Thich Nhat Hanh? Sylvia Boorstein? Peg Bracken? Ollie Crawford? George D. Ludcke? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Humorous sayings can be created by ingeniously transforming mundane expressions. Most people are familiar with the entreaty:
Don’t just sit there, do something.
However, the following reordered sentence indicates that inaction is often desirable:
Don’t just do something, sit there.
This saying has been attributed to Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, U.S. psychotherapist Sylvia Boorstein, and others. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest close match found by QI appeared in August 1954 within a news article by Ollie Crawford in “The Philadelphia Inquirer” of Pennsylvania. Crawford discussed a proposal to build radar warning platforms at sea. The platforms would be up to 125 miles away from land, and anyone stationed on such a distant platform would be lonely. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Their orders will be: “Don’t just do something. Sit there.”
The statement above is a variant of an older quip using the word “stand” instead of “sit”. The first close match for this older expression appeared in the popular syndicated gossip column of Leonard Lyons in 1945. The quip was used by an actor and producer named Martin Gabel:2
At the first rehearsal of Irwin Shaw’s play, “The Assassin,” Producer Martin Gabel noticed a young actress gesticulating wildly instead of remaining motionless. Gabel shouted: “Don’t just do something; stand there.”
A separate Quote Investigator article about the phrase using the word “stand” is available here.
Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
The baseline phrases “Don’t just stand there, do something” and “Don’t just sit there, do something” emerged as clichés many years ago. Here is an elaborate version from 1877 of the appeal which has now become commonplace:3
“Come, don’t stand there looking like a statue of helplessness: do something or other, will you.”
In 1897 a story by Haidée Wright published in “The Lady’s Realm” journal of London contained a version of the common saying using word “sit”:4
“‘Why do you sit there? Do something, can’t you?'”
In 1910 “The Lone Hand: The Australian Monthly” published a story by E. L. White containing a concise version of the cliché using “sit”:5
She turned to Hare. “Do something,” she commanded. “Don’t sit there. Do something!”
In 1937 “Photoplay” of Chicago, Illinois printed the cliché with the words “just” and “sit”. This phrase was later reordered to yield the modern quip:6
“Come on,” he growled furiously to his personal Providence. “Don’t just sit there. Do something!”
In 1945 a newspaper column printed the rearranged phrase using “stand” as mentioned previously:7
Gabel shouted: “Don’t just do something; stand there.”
In 1954 a news article printed the rearranged phrase using “sit” as mentioned previously:8
Their orders will be: “Don’t just do something. Sit there.”
In 1956 the “Tulsa Daily World” of Oklahoma printed the following:9
Thought for the day:
Don’t just do something—sit there.
In 1962 humorist Peg Bracken published “The I Hate To Housekeep Book” which contained the following chapter title:10
Chapter 4: Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There
In 1980 “The Wall Street Journal Book of Wit: A 10 Year Treasury of Thousands of Highly Quotable Rhymes, Daffynitions, and Quips” included the following item:11
“Don’t just do something—sit there!”
—George D. Ludcke.
In 1983 the Buddhist periodical “Vajradhatu Sun” printed an interview with Thich Nhat Hanh conducted by Catherine Ingram which included the following:12
Sun: Do you feel that at this time in history there is still a place for monasticism, and that it’s appropriate for people to retreat into a temple or a cave?
TNH: Many people have taken action, but if their state of being is not peaceful or happy, the actions they undertake only sow more troubles and anger and make the situation worse. So instead of saying, “Don’t just sit there; do something,” we should say the opposite: “Don’t just do something; sit there.” We sit there and we get more lucid, more peaceful, and more compassionate.
In 1996 Sylvia Boorstein published a book with the following title:13
Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There: A Mindfulness Retreat with Sylvia Boorstein
In conclusion, the two quips using “stand” and “sit” fit into the same family. The first saying was attributed to Martin Gabel in 1945. The second saying was written by journalist Ollie Crawford in 1954. Both quips were derived from existing clichés by cleverly rearranging words; hence, QI believes earlier matches probably exist. Thich Nhat Hanh and Sylvia Boorstein used the “sit” expression after it was already in circulation. Future researchers may uncover helpful citations.
Image Notes: Mary Cassatt’s painting of “Little Girl in a Blue Armchair” circa 1878. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Giles P. Croft whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Croft mentioned the attributions to Thich Nhat Hanh and Sylvia Boorstein.
- 1954 August 13, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Headline Hopping by Ollie Crawford, Quote Page 1, Column 2, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1945 August 31, Amarillo Daily News, The Lyon’s Den by Leonard Lyons, Quote Page 10, Column 3, Amarillo, Texas. (NewspaperArchive) ↩︎
- 1877, A Perennial Courtship; and Other Tales by Ephron (pseudonym), A Perennial Courtship, Start Page 1, Quote Page 4, Charing Cross Publishing Company, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1897 May to October, The Lady’s Realm, At the End of the Day by Haidée Wright, Start Page 425, Quote Page 434, Hutchinson and Company, London. (Google Books Full View) ↩︎
- 1910 May 2, The Lone Hand: The Australian Monthly, Volume 7, Number 4, The Master Microbe by E. L. White, Start Page 20, Quote Page 25, Published at the Office of The Lone Hand, Sydney, Australia. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1937 August, Photoplay, Volume 51, Number 8, The Life Story of a Problem Child by Howard Sharpe, Start Page 58, Quote Page 84, Column 3, Macfadden Publications Inc., Chicago, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1945 August 31, Amarillo Daily News, The Lyon’s Den by Leonard Lyons, Quote Page 10, Column 3, Amarillo, Texas. (NewspaperArchive) ↩︎
- 1954 August 13, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Headline Hopping by Ollie Crawford, Quote Page 1, Column 2, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1956 October 24, Tulsa Daily World ’Round the Clock by Troy Gordon, Quote Page 23, Column 1, Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1962, The I Hate To Housekeep Book by Peg Bracken, Chapter 4: Don’t Just Do Something Sit There, Quote Page 36, (Quote appears as chapter title), Harcourt, Brace & World Inc., New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1980 Copyright, The Wall Street Journal Book of Wit: A 10 Year Treasury of Thousands of Highly Quotable Rhymes, Daffynitions, and Quips, Edited by Charles Preston, Topic: TM—Om on the Range, Quote Page 47, Column 1, Dow Jones-Irwin, Homewood, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1983 October-November, Vajradhatu Sun, Thich Nhat Hanh in America: An Interview by Catherine Ingram, Start Page 3, Quote Page 3, Column 3, Published by Vajradhatu and Nalanda Foundation, Boulder, Colorado. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1996 Copyright, Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There: A Mindfulness Retreat with Sylvia Boorstein by Sylvia Boorstein, (Quote is in title), Harper San Francisco: An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎