Robert Frost? George William Curtis? Arthur Deerin Call? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Everyone encounters difficult problems and arduous tasks. When avoidance is impossible it becomes necessary to face these challenges directly. Here are four versions of a pertinent adage:
(1) The only way out is through.
(2) The best way out is always through.
(3) No way out but through.
(4) The best way out is through.
The U.S. poet Robert Frost has received credit for this notion, but I have not seen a solid citation. Also, I suspect that the saying was used before Frost was born. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in 1870 within an opinion piece about the ongoing Franco-Prussian War published in “Harper’s Weekly” of New York. France had experienced significant defeats on the battlefield, and the author wished that the country would implement major reforms. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The old things must utterly pass away if there are to be new things. It is to be hoped that there are men in France who understand that there can be no returning, that the only way out is through, not back. We have yet to see whether there will be a reaction which will only prolong the sorrow of the country, or a resolution which will at last regenerate it.
In 1871 the “Gold Hill Daily News” of Nevada reprinted a large excerpt from the “Harper’s Weekly” article which included the text above. The newspaper indicated that the author of the “Harper’s Weekly” article was essayist and political activist George William Curtis:2
It is to be hoped that there are men in France who understand that there can be no returning, that the only way out is through, not back.
Curtis is the leading candidate for creator of this adage. Robert Frost also used a version of this saying many years later as shown below.
Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Robert Frost was born in 1874. In 1914 he published the poetry collection “North of Boston” which included the work “A Servant To Servants”. Frost used two instances of the saying within the poem:3
By good rights I ought not to have so much
Put on me, but there seems no other way
Len says one steady pull more ought to do it.
He says the best way out is always through.
And I agree to that, or in so far
As that I can see no way out but through—
Leastways for me—and then they’ll be convinced.
In March 1918 the journal “Advocate of Peace” of Washington D.C. printed an unsigned article containing the following passage:4
The main world issue is now clear. This war is a fact. We must advance or retreat. There is no middle course. The only way out is through.
In June 1918, “Advocate of Peace” printed the saying again. This time the author was identified as Arthur Deerin Call who was the Secretary of The American Peace Society:5
The issue, therefore, is clear, the war is a fact. We must advance or retreat. Our only way out is through. We believe that brute force is inferior to the force of ideas and ideals.
Also, in June 1918, the Associated Press reported on a speech delivered by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture David F. Houston. The adage appeared as a section title within the article:6
Only Way Out Is Through
Along with his presentation of figures summarizing agricultural accomplishments, he called upon residents of cities and towns to see that bountiful harvests promised do not waste because of labor shortage. Of the war itself, he said, “there is no way out of this grim business except through it.”
In July 1918 Henry C. Wallace, an executive of the Iowa Y. M. C. A., used the saying while calling for volunteers:7
They must be in thorough sympathy with the United States in this war, convinced that the cause of the Allies is just, and that the only way out is through.
In 1922 “Success” magazine printed a poem by a journalist and humorist. The adage appeared in the title, and the first verse contained an instance:8
The Only Way Out Is Through
by Strickland GillilanThe only way out of a job Bill knew
Was through!
He never once thought of going around
Or tunneling under it, into the ground,
Or turning back—none of these would do.
“The only way out of a job is through”,
Said Bill; and—well, he proved that he knew.
In 1939 the linkage to Robert Frost was recalled within a religious lecture published in a Long Beach, California newspaper:9
Robert Frost, the poet, has truly said: “The best way out is always through.” Christian Science agrees, and adds to the meaning of the statement by turning it upside down, “The best way through is always out.”
In 1943 Edmund Fuller’s “Thesaurus of Epigrams” included this entry:10
PERSEVERANCE
The best way out is always through — Robert Frost
In 1961 an instance appeared in “The Stoutonia” which was the publication of the students at Stout State College in Menomonie, Wisconsin. The slogan appeared at the top of the front page:11
“The Best Way Out is Through It.”
In 1962 popular columnist Sydney J. Harris credited Frost with a variant statement:12
Robert Frost once expressed it with his usual admirable brevity and simplicity, when he wrote in a poem: “The fastest way out is through.”
In 1963 “Lucky Bag”, the yearbook of the United States Naval Academy, included a student profile featuring a concise slogan:13
Aspiring to the Marine Corps, Bob still figures the best way out is through.
In 2016 newspaper columnists in Yellowknife, Canada printed the following:14
There’s a saying, sometimes attributed to Navy Seals, which sticks in our minds. The only way out is through. We agree. Dodging issues never solves anything.
In 2018 researchers Charles Doyle and Wolfgang Mieder published in the journal “Proverbium” the second supplement to the reference work “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs”. They included a helpful entry for “The only way out is through”. The citations began with the March 1918 “Advocate of Peace” article.15
In conclusion, the earliest instance of this saying found by QI was written by George William Curtis in 1870; hence, Curtis is currently the most likely originator. Robert Frost included a version in his 1914 poem “A Servant To Servants”. Frost was the most important popularizer. Future researchers may discover earlier citations.
Image Notes: Picture of a path through a forest from Dave Hoefler at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Stephen Frug and Laurence Horn whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Horn pointed to the poem by Robert Frost containing the saying.
- 1870 December 31, Harper’s Weekly, Germany in France, Quote Page 851, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1871 January 7, Gold Hill Daily News, War and Its Excitements, Quote Page 2, Column 2, Gold Hill, Nevada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1914, North of Boston by Robert Frost, Poem: A Servant To Servants, Quote Page 66, Henry Holt and Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1918 March, Advocate of Peace, Volume 80, Number 3, Acting Upon the Evidence, Quote Page 70 and 71, The American Peace Society, Washington D.C. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1918 June, Advocate of Peace, Volume 80, Number 6, Report of the Secretary: The American Peace Society and the Present War (Secretary: Arthur Deerin Call), Quote Page 171, The American Peace Society, Washington D.C. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1918 June 20, The Muskegon Chronicle, Houston Urges People Husband Farm Products, Quote Page 3, Column 1, Muskegon, Michigan. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1918 July 10, The Manchester Democrat, Men Wanted for Y.M.C.A. Work, Quote Page 8, Column 2, Manchester, Iowa. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1922 July, Success, The Only Way Out Is Through by Strickland Gillilan, Quote Page 61, Lowrey-Marden Success Corporation, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1939 September 19, Long Beach Sun, Christian Science Lecture by Mr. George Channing of San Francisco, California, Quote Page A2, Column 6, Long Beach, California. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1943 Copyright, Thesaurus of Epigrams, Edited by Edmund Fuller, Topic: Perseverance, Quote Page 230, Crown Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans; HathiTrust) ↩︎
- 1961 October 6, The Stoutonia: Edited and Printed by the Students, (Slogan at the top right of the front page), Quote Page 1, Stout State College, Menomonie, Wisconsin. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1962 November 27, Herald and News, Strictly Personal by Sydney J. Harris, Quote Page 6, Column 4, Klamath Falls, Oregon. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1963, Lucky Bag: Yearbook, Class of 1963, Entry: Robert Atticks Black Jr., Quote Page 244, United States Naval Academy, (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2016 February 10, Yellowknifer, Direct Answers with Wayne & Tamara Mitchell, (Reply to a letter by Wayne & Tamara Mitchell), Quote Page 23, Column 2, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2018, Proverbium: Yearbook of International Proverb Scholarship, Volume 35, The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs: Second Supplement by Charles Clay Doyle and Wolfgang Mieder, Quote Page 42, Published by The University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont. (Verified on paper) ↩︎