Quote Origin: We Are All Such a Waste of Our Potential, Like Three-Way Lamps Using One-Way Bulbs

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Mignon McLaughlin? Derric Johnson? Anonymous?

Light bulb image from Alessandro Bianchi at Unsplash.

Question for Quote Investigator: A clever author once compared the unfulfilled potential of a human to a three-way light fixture which contains a one-way light bulb that never shines with its maximum luminance. Would you please help me to determine the name of the author who crafted this simile?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Mignon McLaughlin was a writer and editor at magazines such as “The Atlantic Monthly”, “Glamour”, and “Vogue” for four decades from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1963 she published “The Neurotic’s Notebook” which contained miscellaneous aphorisms such as the following three statements. Boldface added to excepts by QI:1

Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.

We are all such a waste of our potential, like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs.

The know-nothings are, unfortunately, seldom the do-nothings.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1991 a version of the saying without attribution appeared in a religious book titled “Easy Doesn’t  Do It” by Derric Johnson:2

There is a dimension and view of life that only faith can understand. Without that faith, we waste our potential. We are like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs.

In 1997 Louis A. Berman published the compilation “Proverb Wit & Wisdom: A Treasury of Proverbs, Parodies, Quips, Quotes, Clichés, Catchwords, Epigrams, and Aphorisms” which included an entry for this saying:3

We are all such a waste of our potential, like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs.
Mignon McLaughlin

In 2005 the quotation with an ascription to McLaughlin appeared as a chapter epigraph in “The Confidence Plan: How To Build a Stronger You” by Tim Ursiny.4

In conclusion, Mignon McLaughlin deserves credit for this simile. She included the quip in her 1963 book “The Neurotic’s Notebook”.

Image Notes: Illustration of a light bulb from Alessandro Bianchi at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and retouched.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Mardy Grothe who included this quotation together with a citation in his 2016 book “Metaphors Be With You: An A to Z Dictionary of History’s Greatest Metaphorical Quotations”. Grothe operates multiple websites including “Dr. Mardy’s Dictionary of Metaphorical Quotations”.

  1. 1963, The Neurotic’s Notebook by Mignon McLaughlin, Chapter 5: The General Orneriness of Things, Quote Page 58, 60, and 62, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  2. 1991 Copyright, Easy Doesn’t  Do It by Derric Johnson, Chapter 5: I Don’t Believe In God, Quote Page 38, Published by Y.E.S.S. Press. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  3. 1997, Proverb Wit & Wisdom: A Treasury of Proverbs, Parodies, Quips, Quotes, Clichés, Catchwords, Epigrams, and Aphorisms, Compiled by Louis A. Berman With Assistance by Daniel K. Berman, Quote Page 157, A Perigee Book: The Berkley Publishing Group, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  4. 2005 Copyright, The Confidence Plan: How To Build a Stronger You by Tim Ursiny, Chapter 3.6 Emotional Approaches: Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP): A Proven Method To Impact Feelings, Quote Page 135, Sourcebooks Inc., Naperville, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
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