Benjamin Franklin? Apocryphal? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Achieving success in life requires simple skills such as showing up for work on time. The following saying is pertinent:
You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.
This statement has been attributed to U.S. statesman Benjamin Franklin. However, I am skeptical because I have never seen a solid citation. Also, Franklin died in 1790, and mass produced alarm clocks only became popular in the 1800s. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?
Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that Benjamin Franklin used this expression. The earliest match found by QI appeared as a filler item in “The Nebraska Ironmonger” of Lincoln, Nebraska in 1922. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Note to Discouraged: You will find the key to success under your alarm clock.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1919 the trade journal “Hardware World” of New York discussed putting reminder notes under an alarm clock:2
If there is an errand that must be done; a telephone call that must be made; a piece of work accomplished at a certain hour – simply make a memo of the fact, put it under the alarm clock, set the alarm and you may be certain that the little messenger will inform you when your duty must be attended to.
In 1922 the saying under examination appeared in “The Nebraska Ironmonger” as mentioned previously.
In February 1926 “The Fremont Herald” of Fremont, Nebraska described a different location for the key to success:3
The key to success lies under the doormat of industry.
On August 4, 1926 the saying occurred in the “Scottsbluff Star-Herald”. However, the newspaper contained a misprint. The word “not” appeared instead of “note”:4
Not to “Discouraged”: You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.
In 1927 the saying appeared within a one-panel comic in the “Franklin Repository” of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania:5
POP SAYS YOU WILL OFTEN FIND THE KEY TO SUCCESS UNDER THE ALARM CLOCK
In 1946 Ezra L. Marler created a compilation titled “Golden Nuggets of Thought” containing an entry which attributed the saying to Benjamin Franklin:6
You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.
-Franklin.
The citation above was the first known to QI which credited Franklin, but this evidence was not substantive because Franklin died more than 150 years earlier.
In 1948 a student newspaper in Frankfort, Kansas printed the following:7
You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.
Benjamin Franklin
In 1952 a horoscope column which appeared in several newspapers contained the following:8
“You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.”
-FRANKLIN.
In conclusion, the earliest match appeared in “The Nebraska Ironmonger” in 1922. No author was specified; hence, the creator remains anonymous. The attribution to Benjamin Franklin is unsupported.
Image Notes: Picture of an alarm clock from insung yoon at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to top-notch Wall Street Journal reporter Jason Zweig who expressed skepticism about the attribution of this saying to Benjamin Franklin. QI was inspired to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to researcher Barry Popik who previously explored this saying and found citations beginning on August 31, 1926.
- 1922 November, The Nebraska Ironmonger, Volume 11, Number 2, (Filler item), Quote Page 14, Column 2, Nebraska Retail Hardware Association, Lincoln, Nebraska. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1919 July, Hardware World, Volume 14, Number 7, Waking Up New Business, Start Page 104, Quote Page 105, Column 1, Hardware World Publishing Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1926 February 4, The Fremont Herald, (Filler item), Quote Page 1, Column 6, Fremont, Nebraska. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1926 August 4, Scottsbluff Star-Herald, Job Lots: A Varied Assortment of Ideas – Some New, Some Slightly Shop-Worn, Written by Josephus Henry, Quote Page 2, Column 3, Scottsbluff, Nebraska. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1927 April 2, Franklin Repository, (Baby Mine: One Panel Comic by PIM), Quote Page 1, Column 7, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1947 (1946 Copyright), Golden Nuggets of Thought, Compiled by Ezra L. Marler, Seventh Edition, Topic: Success, Quote Page 170, Press of Zion’s Printing & Publishing Company, Independence, Missouri. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1948 December 17, The Siren (Student Newspaper), (Filler item), Quote Page 10, Column 3, Frankfort, Kansas. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1952 February 27, Boston American, Your Stars Today by Constella, Quote Page 27, Column 3, Boston, Massachusetts. (GenealogyBank) ↩︎