Steven Tyler? Keble Howard? George E. Waring Jr.? Henry Stanley Haskins? Robert Heinlein? Lord Chesterfield? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: The following adage celebrates enthusiasm and exuberance:
Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
This saying has been attributed to the rock star Steven Tyler and science fiction author Robert Heinlein. Would you please help me to trace this saying?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The first match known to QI appeared in an 1867 book about drainage systems by sanitary engineer George E. Waring Jr. who designed the drainage for Central Park in New York City. Waring employed the saying while suggesting that the pipes were too large in many existing systems. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
A common impression seems to prevail, that if a 2-inch pipe is good, a 3-inch pipe must be better, and that, generally, if draining is worth doing at all, it is worth overdoing; while the great importance of having perfectly fitting connections is not readily perceived. The general result is, that most of the tile-draining in this country has been too expensive for economy, and too careless for lasting efficiency.
The next match appeared in 1895 within “The Evening News” of London, England. The domain was stock market trading, and the creator was anonymous:2
Whatever is worth doing, according to the Stock Exchange, is worth overdoing, and so it came about that Canadian Pacific shares were knocked down nearly six points yesterday on a piece of news that was at any rate expected in some quarters.
In 1906 “The North Adams Transcript” of Massachusetts printed a general instance which was not tied to a specific domain:3
We are very apt, in this day and nation, to act as though we held to the principle that what is worth doing is worth overdoing. It is this passion for extremes that is involved, a passion which the Transcript has more than once referred to as perhaps the chief danger of the nation…
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The adage above is a humorous variant of a much older saying from Lord Chesterfield (Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield) who wrote a famous series of letters to his son regarding proper manners and etiquette in the United Kingdom. A 1746 letter included a pertinent statement:4
There is no surer sign in the world of a little, weak mind, than inattention. Whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well; and nothing can be done well without attention.
In 1867 George E. Waring Jr. published a version tailored to drainage systems as mentioned previously:
. . . generally, if draining is worth doing at all, it is worth overdoing . . .
In 1895 “The Evening News” of London, England printed a version tailored to the stock market as mentioned previously:
Whatever is worth doing, according to the Stock Exchange, is worth overdoing …
In 1896 journalist Emma Bullet published a variant saying in “The Brooklyn Daily Eagle” of New York. She discussed traveling the world, and she criticized the strategy of visiting a series of locations very quickly:5
I have always been an enemy of the latter way of taking a rapid view of things, for what is worth doing at all is worth doing slowly and well …
In 1906 the general form of the saying emerged in “The North Adams Transcript” of Massachusetts as mentioned previously:
We are very apt, in this day and nation, to act as though we held to the principle that what is worth doing is worth overdoing.
In January 1910 an editorial in “The Century Magazine” mentioned the adage:6
Our sports have great uses, but it is well to remember that emulation is a national trait which may be overstimulated, and when it is applied to athletics it becomes difficult to dissuade American youth from perverting the time-honored adage to read: “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth overdoing.”
“The Brooklyn Daily Eagle” reprinted the passage containing the adage from “The Century Magazine” with an acknowledgment. The magazine was available slightly before its cover date. Thus, the newspaper printed the adage at the end of December in 1909.7
In 1913 “The Sketch” of London published a column by Keble Howard containing an anecdote which ended with a moral:8
MORAL: If a thing is worth doing at all, it is worth overdoing.
In 1914 “The Yale Expositor” of Yale, Michigan credited the saying to Keble Howard although the phrasing was different:9
Speaking of Dancing? Anything that’s worth doing at all is worth overdoing.—Keble Howard.
In 1940 Henry Stanley Haskins anonymously published “Meditations in Wall Street” which included a variant expression:10
When a thing is not worth overdoing, leave it alone!
In 1973 Robert Heinlein published “Time Enough for Love” which included the following line:11
“That’s my Dora! Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”
In 2010 a columnist in “The Toronto Star” of Canada attributed the saying to Steven Tyler of the rock group Aerosmith:12
He’s rock ’n’ roll personified. The sex, drugs, music, all wrapped in one swaggering, puffy-lipped 62-year-old who dresses like a Swahili princess and insists “anything worth doing is worth overdoing!”
In conclusion, the earliest instances of this expression were applied to specific domains. George E. Waring Jr. wrote about drainage systems in 1867, and an anonymous person wrote about the stock market in 1895. The general form with an anonymous attribution was circulating by 1906. Writers Keble Howard and Robert Heinlein employed the adage after it was already in use. It was attributed to Steven Tyler in 2010.
Image Notes: Painting titled “Les Hasards heureux de L’Escarpolette” (“The Swing”) by Jean-Honore Fragonard circa 1767. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Paul Potiki whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Many thanks to Peter Morris who told QI about the 1867 citation. Also, thanks to “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” which included an entry for “Anything worth doing is worth overdoing” with citations beginning in 1962.
Update History: On November 7, 2024 the 1867 adage was added to the article, and the article was partially rewritten.
- 1867 Copyright, Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health By George E. Waring Jr. (Engineer of the Drainage of the Central Park, New York), Chapter 3: How To Go To Work To Lay Out a System of Drains, Quote Page 48, Orange Judd & Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1895 February 26, The Evening News, The City: Overdoing a Thing, Quote Page 3, Column 7, London, England. (NewspaperArchive) ↩︎
- 1906 April 16, The North Adams Transcript, Editorial: Extremes vs. Discrimination, Quote Page 4, Column 1, North Adams, Massachusetts. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1774, The Life of The Late Lord Chesterfield: Or, The Man of the World, Including Speeches, Essays, Poems, and the Substance of the System of Education Delivered in a Series of Letters to His Son, (Letters Written by Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to His Son, Philip Stanhope), Letter dated March 10, 1746, Start Page 94, Quote Page 94, Printed for H. Sauders, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlaine, and etc., Dublin, Ireland. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
- 1896 September 20, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Ostende and Nuremberg by Emma Bullet, Quote Page 23, Column 2, Brooklyn, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1910 January, The Century Magazine, Volume 79, Number 3, Topics of the Times: Reform In Athletics, Quote Page 473, Column 1, The Century Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1909 December 31, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Reform in Athletics, Quote Page 4, Column 6, Brooklyn, New York. (Old Fulton) ↩︎
- 1913 June 18, The Sketch, Motley Notes by Keble Howard, My Musical Day, Quote Page 322, Column 2, The Illustrated London News and Sketch, London, England. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1914 July 23, The Yale Expositor, Speaking of Dancing? (Short freestanding item), Quote Page 2, Column 7, Yale, St. Clair County, Michigan. (Chronicling America) ↩︎
- 1940, Meditations in Wall Street by Anonymous, With an Introduction by Albert Jay Nock, (“Anonymous” was Henry Stanley Haskins), The Ancient Virtues, Quote Page 39, William Morrow & Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1973, Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long by Robert A. Heinlein, Section: Variations On a Theme, Chapter XI: The Tale of the Adopted Daughter, Quote Page 302, New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2010 August 27, The Toronto Star, Why Tyler is right for Idol by Joel Rubinoff (Torstar News Service), Quote Page E11, Column 1, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎