# "The harder I work, the luckier I get": Original source?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 16, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852 "2006-02-16T19:20:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852/1 "2006-02-16T19:20:58Z")

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Does anyone know who originally coined this expression? I have seen it attributed to Ralph Engelstad, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Goldwyn, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Kettering, Stephen Leacock, and Ron Harper (who wrote a book with that title but, as far as I know, nowhere explicitly claimed authorship).

Since there is evidently some disagreement about the original source, a citation would be most welcome.

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852/2 "2006-02-16T19:25:36Z")

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I’ve seen it in multiple formulations. That may be the source of the confusion and conflations.

Chance benefits the prepared

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**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852/3 "2006-02-16T21:13:10Z")

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Here’s the version I have:

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” --Thomas Jefferson

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852/4 "2006-02-16T22:02:00Z")

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I’ve read some of Thomas Jefferson’s writing and that quote doesn’t sound at all like him.

I can find it attributed all the way back to Benjamin Franklin, and that’s more of a possibility as an adage, but it still sounds way too modern in tone to be either.

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**Author:** ![bobk2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@bobk2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobk2)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852/5 "2006-02-17T03:50:29Z")

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> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> I’ve read some of Thomas Jefferson’s writing and that quote doesn’t sound at all like him.
> 
> I can find it attributed all the way back to Benjamin Franklin, and that’s more of a possibility as an adage, but it still sounds way too modern in tone to be either.

I have also heard it attributed to Franklin. However, I have also heard that Franklin would employ and/or update known ‘common’ sayings, and then end up with it being attributed to him. It wasn’t plagarism; he was just the first to write it down in something that became widely distributed.

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**Author:** ![baldiggle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c2a13f/32.png) [@baldiggle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/baldiggle)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852/6 "2013-01-27T09:01:23Z")

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Patriot X’s post was closest, kind of. I no longer have the book for an exact citation. However in one of the later sets of the Harvard Classics (Green ones). The quotation is in Confucius’s sayings. I have been looking for the book online, but the ones I find have Confucius in the same volume as others. I am thinking that Confucius had his own volume in the set I remember.

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**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852/7 "2013-01-27T09:14:29Z")

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Oh, horse dung. Confucius said nothing of the sort. Sun Tzu, maaaaybe, at a stretch, in a loose translation.

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**Author:** ![Tammi\_Terrell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Tammi\_Terrell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tammi_Terrell)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-harder-i-work-the-luckier-i-get-original-source/344852/8 "2013-01-27T13:49:25Z")

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Garson O’Toole attributes this to Coleman Cox (1922),

[http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/21/luck-hard-work/](http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/07/21/luck-hard-work/)

(Barry Popik [does the same](http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/i_am_a_great_believer_in_luck_and_i_find_the_harder_i_work_the_more_i_have/).)