F. Scott Fitzgerald? Aubrey Grey? Harriett G. Hancock? Apocryphal? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: A smile can raise the spirits of oneself and others. This thought has been conveyed as follows:
It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light, it scattered the night and made the day worth living.
These words have been attributed to the prominent U.S. novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I have never seen a solid citation, and I have become skeptical. Would you please explore the provenance of this statement?
Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive support for the ascription to F. Scott Fitzgerald who was born in 1896.
The earliest strong match located by QI appeared in March 1893 within a poem titled “Only” published in “The Western Teacher: A Monthly Journal for Progressive Teachers” of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Below are the first two verses of the four verse poem. The author was not identified. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
It was only a sunny smile,
And little it cost in the giving;
But it scattered the night
Like morning light,
And made the day worth living.
Through life’s dull warp a woof it wove
In shining colors of hope and love;
And the angels smiled as they watched above.
Yet little it cost in the giving.It was only a kindly word,
A word that was lightly spoken;
Yet not in vain,
For it stilled the pain
Of a heart that was nearly broken.
It strengthened a faith beset by fears
And groping blindly through mists of tears
For light to brighten the coming years,
Although it was lightly spoken.
The poem above was widely reprinted in subsequent years, but QI has been unable to determine the author. Thus, the creator of the quotation under examination remains anonymous.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
A poem communicating a similar idea about the uplifting nature of a smile appeared in “The Capital” newspaper of Washington D.C. in 1871. Below are the final two verses of the six verse poem which was authored by Aubrey Grey:2
Only a tender smile, but it may part
And rift the clouds around a breaking heart,
Inspire with hope, lessen the stinging smart
Of false friends scorning.Only a kindly word, spoken in love,
May lift a sinking soul to strive for life above —
Leave in a heart, storm-tossed and torn, the dove
Of Peace, soft nestling. Aubrey Grey.
The quotation under analysis appeared in “The Western Teacher” in March 1893 as mentioned previously.
In May 1895 one verse of the anonymous poem was reprinted in “Primary Education: A Monthly Journal for Primary Teachers” of Boston, Massachusetts. The attribution “Sel” was an abbreviation meaning “Selected”:3
Only.
It was only a sunny smile,
And little it cost in the giving;
But it scattered the night
Like morning light,
And made the day worth living.
Through life’s dull warp a woof it wove
In shining colors of hope and love;
And the angels smiled as they watched above.
Yet little it cost in the giving. — Sel.
In September 1895 the poem appeared in the “Elmira Daily Gazette” of Elmira, New York.4
In 1898 the poem appeared under the title “Easily Given” in “The New York Times”,5 and in 1901 it appeared under the same title in “The Typographical Journal” of Indianapolis, Indiana.6 Both periodicals acknowledged “The Philadelphia Press”.
In 1925 a newspaper in Exeter, England asked young people to submit mottoes for publication. Two individuals submitted lines from the poem although the phrasing was slightly different:7
MOTTO FOR JANUARY
It was only a sunny smile.
It cost so little in giving;
But it scattered the night
Like the morning light
And made the day worth living.Harriett G. Hancock (173). Knowlstone Barnstaple.
In 2010 an obituary notice in “The State” newspaper of Columbia, South Carolina attributed the comments about a sunny smile to F. Scott Fitzgerald:8
“It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light, it scattered the night and made the day worth living.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald
In conclusion, the quotation was circulating by 1893, which was three years before F. Scott Fitzgerald was born. The key lines appeared in the first verse of a poem titled “Only”. This poem was reprinted in several periodicals in 1893 and the following years, but the creator was not named.
Image Notes: Pictures of balloons with smiles and frowns from Madison Oren at Unsplash.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Shawn Sudia-Skehan and Greg whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
Update History: On May 2, 2024 the format of the bibliographical notes was updated. Also, the full article was placed on this website.
- 1893 March, The Western Teacher: A Monthly Journal for Progressive Teachers, Volume 1, Number 5, Poem: Only, Quote Page 145, Column 2, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1871 May 21, The Capital, Poem: “Only” by Aubrey Grey, (For the Capital), Quote Page 1, Column 1, Washington, D.C. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎
- 1895 May, Primary Education: A Monthly Journal for Primary Teachers, Volume 3, Number 5, Poem: Only, Quote Page 154, Column 1, Educational Publishing Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1895 September 13, Elmira Daily Gazette, Poem: Only, Quote Page 4, Column 4, Elmira, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1898 September 4, The New York Times, Easily Given (From The Philadelphia Press), Quote Page 16, Column 5, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1901 July 15, The Typographical Journal, Volume 19, Number 2, Poem: Easily Given, Acknowledgement to Philadelphia Press, Quote Page 57, Official Paper of the International Typographical Union of North America, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1925 January 2, The Western Times, Uncle Fred’s Young Folks League, Quote Page 3, Column 1, Exeter, Devon, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2010 October 12, The State, Deaths: Lisa Nicole Bullington, Quote Page B4, Column 3, Columbia, South Carolina. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎