Robert Louis Stevenson? Robert W. Frank? Frederick B. Harris? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: If you engage in a beneficial or a harmful activity you may not immediately experience the result. The effect might be significantly delayed, but eventually you will experience the full repercussions. Here are three versions of a pertinent adage:
(1) Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
(2) Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
(3) Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.
This saying has been attributed to the Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote “Treasure Island” and “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”. However, I have become skeptical because I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Researchers have not found an exact match for this saying within the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. A partial match appeared in Stevenson’s essay titled “Old Mortality” published in “Longman’s Magazine” in 1884. Stevenson emphasized the value of reading books. The following passage contained the phrase “game of consequences” instead of “banquet of consequences”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Books were the proper remedy: books of vivid human import, forcing upon their minds the issues, pleasures, business, importance and immediacy of that life in which they stand; books of smiling or heroic temper, to excite or to console; books of a large design, shadowing the complexity of that game of consequences to which we all sit down, the hanger-back not least.
During the following decades Stevenson’s essay was widely reprinted; hence, many readers saw it. QI conjectures that the 1884 statement was rephrased to yield the popular modern misquotation.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1895 the collection “The Travels and Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson” appeared, and it included the essay “Old Mortality”; hence, the original quotation was further distributed.2
In 1908 the collection “Crowned Masterpieces of Literature That Have Advanced Civilization” included Stevenson’s “Old Mortality” essay.3 Thus, the quotation was propagated further.
In 1912 “The English Journal: The Official Organ of the National Council of Teachers of English” reprinted the quotation:4
In “Old Mortality,” one of the essays in Memories and Portraits, he writes of exactly this thing:
Books were the proper remedy: books of vivid human import, forcing upon their minds the issues, pleasures, business, importance, and immediacy of that life in which they stand; books of smiling or heroic temper, to excite or to console; books of large design, shadowing the complexity of that game of consequences to which we all sit down, the hanger-back not least.
In 1928 “The Christian Century” published a piece titled “The Pessimism of Jesus” by Robert W. Frank which contained the misquotation attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson. This was the earliest match for the modern statement located by QI:5
In one of his typically neat and incisive sentences Robert Louis Stevenson has reminded us that “Sooner or later we all sit down to the banquet of consequences.” We may temporarily escape detection and the consequent disgrace. We may postpone indefinitely the payment of interest upon our deeds. But neither we nor our generation can ultimately escape the consequences of our motives and our acts.
In 1929 the book “The Christian Message and Program” by Cleland Boyd McAfee contained the following:6
He was not “an incorrigible optimist,” as some use the term. He knew well what Stevenson declared, that “sooner or later we all sit down to the banquet of consequences.”
In 1934 Bobby Jones who was the President of the Future Farmers of America addressed the national convention and said the following:7
Robert L. Stevenson has said:
“Worthwhile folks don’t just happen; You aren’t born worthwhile. You are born only with the possibilities of becoming worthwhile.”
Your job is to discover and develop the man or woman you ought to be. Sooner or later you sit down to the banquet of consequences.
In 1954 Frederick B. Harris who was the Chaplain of the U.S. Senate published an opinion piece which included an instance of the saying:8
Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences, declared Robert Louis Stevenson in a penetrating comment on life.
In 1962 “The Daily Gleaner” of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada printed a letter from a reader which contained an instance:9
Must all our wildlife be destroyed before we come to our senses? Robert Louis Stevenson once said: “Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences.” When will Canadians sit down and accept the fact?
In 1965 the compilation “Remarks of Famous People” edited by Jacob M. Braude included the following item:10
Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.
—Robert Louis Stevenson
In 1993 the “Los Angeles Times” of California printed a letter from a reader which contained an instance:11
So, as always happens, our chickens came home to roost. As Robert Louis Stevenson put it, “Soon or late, we all sit down to a table of consequences.”
In conclusion, Robert Louis Stevenson should receive credit for the passage he wrote in the essay “Old Mortality” in 1884. He used the phrase “game of consequences” and not the phrase “banquet of consequences”. In 1928 Robert W. Frank incorrectly credited Stevenson with a rephrased version of the 1884 expression.
Image Notes: Picture of a banquet meal from Vernon Raineil Cenzon at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Mardy Grothe and Jason Zweig whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Zweig identified an important 1902 citation for Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Old Mortality” essay. Zweig wondered whether the modern quotation had been derived from the statement in “Old Mortality”.
- 1884 May, Longman’s Magazine, Old Mortality by Robert Louis Stevenson, Start Page 74, Quote Page 75, Longmans, Green, & Company, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1895, The Travels and Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson, Section: Memories and Portraits, Essay: Old Mortality, Start Page 199, Quote Page 201, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1908, Crowned Masterpieces of Literature That Have Advanced Civilization, The World’s Best Essays, Edited by David J. Brewer, Volume 9 of 10, Old Mortality by Robert Louis Stevenson, Start Page 3612, Quote Page 3614, Ferd. P. Kaiser Publishing Company, St. Louis, Minnesota. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1912 Jun, The English Journal: The Official Organ of the National Council of Teachers of English, Volume 1, Number 6, Robert Louis Stevenson Darkening Counsel by Frank Aydelotte (Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.), Start Page 340, Quote Page 345, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1928 August 9, The Christian Century: A Journal of Religion, The Pessimism of Jesus by Robert W. Frank, Start Page 974, Quote Page 975, Column 1, Christian Century Press, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1929, The Christian Message and Program by Cleland Boyd McAfee, Study 2: The Christian Religion As a Way of Personal Living, Quote Page 46, Printed for the Leadership Training Publishing Association by The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Internet Archive) link ↩︎
- 1934 July-August, The Vo-Ag Pilot, Volume 14, Number 1, Address By Bobby Jones, National President of F.F.A. At F.F.A Convention, Charleston, W. Va., June 27, 1934, Quote Page 15, Column 2, State Department of Education, Vocational Division at Charleston, West Virginia. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1954 May 22, The Saginaw News, Orientals Now Demanding West Obey Divine Precepts by Frederick B. Harris (Chaplain, United States Senate), Quote Page 6, Column 6, Saginaw, Michigan. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1962 April 16, The Daily Gleaner, Letters To the Editor, Letter Title: On Conservation, Letter From: Gordon L. Stone of Fredericton, N.B., Quote Page 4, Column 5, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1965, Remarks of Famous People, Edited by Jacob M. Braude, Series: Complete Speaker’s and Toastmaster’s Library, Quote Page 23, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1993 January 12, Los Angeles Times, Census Count [Orange County Edition], Letter From: Emerson Johnson of San Juan Capistrano, Quote Page 10, Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest) ↩︎