Proverb Origin: Inside Every Old Person There Is a Young Person Trying to Get Out

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Mary Courtland? Harriet Van Horne? William D. McBride? Anonymous?

Hands belonging to an old person and a young person from Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: Older individuals sometimes embarrass themselves by chasing evanescent trends and trying to act young. Yet sometimes they succeed and feel rejuvenated. Here is a pertinent saying:

Inside every old person is a young person trying to get out.

Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: QI believes that this saying about the old/young dichotomy evolved from a different saying about the fat/thin dichotomy which employed the same template. Here is an example of the latter from an Australian newspaper in 1950. Boldface added to excerpt by QI:1

“Inside every fat man there is a thin man trying to escape.”

There is a separate QI article about the fat/thin family of sayings located here.

The first partial match for the old/young saying found by QI appeared in 1962 within an article by Mary Courtland published in “The Esher News and Advertiser” of Surrey, England. The following excerpt also mentioned the fat/thin saying:2

Someone said that inside every fat man is a thin one trying to get out. I’d like to adapt that and say that inside every middle-aged person is a young one trying to get out. Sometimes, of course, they do, with startling results!

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1964 “The Pittsburgh Press” of Pennsylvania published a piece by columnist Harriet Van Horne which contained a partial match. The following excerpt also mentioned the fat/thin saying:3

Inside every fat man, runs the adage, there’s a captive thin man, begging to come out.

Extending this we may fairly say that inside every old trouper worth his salt there’s a frisky young devil who—the instant the lights go down—does come out.

In 1968 William D. McBride, assistant director of public relations of Martin Marietta Corporation, employed the saying during a discussion held at the University of Iowa’s Centennial Press Conference:4

McBride said, “Inside every old man is a young one trying to get out.” He doesn’t hate young people, he said, but he is exasperated by them.

In June 1972, a variant appeared in a syndicated column by Jim Fitzgerald:5

There’s supposed to be a little boy inside every old man, screaming to get out. Lately, a lot of these dumb kids are getting out and buying motorcycles. The result is grandfathers in crash helmets …

In 1973 “The New York Times” published an editorial which contained the following instance:6

Inside every old person, so the saying goes, there is a young person trying to get out.

In 1976 “The New York Times” published an article containing a variant expression:7

… it almost seemed a reminder that inside every old person there is a young one wondering what happened.

There is a separate QI article about the “wondering what happened” family of sayings located here.

In conclusion, this old/young adage evolved from an earlier fat/thin family of sayings. The first partial match in 1962, from Mary Courtland referred to a “middle-aged person” instead of an “old person”. A close match in 1968 referred to an “old man”.

Image Notes: Picture of hands belonging to an old person and a very young person from Rod Long at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to the anonymous person whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. The anonymous person asked about the “wondering what happened” family of sayings which ultimately led to the creation of three QI articles. Also, thanks to the “Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” which included a pertinent entry containing the important citations dated May 5, 1973, and August 8, 1976.

  1. 1950 February 2, The Mount Barker Courier, Are You Overweight? (From the Official Bulletin of the Central Board of Health of S.A.), Quote Page 3, Column 3, Mount Barker, South Australia, Australia. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
  2. 1962 August 17, The Esher News and Advertiser, Mainly for Women by Mary Courtland, Quote Page 4, Column 2, Esher, Surrey, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
  3. 1964 December 9, The Pittsburgh Press, Old-Timers Give Screen Glow by Harriet Van Horne (Scripps-Howard Staff Writer), Quote Page 90, Column 3, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
  4. 1968 October 26, Iowa City Press-Citizen, Novelist Miller Heads Panel: ‘Hatred for the Young’ Debated, Quote Page 3A, Column 3, Iowa City, Iowa. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
  5. 1972 June 29, The Times Herald, Vrooooom! That’s Grandpa by Jim Fitzgerald, Quote Page 4, Column 3, Port Huron, Michigan. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  6. 1973 May 5, The New York Times, Editorial: Vacations for the Aging, Quote Page 38, Column 2, New York. (ProQuest) ↩︎
  7. 1976 August 8, Los Angeles Times, Section: Calendar, A Mask That Reveals the Face by Dan Sullivan, Quote Page 48, Column 4, Los Angeles, California. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎