Quote Investigator®

Mandell Creighton? James Payn? Helen Ricker Beebe? William Ralph Inge? Jack Hulbert? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Oxford and Cambridge rank among Europe’s oldest and most prestigious centers of higher learning. An oft-repeated comical statement contrasts the attitudes of the students of the two schools:

Oxford people think they own the world. Cambridge people do not care who owns the world.

This ambiguous saying has divergent interpretations. One explication highlights student stereotypes. The Oxford person is a confident, natural, and entitled leader. The Cambridge person is a detached academic individual who is unconcerned with managing world affairs. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: QI conjectures that this saying evolved from remarks made by English editor James Payn in “Chambers’s Journal” in 1862. Payn described the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race held on a stretch of the Thames in West London. Interestingly, the two groups Payn contrasted differed from the modern saying.

The first group was the young gentlemen of London who looked as though they were the “proprietors of the universe”. The second group was the combined students of Oxford and Cambridge, i.e., the “dark and light blue” based on each school’s traditional colors. This combined student group looked as though they did not care to whom the universe belonged.

In the following excerpt, “the town” referred to London, and the pronoun “them” referred to the students of both Oxford and Cambridge. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

There is also a charming independence about them, contrasting curiously with the assumed indifference of the young gentlemen of the town. The latter present the appearance, more or less complete, of being the proprietors of the universe; but ‘this pride is yet no match for theirs’ of the Dark and Light Blue, who look as though they did not care to whom it belonged.

They do not as yet perceive the necessity of assuming a superior position with respect to others; the world is a solid pudding to them (with plenty of plums in it), and mere wafer-biscuits and trifle-froth have no attractions for them. They do not understand that to look weary and ill-tempered is to convey the idea of fashionable beings worn out with the attentions of the aristocracy; and that to take an interest in anything is bad taste. On the contrary, Dark and Light Blue take very great interest in everything, and about this University Boat-race they do more—they are wild enthusiasts.

The piece in “Chambers’s Journal” did not have a byline identifying the author. But the article was reprinted in 1867 within the collection “Lights and Shadows of London Life” authored by James Payn.²

A close match for the modern version of the saying appeared in a speech delivered at Oxford by Reverend Mandell Creighton on June 17, 1896. Creighton was the Bishop of Peterborough who later became the Bishop of London. Creighton disclaimed authorship and implied that the saying was a preexisting epigram:³

That great question—the difference between an Oxford man and a Cambridge man—was once solved by the epigram: ‘An Oxford man looks as if the world belongs to him: a Cambridge man looks as if he did not care to whom the world belongs.’

I am not concerned with the truth of that saying in itself, but it undoubtedly describes two temperaments, which differ and annoy one another by a sense of difference. I think, however, that we must admit that the man who does not care to whom the world belongs is extremely annoying to the man who maintains that the world belongs to him.

Below is an overview with dates and attributions:

1862: Young gentlemen of London: Appearance of being the proprietors of the universe. Oxford and Cambridge students: Look as though they did not care to whom it belonged
(James Payn)

1896 Jun 17: An Oxford man looks as if the world belongs to him: a Cambridge man looks as if he did not care to whom the world belongs
(Anonymous attribution from Mandell Creighton)

1896 Jun 18: An Oxford man looks as if the world belonged to him; a Cambridge man looks as if he did not care to whom the world belonged
(Anonymous attribution from Mandell Creighton)

1899: The Oxford man who looks as if the world belongs to him, the Cambridge man who looks as if he did not care to whom the world belongs
(Mandell Creighton)

1917: The Oxford man acts as if all the world belongs to him; the Cambridge man as if he belonged to all the world
(Anonymous attribution from George Edwin Maclean)

1922: The Oxford man — He looks as if the world belonged to him. The Cambridge man — He looks as if he did not care to whom the world belonged
(William Ralph Inge)

1929: Oxford man wears a gown as if it belonged to him, and a Cambridge man wears it as if he didn’t care who it belonged to
(Jack Hulbert)

1936: An Oxford man goes about looking as though the world belongs to him — a Cambridge man as though he doesn’t care to whom it belongs
(Alfred Walter Frank Blunt)

1940: An Oxford man walks as though he owned the earth; and a Cambridge man walks as though he didn’t care who owned it
(Anonymous attribution from Helen Ricker Beebe)

1970: An Oxford man acts as if he owns the place; a Cambridge man doesn’t care who owns it and acts accordingly
(Anonymous attribution from Ralph Bossence)

1972: Oxford men think they rule the world and Cambridge men don’t care a cent who does
(Attributed to Mandell Creighton)

1984: Oxford men think the world belongs to them. Cambridge men don’t care who it belongs to
(Anonymous attribution from Stephen Toulmin)

Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.