Ralph Waldo Emerson? W. Taylor? Karl Blind? Carolyne Larrington? Poetic Edda? Hávamál? Scandinavian Proverb? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: A friendship endures when it is nurtured and periodically renewed. Silence and distance cause a friendship to decay. The following adage expresses this viewpoint:
Go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds soon choke up the unused path.
This statement has been attributed to transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, but I have never seen a solid citation, and I have become skeptical. Would you please explore the provenance of this expression?
Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that Ralph Waldo Emerson crafted this saying. He died in 1882, and he received credit by 1921.
The earliest match known to QI appeared in a poem called “Hávamál” which is part of the “Poetic Edda”, a Medieval Icelandic literary work. An English translation by W. Taylor was published in 1828 containing the following verse. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
If you’ve a friend, take care to keep him,
And often to his threshold pace;
Bushes and grass soon choke the path
On which a man neglects to walk.
A different translation of the verse by Carolyne Larrington appeared in a scholarly book from Oxford University Press in 2014:2
I advise you, Loddfafnir, to take this advice,
it will be useful if you learn it,
do you good, if you have it:
you know, if you’ve a friend, one whom you trust well,
go to see him often;
for brushwood grows, and tall grass,
on the road which no man treads.
Here is the corresponding medieval text published in an edition from the Viking Society for Northern Research in 1986:3
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1878 another translation of the verse appeared within an article titled “The Ethic Ideas of the Edda” by Karl Blind which was published in “The University Magazine” of London:4
If thou hast a friend whom thou well canst trust:
Go often to him for friendly talk!
For brushwood grows, and very high grass,
On the path which nobody treads.
In 1886 the collection “Good Words” printed an article titled “Reminiscences of My Later Life” by Mary Howitt. She mentioned the wisdom contained in Scandinavian works:5
We thus gained quite a respect for those familiar tales, which the wild, stout old Danes brought to Britain from the far north. Then the grand, quaint wisdom of the Eddas, reminding us of Ecclesiastes, such as the sayings: “It is hard leaning against another man’s doorpost;” “I clothed the wooden figures in my garments and they looked like heroes, whilst I, the unclothed hero, was of no account;” or “Go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds soon choke up the unused path.”
Mary Howitt’s article was quickly reprinted in the periodical “Littell’s Living Age” of Boston, Massachusetts. Thus, the verse achieved further distribution.6
In 1889 the verse appeared in “Mary Howitt: An Autobiography” which was edited by her daughter Margaret Howitt.7
In 1908 another translation of the Hávamál by Olive Bray appeared in a book titled “The Elder or Poetic Edda”:8
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey’st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win’st them:
hast thou a friend whom thou trustest well,
fare thou to find him oft;
for with brushwood grows and with grasses high
the path where no foot doth pass.
In 1914 the “Millennial Star” periodical published by The Latter-Day Saints religious group in Liverpool, England printed a short item under the title “The Unused Path” which began as follows:9
“Run over to see me often, honey. We mustn’t let the grass grow in the path,” said a young girl to her friend and next-door neighbor. Unconsciously she paraphrased the adage from the Scandinavian Edda: “Go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke up the unused path.” In her heart, perhaps, she felt the deeper meaning of the words; that friendship, like the path, grows faint with neglect.
In January 1921, the “Nashville Banner” of Tennessee printed two short items about friendship. The first item contained the saying under examination. The second item was attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The items were contiguous; hence, an inattentive reader might have attributed the first item to Emerson. This citation illustrates one possible mechanism for the creation of the misattribution:10
There is an old adage which says: “Silence, or neglect, dissolves many friendships. Go often to the house of thy friend: weeds choke up the unused path.”
It was Emerson who said: “Happy the house that shelters a friend.”
Also, in 1921 the “Book of Etiquette” by Lillian Eichler tentatively credited Emerson with the saying:11
It is a great pity, for nothing is quite so precious as one’s friends, and was it not Emerson who said, “Go often to the house of thy friend for weeds choke the unused path”?
In 1944 the “Browning Leader-Record” of Missouri published the following filler item:12
INSPIRATIONAL
Go often to the house of thy friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path.
—Scandinavian proverb.
In 1957 “The Rotarian” magazine published an article with the following epigraph:13
Go often to the house of thy friend for weeds choke the unused path.
— Emerson.
In 1982 the collection “Good Advice” compiled by Leonard Safir and William Safire contained the following entry:14
Go often to the house of thy friend; for weeds soon choke up the unused path.
—Scandinavian proverb
In 1997 “The Forbes Book of Business Quotations” included this entry:15
Go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
In conclusion, this saying appeared in “Hávamál” which is part of the Poetic Edda, a Medieval Icelandic literary work. Ralph Waldo Emerson incorrectly received credit posthumously.
Image Notes: Picture of a narrow forest path from Stefan Gogov at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Arielle whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to Jeff Prucher who noted that there exist several early translations of the Poetic Edda into English. Prucher found the 1828 citation containing a translation of the Hávamál. Many thanks to Amy West who provided additional information and pointed to the 1986 text. Also, thanks to Rich Lowenthal for his suggestions.
- 1828, Historic Survey of the German Poetry; Interspersed with Various Translations by W. Taylor of Norwich, Volume 1, HAVA-MAL: The High Song, Verse 39, Start Page 13, Quote Page 19, Treuttel & Würtz, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 2014 Copyright, The Poetic Edda, Translated by Carolyne Larrington, Series: Oxford World’s Classics, Revised Edition, Section: The Poetic Edda, Sayings of the High One, Verse 119, Start Page 13, Quote Page 28, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. (Google Books Preview) ↩︎
- 1986 Copyright, Hávamál, Edited by David A. H. Evans, Text Series: Viking Society for Northern Research, Volume 7, Strophe 119, Quote Page 63, Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1878 May, The University Magazine, The Ethic Ideas of the Edda by Karl Blind (Continuation from April 1878 issue), Start Page 520, Quote Page 525, Hurst & Blackett, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1886, Good Words For 1886, Edited by Donald Macleod, Reminiscences of My Later Life by Mary Howitt (Second Paper), Start Page 172, Quote Page 173, Column 1, Isbister and Company, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1886 April 10, Littell’s Living Age, Reminiscences of My Later Life by Mary Howitt (Second Paper), (Reprinted from Good Words), Start Page 117, Quote Page 118, Column 1, Littell and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1889, Mary Howitt: An Autobiography, Edited by her daughter Margaret Howitt, Volume 2 of 2, Chapter 3: The Hermitage: 1852-1857, Quote Page 71, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1908, The Elder or Poetic Edda: Commonly Known as Saemund’s Edda, Part 1: The Mythological Poems, Edited and Translated by Olive Bray, Hávamál: The Words of Odin, the High One, Verse 118, Star Page 61, Quote Page 94 and 95, Printed for the Viking Club, King’s Weighhouse Rooms, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1914 August 13, The Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial Star, Volume 76, Number 33, The Unused Path, Quote Page 519, Hyrum M. Smith, Liverpool, England. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1921 January 9, Nashville Banner, Song and Story by Will Allen Dromgoole, Quote Page 8, Column 3, Nashville, Tennessee. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1921, Book of Etiquette by Lillian Eichler, Part 2, Chapter 3: Calls and Calling Customs, Quote Page 142, Nelson Doubleday, Oyster Bay, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1944 October 12, Browning Leader-Record, Inspirational (filler item), Quote Page 2, Column 1, Browning, Missouri. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1957 November, The Rotarian, The Path, Quote Page 36, Rotary International, Evanston, Illinois. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1982, Good Advice, Compiled by Leonard Safir and William Safire, Section: Friendship, Quote Page 131, Published by NYT Times Books, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
- 1997, The Forbes Book of Business Quotations: 14,173 Thoughts on the Business of Life, Edited by Ted Goodman, Topic: Friendship, Quote Page 308, Column 2, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎