Malcolm Forbes

1919–1990 · American magazine publisher (Forbes) — earliest credited source of the modern saying

Malcolm Forbes was the flamboyant publisher of Forbes magazine, famous for his epigrams (later collected in The Sayings of Chairman Malcolm, 1978). Quote Investigator’s earliest close match for this “character” maxim credits him in a 1972 newspaper column. The precise “absolutely no good” wording, though, was carried and reshaped by advice columnist Ann Landers later in the 1970s — neither of them Samuel Johnson.

Traced to source

1 quote we’ve traced

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good”

Disputed

Did they really say it?

Thought Malcolm Forbes said something else?

Type a quote you think Malcolm Forbes said — we’ll tell you what we know, or point you to the best sources.