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Who really said it

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind

Not Dr. Seuss — a modern mash-up Bernard M. Baruch (for the punchline only) 1870–1965 · American financier & presidential adviser
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Dr. Seuss never wrote this — researchers find it in none of his books. The punchline, “those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind,” is an old aphorism (in print by 1938 and credited to financier Bernard Baruch by 1946); the feel-good “Be who you are and say what you feel” opener is a modern add-on that first surfaced under Seuss’s name around 2001, with no source in his work.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind” Not written by Dr. Seuss. The punchline "those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter" is an older aphorism credited to Bernard Baruch; the "Be who you are and say what you feel" opener is an unsourced modern addition. — Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Dr. Seuss. 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 world of Bernard M. Baruch — American financier & adviser to U.S. presidents. Theme: "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind". 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 who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind". 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

The trail of a misattribution

Popularly credited to
Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)
Actually
A modern mash-up — unsourced in Seuss’s work
Punchline traced to
Bernard M. Baruch & an older anonymous aphorism
Earliest “Be who you are” form
c. 2001, already labelled “Dr. Seuss”

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

The second half echoes a much older quip — Baruch, asked how he arranged the seating at his dinners, reportedly said: “I never bother about that. Those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter.”

Quote Investigator: Those Who Mind Don't Matter

How we verified this

  • The core aphorism appears in print as early as 1938 — already in quotation marks — and by 1946 was being credited to figures including financier Bernard Baruch, per Quote Investigator’s investigation.
  • The Baruch seating-plan anecdote was popularized through society columnist Igor Cassini, per Quote Investigator; the exchange is separately recorded in Bennett Cerf’s 1948 humor collection Shake Well Before Using (p. 249), per Wikiquote.
  • Wikiquote lists the full sentence under Dr. Seuss’s Misattributed section, noting it is credited to him “even in print, but without citation of a specific work.”
  • The longer “Be who you are and say what you feel” wording only surfaced under Seuss’s name around 2001, with no basis in any of his books, again per Quote Investigator.

The exact full wording is an unsourced modern paraphrase with no identifiable author or first-publication, so no copyright or public-domain status can be responsibly asserted. The older underlying aphorism appeared anonymously by 1938 and is not tied to a single copyrighted work.

Fact-check

Who really said it

This is one of the internet’s most persistent Dr. Seuss fakes. It is really two things fused together: an old dinner-party quip and a modern inspirational opener, neither of them written by Seuss.

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) Misattributed

Researchers find the sentence in none of Seuss’s books; Quote Investigator found no substantive evidence he ever wrote or said it, and Wikiquote files it under “Misattributed.”

Bernard M. Baruch Older aphorism

“Those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter” predates Seuss — in print by 1938 and credited to Baruch (via columnist Igor Cassini) by 1946, per Quote Investigator; the exchange is recorded in Bennett Cerf’s 1948 Shake Well Before Using (p. 249), per Wikiquote.

Bottom line: Dr. Seuss didn’t write this. The clever half is an old anonymous quip popularly credited to Bernard Baruch; the “Be who you are” half is a modern add-on that acquired Seuss’s name around 2001, per Quote Investigator.

Context

Why it gets pinned on Seuss

Dr. Seuss is a magnet for warm, be-yourself sentiments, so a rhyme-free line about self-acceptance slots neatly into the graduation-card canon under his name. The attribution spread through yearbooks and greeting cards in the 2000s, long after Geisel’s death in 1991.

In reality the memorable second clause is a piece of mid-century wit — a chiasmus (“mind…matter, matter…mind”) that circulated anonymously before being attached to a famous financier known for one-liners.

Two quotes, glued together, wearing a third person’s name.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Character Freedom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Those Who Mind Don't Matterquoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation: earliest 1938 attestation, Baruch and Sir Mark Young attributions, and the Dr. Seuss misattribution.
Dr. Seuss (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Lists this line among quotes wrongly credited to Seuss and points to Baruch.
Bernard Baruchen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the financier and presidential adviser popularly credited with the punchline.
Bernard M. Baruch quotesgoodreads.com

Shows the same full sentence circulating under Baruch's name, illustrating the tangled attribution.

The author

About Bernard M. Baruch

Bernard M. Baruch

1870–1965 · American financier & adviser to U.S. presidents

Bernard Mannes Baruch was a Wall Street financier and statesman who advised presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Harry Truman and popularized the term “Cold War.” He was famous for his aphorisms, and by the 1940s the seating-plan quip “those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter” was being attributed to him. He did not, however, author the longer “Be who you are and say what you feel” sentence now pinned on Dr. Seuss.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Garson O’Toole (Quote Investigator), “Those Who Mind Don’t Matter, and Those Who Matter Don’t Mind,” December 4, 2012, tracing the earliest full attestation to The Journal of the Institution of Municipal & County Engineers (Feb. 1, 1938), the 1946 attribution to Bernard Baruch via columnist Igor Cassini, and a 2001 instance credited to Dr. Seuss. The Baruch exchange is separately recorded in Wikiquote, citing Bennett Cerf, Shake Well Before Using: A New Collection of Impressions and Anecdotes Mostly Humorous (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1948), p. 249.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/be-who-you-are-and-say-what-you-feel-because-those-who-mind

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