W. C. Fields? Peter De Vries? Joe Sandwich? Morley Callaghan? Mary Steele? Ed McMahon? Chris Browne? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: A paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a statement is unexpected. This surprising element requires a comical reframing. For example, the following remark initially seems to be about spirituality:
A person has got to believe in something, and I believe I’ll have another drink.
This quip has been attributed to U.S. comedian W. C. Fields and U.S. novelist Peter De Vries. Would you please help me to find a citation and determine the correct originator?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match for this quip known to QI appeared in the 1967 novel “The Vale of Laughter” by Peter De Vries. The main character, Joe Sandwich, delivered the line while conversing and imbibing with the character Gloria. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The conversation had somehow gotten round to existentialism. Our Schweinhund leaned negligently back on one elbow and said, “Well, a man’s got to believe something, and I believe I’ll have another drink,” and held his glass out to the fractured Gloria, who knelt bottle in hand. He was pretending to be a wastrel. Tilting the bottle over his glass, Gloria said, “Just exactly what is um existentialism in a nutshell?”
De Vries built his reputation as a humorist via short stories published in “The New Yorker” magazine. QI believes De Vries is the most likely creator of this quip.
W. C. Fields died in 1946. He received credit by 1972. Overall, the evidence supporting the attribution to Fields is not substantive.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In November 1967 “Time” magazine reviewed “The Vale of Laughter”, and the clever remark was reprinted. Thus, it achieved further distribution:2
Joe Sandwich, the hero of The Vale of Laughter, has his own way of saying it: “Well, a man’s got to believe something, and I believe I’ll have another drink.”
In 1968 a columnist in “The Rockport Journal” of Indiana mentioned the “The Vale of Laughter” and presented a slightly altered version of the quip using the phrase “believe in something” instead of “believe something”:3
During a philosophical discussion, Joe says, “Well, a man’s got to believe in something, and I believe I’ll have another drink.”
In 1969 a letter published in “The Capital Times” newspaper of Madison, Wisconsin presented another altered version of the quip using the word “everybody”:4
A noted humorist, Peter De Vries, summed it all up perfectly when he said, “Everybody has to believe in something, and I believe I’ll have another drink.”
In April 1972 “Forbes” magazine printed the quip on a page titled “Thoughts on the Business of Life” which listed miscellaneous quotations. The magazine credited W. C. Fields, but no citation was provided. This was the first linkage to Fields found by QI:5
A man’s got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink. — W. C. Fields
In July 1972 “The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle” of Milwaukee, Wisconsin printed the quip with an ascription to W. C. Fields as a filler item.6
In 1973 “The Houston Post” of Texas published the following:7
It was W. C. Fields who said: “A man has to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink.”
In 1975 Canadian novelist Morley Callaghan published “A Fine and Private Place” which contained a dialogue version of the joke without attribution:8
“Well, I’ve got to believe in something.”
“What do you believe in, Al?”
“Well,” and he paused, looking at her gravely, “I believe I’ll have another drink.”
She blinked and then laughed.
In 1976 “House Beautiful” magazine published an advertisement for “Colorful Party Aprons”. One apron displayed the following text:9
A Man’s Got To Believe In Something: I Believe I’ll Have Another Drink
In 1977 the book “Murphy’s Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong!” compiled by Arthur Bloch contained the following entry:10
STEELE’S PLAGIARISM OF SOMEBODY’S PHILOSOPHY:
Everybody should believe in something — I believe I’ll have another drink.
In 1978 the book titled “The Official Rules” compiled by Paul Dickson printed the same “Murphy’s Law” entry with additional details. The item was submitted by Mary Steele to a list of miscellaneous material called the S.T.L. (Schneiker, Townsend, Logg et al.) collection from the University of Arizona. The word “plagiarism” signaled that Mary Steele disavowed credit.11
In 1980 the “Los Angeles Times” of California discussed an event celebrating the career of W. C. Fields. Entertainer Ed McMahon delivered an elaborate version of the quip while playing the role of W. C. Fields:12
Also there was Ed McMahon, the TV personality and a Fields cultist, who has signed to play the comedian in an upcoming network series. He delivered this Fields line in appropriate tone (once described as a high nasal mutter loaded with pretentious articulation): “I guess it was the great philosopher Nietzsche, then again it might have been Spinoza, who said men should believe in something, so I believe I’ll have another drink.”
In 1982 Robert Byrne published the collection “The 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said” which included the following entry:13
Everybody should believe in something; I believe I’ll have another drink. Unknown
In 2005 a columnist with “U.S. News. and World Report” attributed the joke to a cartoonist:14
Chris Browne, the cartoonist of “Hagar the Horrible,” said, “Everybody has to believe in something — I believe I’ll have another drink.”
In conclusion, QI believes Peter De Vries deserves credit for this quip which appeared in his 1967 novel “The Vale of Laughter”. QI was unable to find earlier instances. The attribution to W.C. Fields occurred by 1972, but this date was many years after Fields’s death in 1946. Thus, this evidence was very weak. Other writers such as Morley Callaghan employed the joke after it was already circulating.
Image Notes: Picture of bottles of alcohol from Paolo Bendandi at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to lizardky whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Great thanks to researcher Barry Popik who found the important 1967 citation and other helpful citations.
- 1967 Copyright, The Vale of Laughter by Peter De Vries, Chapter 6, Quote Page 317, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1967 November 24, Time, Volume 90, Number 21, Books: The Slipped Discotheque or, How to Defy Mortality, (Review of “The Vale of Laughter” by Peter De Vries), Quote Page E5, Column 1, Time Inc., New York. (Online Time magazine archive at time.com; Accessed October 21, 2025) link ↩︎
- 1968 December 27, The Rockport Journal, Grace Notes by Grace Brown, Quote Page 12, Column 1, Rockport, Indiana. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1969 March 29, The Capital Times, Letter to the Editor, Letter Title: ‘We Take God Too Seriously’, Letter From: Joseph Hoffman, Quote Page 22, Column 1, Madison, Wisconsin. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1972 April 15, Forbes, Volume 109, Number 8, Thoughts on the Business of Life, Quote Page 104, Column 3, Forbes Inc., New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1972 July 21, The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, (Filler item), Quote Page 6, Column 6, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1973 February 8, The Houston Post, Channel crossing by Dave Ward, Quote Page 2BB, Column 6, Houston, Texas. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1975, A Fine and Private Place: A Novel by Morley Callaghan, Chapter 2, Quote Page 18, Mason Charter, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1976 October, House Beautiful, Volume 118, Number 10, Advertisement Title: Colorful Party Aprons, Advertisement Company: Anthony Enterprises, San Francisco, California, Quote Page 197, Column 4, Hearst Corporation, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1977, Murphy’s Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong!, Compiled by Arthur Bloch, Chapter Humanship, Quote Page 85, Price Stern Sloan Publishers Inc., Los Angeles, California. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1978, The Official Rules, Compiled by Paul Dickson, Quote Page 172, Delacorte Press, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1980 January 31, Los Angeles Times, W.C.’s Old Admirers Have a Fields Day by Lee Grant (Times Staff Writer), Quote Page F1, Column 2 and 3, Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1982, The 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, Compiled by Robert Byrne, Quotation Number 19, Fawcett Crest Book: Ballantine Books, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2005 December 26, Kingsport Times-News, A collection of aphorisms that’s worth sharing by John Leo (Columnist for U.S. News. and World Report), Quote Page 9A, Column 2, Kingsport, Tennessee. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎