Quote Investigator ↗ found the advice in use in 1935: the actor Richard ‘Skeets’ Gallagher credited his mother, William ‘Buster’ Collier Jr. credited his father, and a Wisconsin toastmaster used it too. QI says the creator is anonymous. FDR’s name first appears in January 1940, when his son James told a Hollywood audience that his father had given him these “hints on speechmaking.” Roosevelt may have repeated the line, but he almost certainly did not coin it.
“Be sincere; be brief; be seated” Anonymous; in circulation by 1935 and credited to Franklin D. Roosevelt by his son James in 1940 (Quote Investigator)
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Use the credit shown above instead.
Can you use it?
? We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.
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In context
Evoking the themes of simplicity and truth. Theme: "Be sincere; be brief; be seated". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Be sincere; be brief; be seated". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where the line actually comes from
Earliest located (QI)
Journal-Every Evening (Wilmington, Delaware), February 16, 1935, p. 19. Skeets Gallagher credits his mother
First FDR link
The Washington Post, January 13, 1940, p. 8. James Roosevelt credits his father
Popular wording
“Be sincere; be brief; be seated.” In Bill Adler, Presidential Wit from Washington to Johnson (1966), p. 165, per QI
Verdict
Anonymous. FDR is unlikely to have coined it
The other day James Roosevelt opened a talk he made at Hollywood by saying: “My father gave me these hints on speechmaking. Be sincere … be brief … be seated.”
The Washington Post, January 13, 1940
The earliest tie to FDR, as transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗. This is the son reporting his father’s advice, not Roosevelt’s own words in any speech or letter. The same article called the saying a variant of the old advice to “stand up . . . speak up . . . shut up.”
1880: a precursor. Dr. C. Z. Weiser closes a Franklin and Marshall College commencement speech with “Stand up, speak up and then shut up” (The Weekly New Era, Lancaster, per Quote Investigator ↗).
1935: Skeets Gallagher (February) credits his mother: “always be brief, sincere and be seated.” Buster Collier Jr. (March, The Hollywood Reporter) credits his father: “Be sincere . . . be brief . . . be seated!” QI reads these close-together, unrelated uses as a sign of anonymous origin (QI ↗).
1940: James Roosevelt credits his father in Hollywood. The Washington Post reports it in January, and Reader’s Digest reprints it in June (QI ↗).
Later: Wikiquote ↗ lists the line among FDR’s quotes under “Posthumous publications.” Its only source is a secondhand citation to Paul L. Soper’s Basic Public Speaking (1963), p. 12, describing it as advice to his son James.
The wording has no identifiable author or originating work. It was already circulating anonymously in 1935, so quotle.info asserts no copyright status for it. The 1940 newspaper report quoted above is cited only as evidence of the FDR link.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Who gets the credit, and why
This tidy piece of speaking advice has been credited to a president, to two actors’ parents and to “Dad.” Every one of those credits is secondhand.
~
Most common creditFranklin D. Roosevelt Popularizer, not originator
The only period evidence is his son James telling a Hollywood audience in January 1940 that “My father gave me these hints on speechmaking.” QI calls this “some evidence” that FDR used the expression, but notes it “was already circulating before 1940” and that “it is unlikely that F.D.R. coined it” (Quote Investigator ↗).
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Earliest located (February 1935)Skeets Gallagher’s mother Possible, unproven
Gallagher said his mother had often told him to “always be brief, sincere and be seated.” QI says she could conceivably have coined it, but other unrelated 1935 uses suggest the creator “remains anonymous” (QI ↗).
✕
March 1935 and December 1940William Collier (via Buster Collier Jr.) Family credit
Buster Collier Jr. told a Broadway gathering “My father gave me these hints on speech-making,” the same framing James Roosevelt used five years later. In December 1940 Hedda Hopper ascribed the saying to Collier (QI ↗).
✕
1988 gift book“Dad”
H. Jackson Brown Jr.’s A Father’s Book of Wisdom prints it as “How To Make A Speech: Be Sincere Be Brief Be Seated — Dad,” which shows how naturally the line passes as parental advice (QI ↗).
✓Bottom line: the advice is anonymous and was in circulation by 1935. FDR’s son credited him with it in 1940, which tied his name to it, but FDR almost certainly did not originate it (Quote Investigator ↗).
Context
Why the Roosevelt name stuck
The saying is a three-beat formula held together by the repeated “be.” QI points out that it echoes an older three-beat rule held together by “up”: “Stand up, speak up and then shut up,” recorded in Pennsylvania in 1880 and in England in 1896. The 1940 Washington Post item that first tied the line to FDR itself called it a variant of that old advice.
What carried the Roosevelt version was the messenger. A sitting president’s son repeated it in Hollywood, and Reader’s Digest reprinted it within months. By 1966 a presidential joke book printed it as “FDR’s advice to his son James,” in the semicolon form most people quote today.
“My father gave me these hints on speechmaking.” Two different sons said this, five years apart.
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The author
About Anonymous
AN
Anonymous
Unknown originator · American speechmaking advice in circulation by 1935
The three-part rule for speakers has no known author. Quote Investigator found it in 1935, credited by stage and screen performers to their own parents, and treats it as a descendant of the older “Stand up, speak up and then shut up” (recorded in 1880). Franklin D. Roosevelt became attached to it in 1940 through his son James, and a 1966 presidential joke book printed the semicolon wording as his advice to James.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Quote Investigator
Earliest located by Quote Investigator: Journal-Every Evening (Wilmington, Delaware), February 16, 1935, p. 19 (Richard ‘Skeets’ Gallagher, crediting his mother). First tied to Franklin D. Roosevelt in The Washington Post, January 13, 1940, p. 8 (James Roosevelt). See “Quote Origin: Be Sincere; Be Brief; Be Seated,” Quote Investigator, October 1, 2023, updated May 12, 2024.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Be sincere; be brief; be seated’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/be-sincere-be-brief-be-seated/