Will Rogers

1879–1935 · American humorist, newspaper columnist and film star

Will Rogers was a trick roper from Indian Territory — born near Oologah in 1879 — who became the most quoted American of his day: more than 4,000 nationally syndicated newspaper columns, 71 films, and a Sunday radio show for Gulf Oil, all built on plainspoken jokes about the news. He died on 15 August 1935, when Wiley Post’s plane crashed in Alaska Territory, and that date is what settles this quote: the joke is not documented anywhere in print until 1939. His name became a magnet for orphaned one-liners precisely because homespun American wit was the thing he sold — an Oklahoma joke about Okies sounds like him, which is exactly why it stuck.

Traced to source

8 quotes we’ve traced to Will Rogers

“I never met a man I didn't like”

Verified

“People are taking their comedians seriously and their politicians as a joke”

Verified

“The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has”

Verified

“Buy land, they're not making it anymore”

Disputed

“Don't let yesterday use up too much of today”

Disputed

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment”

Disputed

“Thank goodness we don't get as much government as we pay for”

Disputed

“When the Okies left Oklahoma and moved to California, they raised the average intelligence level in both states”

Disputed

Not actually Will Rogers

Often misattributed to Will Rogers

Famous lines widely pinned on Will Rogers that we’ve traced to someone else.

“Buy land, they're not making it anymore”

actually Unknown (anonymous, by 1905)

“Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggie" until you can find a rock”

actually Walter S. Trumbull

“Don't let yesterday use up too much of today”

Unknown — falsely credited to Will Rogers

“Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there”

actually Tom Sims

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment”

actually Anonymous

“I am not so much concerned with the return on capital as I am with the return of capital”

actually Anonymous copywriter (in print by April 1920)

“Thank goodness we don't get as much government as we pay for”

actually Unknown (an anonymous jokesmith)

“Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like”

actually Robert Quillen

“When the Okies left Oklahoma and moved to California, they raised the average intelligence level in both states”

actually Unknown

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