by Alan Houghton Brodrick, Footnote 1, Page 16, Hutchinson & Co., Ltd., London and New York. (Verified on paper; Many thanks to the Florida State University, Strozier Library) [Comment about date: No publication date is visible in the front matter, but a footnote on page 9 of the introduction indicates that it was being written in 1945. WorldCat and several catalogs specify the publication date as 1946.]

[LLNC] 1948 December 07, Canton Repository, Broadway Gazette by Leonard Lyons, Page 29, Column 2, Canton, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)

[WPNC] 1960 February 26, Washington Post, One on the Aisle: ‘Voyage’ Sails Sea of Fiction by Richard L. Coe, Page C6, Column 1, Washington, D.C, (ProQuest)

[GBCL] 1967 April 22, The Saturday Review, Twenty Years of Travel: 1947-1967: Vets, Jets, Mods, and Minis by Geoffrey Bocca, Start Page 47, Quote Page 52, Saturday Review, Inc., New York. (Unz)

[LBSM] 1985, “The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes”, Edited by Clifton Fadiman, Section: W. Somerset Maugham, Page 391, Column 2, Little, Brown and Company, Boston. (Verified on paper)

[WCPH] 1993, More Podium Humor: Using Wit and Humor in Every Speech You Make by James C. Humes, Page 78, Harpercollins: HarperPerennial, New York. (Verified on paper)

[BBLW] 2012 January 17, BBC Radio 4, Today, “Captains ‘expected’ to stay on board”, Comment from Lord West of Spithead at time marker 2:00; Total length 3:04, BBC News, United Kingdom. (Accessed on bbc.co.uk on 2012 January 21) link

[RLWC] 2012 January 20, Website: “Richard Langworth: Churchill historian, automotive and travel writer”, Article: “Churchill on Italian Cruise Ships: Untrue” by Richard M. Langworth. (Accessed richardlangworth.com on January 26, 2012) link

Dear Quote Investigator: New Year’s resolutions often feature plans for more exercise. Mark Twain was once asked if he engaged in exercise, and he supposedly said:

I take my only exercise acting as a pallbearer at the funerals of my friends who exercise regularly.

But this same joke is also credited to Chauncey Depew, a United States Senator and renowned after-dinner speaker, who reportedly said:

I get my exercise acting as a pallbearer to my friends who exercise.

While searching I found that this quip was phrased in many other different ways. Could you determine if Twain, Depew, or someone else originated this funny saying?

Quote Investigator: The earliest example of this anecdote found by QI is dated 1926. It appeared in a syndicated newspaper column about health titled “Play Safe in Taking Physical Exercise” written by a medical doctor named Royal S. Copeland. The original raconteur was anonymous, and the story was labeled a “ridiculous yarn” [RCPE]:

Somebody told a story about an old man so remarkably well that a newspaper reporter asked why he had lived so long and kept so strong. “I suppose it is because you take systematic exercise,” said the reporter.

The startling reply of the old gentleman was, “The only exercise I take is acting as pall-bearer to my friends who have indulged in strenuous exercise!”

This is a ridiculous yarn, but it has in it a suggestion of value. Exercise is useful so long as it really is exercise and not violent and difficult work.

Too many athletes die of heart or blood vessel trouble. Too much strain on the organs of circulation will do real and lasting harm.

In 1929 a variant of the joke was attributed to ‘Big Jim’ Watson who was described as a “260-pound senator from Indiana.” Watson was a former athlete who had ceased exercising. In the following excerpt the phrase “cow pasture pool shooting” is a jocular description for golf [JWRG]:

“When my friends urge me to take up golf,” he remarks, “I tell them I get plenty of exercise by acting as pallbearer to my cow pasture pool shooting friends who die of heart disease and over-exertion.”

By 1930 the humorous remark was credited to Chauncey Depew, and by 1950 the jest was assigned to Mark Twain. Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1905 Harper’s Weekly reprinted a speech given by Mark Twain at his 70th Birthday party. In the passage below Twain expressed his dislike of exercise. But he did not employ the expression under investigation. Nevertheless, the hostility he evinced may have caused later individuals to assume that clever statements on this topic should be reassigned to Twain [MTHW]:

I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any. Exercise is loathsome. And it cannot be any benefit when you are tired; I was always tired. (Laughter.) But let another person try my way, and see where he will come out.

I desire now to repeat and emphasize that maxim: We can’t reach old age by another man’s road. My habits protect my life, but they would assassinate you.

In 1926 Royal S. Copeland wrote a newspaper column containing the joke, but he credited the funny remark to an anonymous “old gentleman,” and he called the story “a ridiculous yarn”. The details for this citation were given near the beginning of this article [RCPE]. In June 1929 ‘Big Jim’ Watson was credited with version of the quip as mentioned previously [JWRG].

Chauncey Depew died in 1928 at the venerable age of 93. A couple years afterward in 1930 an article printed in a newspaper in Iowa attributed a version of the jest to him [CDSC]:

Chauncey Depew, who lived blithely to be 92 or 93, also had some ideas about keeping fit. Asked once if he exercised, he said: “No, I keep fit by acting as pallbearer for my friends who do.”

In 1936 a golf-oriented variant of the joke was again credited to Jim Watson [JWGD]:

Sage Jim Watson, for 40 years a republican power, now 71 years old, was interviewed out in Muncie, Ind., by John Lewellen, with the following results:

“I feel fine because I never stand when I can sit, never sit when I can lie, and never walk when I can ride. I get my exercise acting as pallbearer for my golf-playing friends.”

In 1938 the influential mass-circulation periodical Reader’s Digest reprinted the quip from a newspaper and credited Depew. The same words and acknowledgement appeared in the Lethbridge Herald, a Canadian newspaper [CDRD] [CDLH]:

Chauncey Depew, asked what kind of exercise he took, answered: “I get my exercise acting as pallbearer to my friends who exercise.”

— Thomas Collison in Portland Sunday Telegram

In 1943 a version of the quip was included in a compendium of humor by the quotation collector Evan Esar. The joke was transformed into a definition and printed in “Esar’s Comic Dictionary” [ECDP]:

pallbearer. One who gets his exercise at the funerals of his friends who exercise.

In 1945 an article in the American Mercury magazine ascribed the entertaining saying to a prominent long-lived lawyer [JCAM]:

On the other hand, one of America’s most distinguished lawyers, J. H. Choate, when he was in his early nineties remarked that the only exercise he took was as pallbearer at the funerals of friends who had exercised regularly.

In 1950 the Cleveland Plain Dealer attributed the remark to Mark Twain, but the paper noted that Chauncey Depew was an alternative possibility for ascription [MTCD]:

Without the aid of scientific investigation, Mark Twain anticipated all this many years ago. He is supposed to have said that he took his only exercise acting as pallbearer at the funerals of his friends who exercised regularly. Twain got to be 75 years old.

Chauncey Depew is sometimes credited with having made the same remark. And he lived to be 94. I myself am beginning to use the gag, and I’m hoping.

In 1952 in the Lethbridge Herald newspaper Mark Twain again received credit [MTLH]:

… and Mark Twain said that he got all the exercise he needed by acting as pallbearer for his own friends who exercised regularly.

In conclusion, the earliest citation does not identify the speaker of this humorous comment. The first name attached to the joke was Jim Watson, but Watson may have modified an existing quip and applied it to golf. Depew was credited with the jest after he had been dead two years. The first citation for Mark Twain was tentative and occurred forty years after his death. Overall, this evidence does not strongly point to the identity of a specific originator.

[RCPE] 1926 June 26, Chester Times, Play Safe in Taking Physical Exercise by Royal S. Copeland, M.D., Page 7, Column 7, Chester, Pennsylvania. (NewspaperArchive)

[JWRG] 1929 July 30, Reno Evening Gazette, Banish Strenuous Exercise Urges This Veteran Senator, [Associated Press], Page 1, Column 6-7, Reno, Nevada. (NewspaperArchive)

[MTHW] 1905 December 23, Harper’s Weekly, [Supplement to Harper's Weekly], Mark Twain’s 70th Birthday: Record of a Dinner given in Celebration thereof at Delmonico’s on the Evening of December 5, 1905, Start Page 1884, Quote Page 1885, Column 2, Volume 49, Number 2557, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York. (Google Books full view) link

[CDSC] 1930 June 15, The Sioux City Journal, Notes of a Bystander by Grove Patterson, Page 6-A, Column 6, Sioux City, Iowa. (NewspaperArchive)

[JWGD] 1936 May 13, Galveston Daily News, News Behind the News by Paul Mallon, Philosophy, Page 4, Column 3, Galveston, Texas. (NewspaperArchive)

[CDRD] 1938 August, Reader’s Digest, Page 92, [Freestanding quotation], Volume 33, The Reader’s Digest Association. (Verified on paper)

[CDLH] 1938 August 16, Lethbridge Herald, [Freestanding quotation], Page 12 [Back Page], Column 1, Lethbridge, Alberta. (NewspaperArchive)

[ECDP] 1943, Esar’s Comic Dictionary by Evan Esar, Page 201, Harvest House, New York. (Verified on paper)

[JCAM] 1945 April, The American Mercury, What We Know About Longevity by Theodore G. Klumpp, M.D., Start Page 438, Quote Page 438, The American Mercury, Inc., New York. (Unz)

[MTCD] 1950 March 12, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Section: This Week Magazine, “Do You Hate Exercise?” by Morton M. Hunt, Page 17, Column 3, [GNB Page 223], Cleveland, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)

[MTLH] 1952 January 2, Lethbridge Herald, Editor Admits “Bad habits” by C. Willis in Stettler Independent, Page 4, Column 3, Lethbridge, Alberta. (NewspaperArchive)

Dear Quote Investigator: While reading a cookbook I encountered an amusing quotation about cooking:

Cooking is like love — it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

But the authors apparently did not know where it came from and labeled the words:  graffiti on a kitchen wall. Later I saw the phrase credited to the famous chef Julia Child and to the newspaper columnist Harriet Van Horne. Any ideas about its origin?

Quote Investigator: In 1956 Harriet Van Horne wrote an article for Vogue magazine titled “Not for Jiffy Cooks” and subtitled “Six recipes, simple, honest, and sometimes unconventional.” She began her article with the following counsel [HVVN]:

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.

This, then, is not a document for jiffy cooks. Nor for those devotees of those premixed, prewhipped, pre-stewed foods that crowd the grocer’s shelf.

This passage is the earliest evidence of the saying identified by QI. Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1978 the saying was included in the compilation “The Quotable Woman: 1800-1975″ where it was attributed to Harriet Van Horne with the Vogue magazine citation. Also, in 1978 the quotation was printed as an epigraph for an article about cookbooks that was published in Cincinnati Magazine with Van Horne receiving the credit again [HVCM].

The ascription to Van Horne was remembered in 1997. The volume “Eat Like a Wild Man: The Ultimate Game and Fish Cookbook” placed the saying in a side note and attributed the words to her [HVEW].

In 1998 a variant of the adage was described in a story about a Californian lodge published in “Los Angeles Magazine”. The proprietors of the lodge, Margaret and Tom Grade, had constructed a modified saying by substituting the phrase “dining out” for “cooking” [LADO]:

I recommend one of the tables near the fire, though the adjoining dining room is lovely, too, and is personalized with Grade’s takes on some culinary quotes: DINING OUT IS LIKE LOVE; IT SHOULD BE ENTERED INTO WITH ABANDON OR NOT AT ALL and HOW LUSCIOUS LIES THE PEA WITHIN THE POD, a line, recalls Grade, that one diner found “too sexual”.

In 2002 the saying appeared in an Italian cookbook, but this time it was not attributed to Van Horne [SSNS]:

“Cooking is like love — it should be entered into with abandon or not at all”

SYDNEY SMITH

In 2007 a reviewer examined a new edition of “The Silver Palate Cookbook” and commented on one the anonymous sayings contained in the volume [SPKG]:

And it was sprinkled with quotations, this one included, credited simply as graffiti on a kitchen wall: “Cooking is like love — it should be entered into with abandon or not at all.”

In October 2011 a commenter using the handle “bup” in a feedback forum at the Goodreads website noted that the adage under investigation was included in the quotes section of the website. Yet, “bup” also found that different webpages credited the words to both Julia Child and Harriet van Horne [GRBP].

In conclusion, evidence indicates that Harriet Van Horne created this saying and published it by 1956. The words were assigned to Julia Child at a much later date perhaps because she was a prominent chef.

[HVVN] 1956 October 15, Vogue, Not for Jiffy Cooks by Harriet Van Horne, Start Page 122, Quote Page 122, Column 1, Conde Nast Publications, New York. (Verified on microfilm)

[HVQW] 1978 [Copyright 1977], The Quotable Woman: 1800-1975, Edited by Elaine Partnow, Page 365, Column 1, Corwin Books, Los Angeles. (Verified on paper)

[HVCM] 1978 November, Cincinnati Magazine, Nothing But the Facts by Lilia F. Brady, A Baker’s Dozen, Page 142, Column 1, Volume 12, Number 2, Published by Emmis Communications. (Google Books full view)

[HVEW] 1997, Eat Like a Wild Man: The Ultimate Game and Fish Cookbook: 110 Years of Great Sports Afield Recipes, Compiled by Rebecca Gray, Page 183, Willow Creek Press, Minocqua, Wisconsin. (Google Books preview)

[LADO] 1998 February, Los Angeles Magazine, Cabin Fervor by Glynis Costin, Start Page 86, Quote Page 88, Volume 43, Number 2, Published by Emmis Communication. (Google Books full view) link

[SSNS] 2002, Nick Stellino’s Glorious Italian Cooking by Nick Stellino, Page 39, Penguin, New York. (Google Books preview)

[SPKG] 2007 May 9, Post And Courier, Cookbook Still ‘Silver’ Standard by Maureen Fitzgerald, Start Page 1D, Quote Page 6D, Column 2, Charleston, South Carolina. (Google News Archive)

[GRBP] Feedback discussion at the Goodreads website, Subject title: “suggestions & questions > Way to challenge quotes?”,  Comment by bup dated 2011 October 14. (Accessed goodreads.com 2011 December 31) link  link  link

Dear Quote Investigator: This is the season for New Year’s resolutions and toasts, and I have found a quotation credited to Benjamin Franklin that fits this theme:

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man.

There is another common version that is almost identical:

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man (or woman).

However, there are so many fake quotes attributed to Franklin that I have no idea if this one is authentic. Could you tell me if this one is real? Also, if these are Franklin’s words where did they appear?

Quote Investigator: Franklin published a series of almanacs in the 1700s that were very popular, and many of the proverbs that are credited to him today were printed in these almanacs.  This sentence did appear in the 1755 edition of “Poor Richard’s  Almanac” whose more complete title is: “Poor Richard improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris of the Motions of the Sun and Moon; the True Places and Aspects of the Planets; the Rising and Setting of the Sun, And The Rising Setting and Southing of the Moon.”

The words of the expression were interleaved with astronomical facts concerning December 1755, and the salient terms in the phrase were capitalized. The word neighbors was spelled with a “u”, and New Year was hyphenated [PRBF]:

Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbours, and let every New-Year find you a better Man.

Many of the sayings that Franklin presented in his almanacs were obtained from other sources, and QI does not know if this advice originated with Franklin.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order together with a digital image showing how the saying was  printed within the almanac.

Below is a scan exhibiting the lower part of the page for December 1755 in Poor Richard’s Almanac. The words of the quotation have been emphasized by the addition of red underlining in the far right column [PRBF].

In 1827 a Washington D.C. newspaper called the “National Intelligencer” published a collection of sayings under the title “Ancient and Modern Maxims” with the subtitle “Translated from the Spanish”. The semantics of one of the sayings overlapped with the expression in Franklin’s almanac [TSNI]:

Have peace with all men, war with all vices, and concord with thyself. Make thy words agree with thy thoughts, thy actions with thy words, and thy desires with thy actions.

Also in 1827 the passage above was printed in other newspapers such as the North Carolina Sentinel [TSNC]  and the Daily National Journal [FSNJ] of Washington, D.C. The words were not credited to Benjamin Franklin in any of these newspapers.

In 1883 a history book about ancient Rome included a collection of adages attributed to Publilius Syrus who was famous for crafting maxims. One of these adages communicated similar sentiments to those in the saying in Franklin’s almanac. However, the author of the book used a footnote to cast doubt on the ascription to Syrus. Here are three of the adages and the footnote [HRPS]:

“Keep thy word, even to an enemy, and have only good thoughts towards him; it is better to receive an injury than to do one.”

“Forgive others often, thyself never; for one must live at peace with men, but at war with one’s own vices.”

“Let us rival each other in gentleness and goodness, for this is the noblest emulation.”

Footnote 1: Interpolations have been made in this collection; some of these sentences do not belong to Syrus. [Many of them are Stoic commonplaces and sayings from Menander. --Ed.]

In 1894 the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” printed an article titled “Franklin Maxims” that included the saying under investigation. The word neighbors was spelled without a “u” [PDBF]:

A long life may not be good enough, but a good life is long enough.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every New Year find you a better man.

Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults.

In 1904 a volume of collected writings by Benjamin Franklin was published that included a section titled “Sayings of Poor Richard”. This section contained an accurate rendition of the adage [BFPR].

In conclusion, this saying did appear in the 1755 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac by Benjamin Franklin. The part of the statement before the conjunction “and” has been printed as a separate maxim. QI does not know if this saying was originally constructed by Franklin.

[PRBF] 1755, Poor Richard improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris of the Motions of the Sun and Moon; The True Places and Aspects of the Planets [Poor Richard’s Almanac], Benjamin Franklin, Month: December, Column: Aspects, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Images from volume at Rosenbach Museum & Library; Accessed at rarebookroom.org on 2011 December 17)

[TSNI] 1827 July 28, Daily National Intelligencer, Ancient and Modern Maxims: Translated from the Spanish, Issue 4525, Column 4, Washington, D. C. (Nineteenth Century Newspapers)

[TSNC] 1827 August 18, North Carolina Sentinel, Translated from the Spanish, Page 2, Column 4, New Bern, North Carolina. (GenealogyBank)

[FSNJ] 1827 August 25, Daily National Journal, [Freestanding quotation], Column 2, Issue 929, Washington, D. C. (Nineteenth Century Newspapers)

[HRPS] 1883, History of Rome, and of the Roman People: From Its Origin to the Invasion of the Barbarians by Victor Duruy, Translated by M. M. Ripley and W. J. Clarke, Edited by John Pentland Mahaffy, Volume 4, Section 2, Page 327, C. F. Jewett Publishing Company, Boston. (Google Books full view) link

[PDBF] 1894 October 30, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Franklin Maxims, Page 4, Column 5, [Another article titled "Franklin Maxims" is printed in column 6], Cleveland, Ohio. (GenealogyBank)

[BFPR] 1904, “Autobiography. Poor Richard. Letters” by Benjamin Franklin, Sayings of Poor Richard, Page 229, D Appleton and Company, New York. (Google Books full view) link

Dear Quote Investigator: Humorous remarks about Philadelphia are often credited to the well-known actor and comic W. C. Fields. In the past the activities and nightlife in Philadelphia were limited because of strict laws. Hence, time seemed to move slowly, and someone created the following quip:

I spent a week in Philadelphia one day.

Was W. C. Fields responsible for this joke?

Quote Investigator:  The earliest evidence for this jest located by QI appeared in 1908 in a magazine called “Life”. The cartoon containing the joke had an elaborate signature affixed, but QI does not know who drew this comical illustration. Two men in bowler hats discussing the city were depicted [LPCB]:

“. . . AND I SPENT A WEEK IN PHILADELPHIA.”

“WHEN?”

“DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY.”

The quip appeared many times in the following decades but the earliest evidence found by QI of a connection to W. C. Fields did not appear until the 1970s. In 1972 an article in the Washington Post described a social event celebrating the birth date of W. C. Fields [WPWF]

A group of Philadelphia businessmen are throwing a 92d birthday party for the late comedian at a local “Y,” which has a no-liquor rule. They’ll show old Fields films, give guests a chance to kick a stuffed dog and insult a live child—all in an effort to keep alive Philadelphia’s heritage. But ginger ale? It makes it easy to understand what Fields meant when he said that in one night he spent a week in Philadelphia.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Below is a clipping of the cartoon that appeared in Life magazine in 1908 [LPCB]:

In 1909 the joke was presented in a periodical called “The Outlook”. But the writer disagreed with the sentiment because he visited the city during a transportation strike and found that the metropolis was lively [TSTO]:

It was a New Yorker who once said that he “had spent a week in Philadelphia last Wednesday.” The Spectator does not feel that way about the Quaker City since passing through it when the street car strike was on.

In 1913 a version of the remark was printed in “The Fra”, a periodical published by Elbert Hubbard. The article by Hubbard began with the comment: “Philadelphia figures frequently in the funny columns” and went on to state [EHWP]:

It is considered de rigueur to observe facetiously that you spent a week in Philadelphia on Wednesday last.

In 1917 the jest appeared in the reportage of an event honoring a member of the International Typographical Union. A version was used by a speaker while he addressed the honoree. The quip was applied to a different location, Missouri [TJRS]:

R. H. Suttle-

This gentleman was originally from Missouri but instead of having to be shown, he is one of those good fellows who has assisted in showing, I myself, spent a week in Missouri one day and I did not own a beautiful set of cuff buttons like those I now present you.

One reason W. C. Fields is connected to jokes about Philadelphia is because of an article in the June 1925 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Artists who were prominent in 1925 were asked by the periodical to write their own epitaphs, and W. C. Fields reportedly complied. The quip on this fictional stunt gravestone of Fields differed significantly from the words typically ascribed to the funnyman in modern times [VFWF]:

A number of artists, desiring to be saved from the ordinary run of tombstone literature, have here set down their epitaphs. This second batch of epitaphs, like those published in Vanity Fair in its October issue, certainly have the invaluable “personal touch” …

HERE LIES

W. C. Fields

I WOULD RATHER BE LIVING IN

PHILADELPHIA

In 1946 a variant of the quip using the word “fortnight” instead of “week” appeared in the periodical “The Art Digest”  [ADFP]:

Almost everyone has heard of the churlish wag who insisted that he spent a fortnight in Philadelphia one Sunday and who described the city as “a cemetery with lights.”

In 1957 a version of the joke using the nickname “Philly” was printed in the book “Our Philadelphia: A Candid and Colorful Portrait of a Great City” [PSOP]:

Another remark you have heard about Philadelphia is:

“I came to Philly on Sunday but it was closed.”

Still another is:

“Oh sure, I spent a week in Philly one Sunday.”

In April 1971 “The Journal of American Folklore” printed the jest, but it still did not attach the words to W. C. Fields [WPJF]:

There are many other anti-Philadelphia slurs although the comments on its being a “dead” town with little to do or its lack of  late night life are no doubt applied to other cities, for example: “I spent a week in  Philadelphia one day” or “I was in Philadelphia once, but it was closed.”

In August 1971 the Chicago Tribune commented on the “comedians’ gag” and provided an explanation for the choice of Sunday in some versions of the saying [CTWP]:

On most newspapers, the landing of astronauts on the moon is a story for the front pages. Not on Variety; the show business weekly. Do you know what made the front page of Variety this week? A story that says you now can buy a drink on Sunday in Philadelphia. Naturally. That’s because the new ruling kills the old comedians’ gag: “I spent a week in Philadelphia last Sunday.”

In 1972 the joke was credited to W. C. Fields in a story printed in the Washington Post. The details were given near the beginning of this article. In 1975 a version of the remark was attributed to Fields in an AP newswire story printed in The Hartford Courant [HCWF]:

Fields is also generally credited with originating such lines as “I spent a week in Philadelphia last night,” and “I went to Philadelphia last Sunday, but it was closed.”

In conclusion, this jape has a long history that began by 1908. The earliest instances were targeted at Philadelphia, but there is no significant support for crediting W. C. Fields as the creator. The first ascription to Fields located by QI was dated many years after his death.

[LPCB] 1908 April 2, Life, [Cartoon showing two men conversing with a caption mentioning Philadelphia], Page 364, Life Publishing Company, New York. (Google Books full view; also ProQuest Periodicals) link

[WPWF] 1972 January 31, The Washington Post, Times Herald, “Personalities: What? Ginger Ale?”, Page B2, Washington, D.C. (ProQuest)

[TSTO] 1909 June 19, The Outlook, The Spectator, Page 400, Column 2, The Outlook Company, New York. (Google Books full view) link

[EHWP] 1913 July, The Fra: A Journal of Affirmation, Advertisement: Hoskins, Stationers and Engravers by Elbert Hubbard, Page xxi, Column 1, Volume 11, Published by Elbert Hubbard, East Aurora, New York. (Google Books full view) link

[TJRS] 1917 September, Typographical Journal, Proceedings of the Sixty-Third Session of The International Typographical Union, [Held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on August 13 to 18, 1917], Page 92, Volume 51, Supplement to The Typographical Journal], International Typographical Union, Indianapolis, Indiana.  (Google Books full view) link

[VFWF] 1925 June, Vanity Fair, A Group of Artists Write Their Own Epitaphs, Start Page Page 50, Quote Page Page 51, Column 3, [W.C. Fields tombstone epitaph], Condé Nast, New York. (Verified on microfilm)

[ADFP] 1946 November 15, The Art Digest [later renamed Arts Magazine], Prints in Philadelphia, Quote Page 19, Art Digest, Inc., New York. (Verified on paper)

[PSOP]  1957, Our Philadelphia: A Candid and Colorful Portrait of a Great City by Frank Brookhouser, Section Prologue, Page 1, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. (Verified on paper)

[WPJF] 1971 April-June, The Journal of American Folklore, A Study of Ethnic Slurs: The Jew and the Polack in the United States by Alan Dundes, Start Page 186, Quote Page 189-190, Volume 84, Number 332, Published by: American Folklore Society. (JSTOR) link

[CTWP] 1971 August 21, Chicago Tribune, Will Leonard column, Subsection: Stop the Press, Page 10, Chicago, Illinois. (ProQuest)

[HCWF] 1975 April 20, Hartford Courant, Philadelphia Uses Fields To Change View, [AP newswire], Page 3A, Hartford, Connecticut. (ProQuest)

Dear Quote Investigator: There is a very popular prayer that is usually credited to St. Francis of Assisi. It begins:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

What is known about this attribution? Is it correct?

Quote Investigator: Christian Renoux, an Associate Professor at the University of Orleans, France, investigated the origin of this prayer and was able to trace it back to an appearance in French in a magazine called “La Clochette” in 1912 where it was published anonymously. This research is discussed in a short article titled “The Origin of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis” which is available at a website of “The Franciscan Archive” here [CRSF].

There is no compelling support for an attribution to St. Francis. Renoux states that around 1920 the prayer was printed on the back of an image of St. Francis with the title ‘Prière pour la paix’ (Prayer for Peace). This suggests to QI a natural mechanism for the creation of the ascription to St. Francis.

In 1927 a version of the prayer appeared in English in a periodical called “Friends’ Intelligencer” published by the Religious Society of Friends also known as the Quakers. This is the earliest instance in English that QI has located. Immediately preceding the prayer the following attribution was given: “A prayer of St, Francis of Assissi”. Note the spelling of Assisi within the periodical used the letter “s” four times [FAFI]:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

  where there is hatred, let me sow love;

  where there is injury, pardon;

  where there is discord, union;

  where there is doubt, faith;

  where there is despair, hope;

  where there is darkness, light; and

  where there is sadness, joy.

 

“O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

  to be consoled, as to console;

  to be understood, as to understand;

  to be loved, as to love; for

    it is in giving that we receive,

    it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and

    it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

Amen.

The text of the prayer above has been reformatted for readability. The passage in “Friends’ Intelligencer” was printed in two simple paragraphs with a break at the phrase “O Divine Master”.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In January 1932 a version of the prayer was published and credited to “St. Francis of Assissi” in a weekly titled “Young India”. The editor of this periodical was Mahadev Desai who today is best known for being the personal secretary of Mahatma Gandhi. Desai provided the following introductory remark for the prayer [MDYI]:

For us the unworthy followers of Bapu and the Sardar who are today thrown, seemingly leaderless and helpless, in impenetrable darkness, to work towards the life-giving light of Swaraj I cannot think of a better prayer than one I received yesterday from two Christian friends who send their “love and prayers and living faith in the triumph of truth through suffering as part of that sympathy which is being borne out to you all by countless numbers in these very difficult days.”

In August 1932 a shortened version of the prayer appeared in the “Boy Scouts Bulletin” section of a newspaper called “The Daily Gleaner” of Kingston, Jamaica [BSDG]:

Happifying Service : (July Scouter)

Francis of Assissi’s prayer may well be that of a Rover where he says:

Lord make me an instrument of thy peace,

Where there is hatred let me sow love,

Where there is sadness let me sow joy

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand,

To be loved, as to love.

In conclusion, the first known appearance of the prayer was dated 1912. The quotation was initially expressed in French and was translated into English by 1927. The words were first presented without attribution and were ascribed to Assisi by 1927.

Thanks for your question.

[CRSF] The Franciscan Archive website, “The Origin of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis” by Christian Renoux, Associate Professor, University of Orleans, France. (Accessed franciscan-archive.org 2011 December 20) link

[FAFI] 1927 First Month 22 ["First Month" probably refers to January], Friends’ Intelligencer, Page 66, Column 1, Volume 84, Number 4, Religious Society of Friends, Philadelphia. (Verified with scans from the Hartzler Library at Eastern Mennonite University; Many thanks to the librarians)

[MDYI] 1932 January 7, Young India: A Weekly Journal, Edited by Mahadev Desai, Page 4, Column 1, Volume 14, Number 1, Navajivan Pub. House, Ahmedabad, India. (HathiTrust)

[BSDG] 1932 August 8, The Daily Gleaner, Boy Scouts Bulletin, Page 21, Column 2, Kingston, Jamaica. (NewspaperArchive)

Dear Quote Investigator: There is a funny anecdote about the young superstar Shirley Temple and her visit to Santa Claus when she was six. She began to question the story of toys distributed from the North Pole by Santa. Can you locate a version of this from Temple herself?

Quote Investigator: The earliest instance of this anecdote that QI has located appeared in a newspaper in 1961. The byline indicated the source was the WNS news service [TPST]:

Shirley Temple said she stopped believing in Santa Claus when she went to visit him in a Los Angeles department store and Santa asked her for her autograph.

Temple may have been hasty in her judgment because even Santa or one of his helpers would have been awed by Shirley Temple’s box-office power in the 1930s.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1963 the tale of skepticism was presented in the book “Celebrity Register: An Irreverent Compendium of American Quotable Notables” compiled by Cleveland Amory with Earl Blackwell. The volume contained hundreds of short biographical sketches, and the entry for Shirley Temple began with words which were directly credited to the famous actress [STCR]:

“I stopped believing in Santa Claus at an early age,” she says. “Mother took me to see Santa Claus in a Hollywood department store and he asked for my autograph!” Born 23 April 1928, the daughter of a bank clerk (Shirley’s earnings were later to total half the bank’s total assets), …

By the 1980s the phrasing of the quotation was somewhat different. A precise age for Temple was given in this variant printed in an advertisement for the book “The Oxford Book of Ages” that ran in the New York Times in 1985 [NYST]:

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph. Shirley Temple

Thanks for your question, and happy holidays to all.

[TPST] 1961 December 08, Times-Picayune, Santa Requested Star’s Autograph, [WNS news service]. Section Three, Page 10, Column 8, [GNB Page 48], New Orleans, Louisiana. (GenealogyBank)

[STCR] 1963, Celebrity Register: An Irreverent Compendium of American Quotable Notables, Edited by Cleveland Amory with Earl Blackwell, Profile of Shirley Temple, Page 610, Column 2, Harper & Row, New York. (Verified on paper)

[NYST] 1985 October 6, New York Times, Section: Book Review, [Advertisement for "The Oxford Book of Ages" from Oxford University Press], Page 41, New York. (ProQuest; Visible in full page display; Text not indexed)

Dear Quote Investigator: I’ve been wondering about the authenticity of a quote about happiness I came across some time ago. I’ve been unable to find a source so far.

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.

It was supposedly said by Thomas Merton.

Quote Investigator: The attribution given is correct although the wording of the quotation is slightly different. The conjunction “and” is used three times in the original text. The words appeared in a collection of essays published in 1955 titled “No Man is an Island” in a chapter called “Being and Doing” [TMHI]:

We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.

Music is pleasing not only because of the sound but because of the silence that is in it: without the alternation of sound and silence there would be no rhythm.

Here is some additional information.

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk who wrote a best-selling autobiography “The Seven Storey Mountain” released in 1948.  He spent many years at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky. The title of Merton’s book of essays containing the saying was a reference to a famous passage about the connectedness of human lives by the poet and priest John Donne. Merton stated in his prologue:

Nothing at all makes sense, unless we admit, with John Donne, that: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

In May 1955 the volume was reviewed in the Catholic journal of opinion “The Commonweal” in an article titled “The Mysticism of Thomas Merton”. The reviewer was impressed by the quotation and included it in his discussion of the work [AGCW].

As hitherto, he writes as the Trappist-Cistercian monk, while at the same time contriving to address himself to the world at large. The world would do well to pay heed: …

We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony. . . .

In conclusion, the quotation in its common modern variant has been streamlined by the deletion of the conjunction “and”, but the sentence closely matches words written by Thomas Merton in 1955.

(Many thanks to a questioner using the handle Tabibito San for asking about this saying.)

[TMHI] 1955, No Man is an Island by Thomas Merton, Chapter 7: Being and Doing, Quote Page 127, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. (Verified on paper)

[AGCW] 1955 May 13, The Commonweal, The Mysticism of Thomas Merton by Aelred Graham, Start Page 155, Quote Page 156, Commonweal Pub. Corp., New York. (Verified on paper)