Charles F. Brannan

1903–1992 · U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

Charles Franklin Brannan was a Colorado lawyer and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1948–1953) under President Truman. Quote Investigator credits him with popularizing — and possibly originating — the “apple” version of the swap-ideas saying in the 1940s. The underlying idea is older, appearing in a 1917 magazine advertisement using dollars rather than apples; the ad’s author is unknown.

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1 quote we’ve traced

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas”

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