Alice Walker? Rhona Raskins? William Martin? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: People have more power than they believe, but they must be willing to exercise it if they wish to achieve their goals. Here is a pertinent saying:
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.
This statement has been attributed to U.S. novelist and poet Alice Walker, but I have never seen a precise citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in a syndicated column written by Canadian clinical counselor Rhona Raskins in December 1999. The quotation appeared at the beginning of the column:
Quote of the Day: The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.
Alice Walker
The column appeared in Canadian newspapers such as “The Edmonton Sun” of Edmonton, Alberta1 and the “Times Colonist” of Victoria, British Columbia.2 Unfortunately, Raskins did not state where she obtained this quotation. QI has not yet found a citation for a book, essay, interview, or speech by Alice Walker containing this quotation.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In January 2000 “The Boston Globe” in Massachusetts printed the following item:3
REFLECTION FOR THE DAY
The most common way people give up their power
is by thinking they don’t have any.
ALICE WALKER
In January 2002 “The Ledger” of Lakeland, Florida printed the following:4
THEY SAID IT
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
Alice Walker, (born 1944) U.S. writer
In 2004 William Martin compiled and published “The Best Liberal Quotes Ever” which contained the following item without a supporting citation:5
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.
—Alice Walker
In 2006 Rosemarie Jarski compiled and published “A Word from the Wise” which contained the following item without a supporting citation:6
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. Alice Walker
In 2010 “The Guelph Mercury” of Ontario, Canada printed a book review which mentioned the quotation. The review referred to Alice Walker’s book “The Color Purple” while using the Canadian spelling of “Colour”. The quotation cannot be found in that book:7
And there are lots of thoughtful quotations included. Here’s one from the book, attributed to the U.S. novelist Alice Walker (The Colour Purple): “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
In 2016 Mel King published an updated edition of “Chain of Change: Struggles for Black Community Development”. A chapter that was added in 2016 included the quotation:8
Instead of believing that together they could move the city in a more positive and fruitful direction, they illustrated African-American, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker’s contention that “the most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
In conclusion, this article presents a snapshot of current research. The quotation was attributed to Alice Walker in December 1999, by Canadian columnist Rhona Raskins, but QI has not yet found direct evidence in the writings or speeches of Walker. Beginning in 2000 other newspapers and reference books have credited Walker. The expression has not been ascribed to other people; hence, Alice Walker is the leading candidate for its creator.
Image Notes: Picture of a group of people in silhouette from Chang Duong at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgements: Great thanks to Sanddorn, Sean Guynes, and Stephen Shapiro whose discussion thread led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1999 December 28, The Edmonton Sun, Tough Talk Needed with Sex Mate by Rhona Raskins, Quote Page 53, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (NewsBank Access World News) ↩︎
- 1999 December 31, Times Colonist, Ask Rhona: Fit man feels resentful of sexual partner’s size by Rhona Raskin, Quote Page C13, Column 1, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 2000 January 10, The Boston Globe, Reflection for the Day, Quote Page B8, Column 5, Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 2002 January 8, The Ledger, They Said It, Quote Page F4, Lakeland, Florida. (NewsBank Access World News) ↩︎
- 2004 Copyright, The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right, Compiled by William Martin, Topic: Power, Quote Page 173, Sourcebooks Inc., Naperville, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2006 Copyright, A Word from the Wise, Compiled by Rosemarie Jarski, Topic: Power, Quote Page 391, Ebury Publishing: A Division of Random House Group, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2010 January 23, The Guelph Mercury, Section: Here, Column: Local Books by Jon Fear (Record Staff), Quote Page E5, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. (NewsBank Access World News) ↩︎
- 2016 updated edition (Original edition 1981), Chain of Change: Struggles for Black Community Development by Mel King, Make the Dream Work with Teamwork by Mel King in 2016, Start Page xiii, Quote Page xiv, Hugs Press, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans) ↩︎