Abraham Lincoln? Dean Acheson? Vermont Woman? Andrew Tully? Lion? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Contemplating the future can be overwhelming when one is facing endless demands and myriad dangers. The following saying mixes humor, acceptance, and sanguinity:
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln has received credit for this statement, but I have never seen a solid citation, and I am skeptical. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: U.S. historians Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher published a comprehensive collection of remarks attributed to Abraham Lincoln titled “Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln”. These experts indicated that the ascription of the quotation under examination to Lincoln was unsupported. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
For more than a century, undocumented quotations have been attaching themselves to Lincoln and gaining currency through repetition. Many of them are undoubtedly spurious. There appears to be no credible evidence, for example, that he ever said: . . . “The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time”.
The earliest match found by QI appeared in a 1950 article by journalist Andrew Tully of the Scripps-Howard newspaper company. Tully published an interview with Dean Acheson who was the U.S. Secretary of State. Acheson attributed the saying to an anonymous Vermont woman:2
“This is no job for a worrier. It’s a hard job and you can’t let yourself worry about it. I try to be as philosophical as the old lady from Vermont, who said that the best thing about the future was that it only comes one day at a time.”
Abraham Lincoln died in 1865. The saying was assigned to him by 1971. The long delay signaled that the attribution was spurious.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1924 the students of Pacific College in Newberg, Oregon published “The Crescent” which included an article containing a thematic precursor. The article encouraged participation in volunteer groups and suggested that the heavy responsibilities could be handled by facing the future “only one day at a time”:3
The work before us seems hard and perhaps grinding, but the future comes only one day at a time, so let us not be blinded by the size of the work as a whole.
In April 1950 Dean Acheson attributed the saying to an “old lady from Vermont” as noted at the beginning of this article.
In August 1950 columnist Beverly Gray of “The Calgary Herald” printed an instance without attribution:4
The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.
In September 1950 the “Redwood City Tribune,” of California printed a variant expression within an advertisement:5
The Best Thing About the Future Is That You Live It Day by Day
In January 1952 “Pageant” magazine printed a collection of “Best Quotes” which included an instance using the phrase “comes only” instead of “only comes”:6
Dean Acheson (quoting Vermont housewife): “Best thing about the future is it comes only one day at a time.”
In November 1952 “Quote: The Weekly Digest” printed the saying with an attribution to “Lion”:7
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.—Lion.
The ascription to “Lion” was repeated in other periodicals such as the “Oklahoma City Star” in 1954.8 However, QI is uncertain of the meaning of this referent.
In 1957 the saying appeared in newspapers under the title “Today’s Chuckle” with another attribution:9
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
Wireco Life
In 1966 “The Payson Chronicle” of Utah credited an instance directly to Dean Acheson:10
Perhaps the best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.
–Dean Acheson
In 1967 “The Modern Handbook of Humor” by Ralph L. Woods placed the saying into a section with anonymous remarks:11
Authors Not Known
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
In 1971 “The Kaplan Herald” of Louisiana printed an instance while crediting Abraham Lincoln:12
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. —LINCOLN
In 1973 a filler item in “The Springville Herald” of Utah also credited the saying to Lincoln.13
In 1977 the popular collection “Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time” credited Lincoln:14
The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time. —Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) (May the happiest days of your past be the saddest days of your future.)
In 1996 “The Fairview Guide To Positive Quotations” credited Lincoln.15
In 2000 the “Random House Webster’s Wit & Humor Quotationary” included the following entry:16
DEAN ACHESON (1893-1971). American secretary of state
I try to be as philosophical as the old lady who said that the best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.
In conclusion, this saying was popularized by Dean Acheson who credited an anonymous Vermont woman in 1950. There is no substantive support for the attribution to Abraham Lincoln.
Image Notes: Illustration of a calendar by Estée Janssens at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Jane Bella whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1996, Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln, Compiled and edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher, Section: Introduction, Quote Page l (50), Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1950 April 6, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Acheson Unworried by Attack by Andrew Tully (Scripps-Howard Staff Writer), Quote Page 12, Column 2, Knoxville, Tennessee. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1924 October 1, The Crescent, Volume 36, Number 1, Will You Accept The Challenge?, Quote Page 2, Column 1, Published by the Student Body of Pacific College, Newberg, Oregon. (Archive.org) link ↩︎
- 1950 August 28, The Calgary Herald, The Scrap Book by Beverly Gray, Quote Page 4, Column 3, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1950 September 13, Redwood City Tribune, (Classified Advertisement), Quote Page 14, Column 8, Redwood City, California. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1952 January, Pageant, Volume 7, Number 7, Best Quotes of the Year, Start Page 134, Quote Page 135, Column 1, Hillman Periodicals, Chicago, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1952 November 30, Quote: The Weekly Digest, Volume 24, Number 23, Topic: Future, Quote Page 5, Column 1, Published by Droke House, Indianapolis, Indiana. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1954 July 2, Oklahoma City Star, Edition: Second Methodist Church Edition, What Others Say, Quote Page 1, Column 4, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1957 January 1, Detroit Free Press, Today’s Chuckle (Upper right of page), Quote Page 3, Column 6, Detroit, Michigan. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1966 February 3, The Payson Chronicle, (Filler item), Quote Page 1, Column 3, Payson, Utah. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1967, The Modern Handbook of Humor by Ralph L. Woods (Ralph Louis Woods), Section Capsule Wit and Wisdom: Terse Fun and Sage Sayings, Sub-Section: Authors Not Known, Quote Page 407, Column 2, The McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1971 February 11, The Kaplan Herald: Weekly Voice of Kaplan and Vermilion Parish, HERALDLITES, Quote Page 19, Column 4 and 5, Kaplan, Louisiana. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1973 May 24, The Springville Herald, (Filler item), Quote Page 15, Column 1, Springville, Utah. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1977, Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time, Compiled by Laurence J. Peter, Section: Past Present Future, Quote Page 373, William Morrow and Company, New York. (Verified on with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1996, The Fairview Guide To Positive Quotations, Compiled by John Cook, Section: Tomorrow: the Future, Quote Page 246, Column 2, Fairview Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2000, Random House Webster’s Wit & Humor Quotationary, Edited by Leonard Roy Frank, Person: Dean Acheson, Quote Page 1, Random House, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎