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Who really said it

Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are

Not Roosevelt’s own line — he quoted Squire Bill Widener Squire Bill Widener 19th-century farmer of Widener’s Valley, Virginia · quoted by Theodore Roosevelt
Disputed Free to reuse

The exact words do appear in Theodore Roosevelt’s 1913 Autobiography — but Roosevelt did not claim them. He calls it “a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire Bill Widener, of Widener’s Valley, Virginia.” So the wording is genuine and well-sourced; the popular idea that Roosevelt coined it is the error.

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

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are” Squire Bill Widener, quoted in Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (1913)

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Theodore Roosevelt. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Squire Bill Widener — the man Roosevelt actually quoted. Theme: "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are". 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 "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are". 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 source

Documented in
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, ch. IX (“Outdoors and Indoors”)
First published
1913 (Macmillan; serialized in The Outlook, Oct. 1913)
Credited by Roosevelt to
Squire Bill Widener, of Widener’s Valley, Virginia
Status
Widely misattributed to Roosevelt as author

There is a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire Bill Widener, of Widener’s Valley, Virginia, which sums up one’s duty in life: ‘Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.’

From Chapter IX of Roosevelt’s Autobiography. Note that Roosevelt frames the line as something he is quoting, not authoring.

Quote Investigator: the full chronology

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator traces the saying to Roosevelt’s 1913 Autobiography and credits Squire Bill Widener, whom Roosevelt names as his source.
  • The Theodore Roosevelt Center confirms the line is “widely attributed to Theodore Roosevelt” but that he credits it in his Autobiography, ch. IX, to Squire Bill Widener.
  • Roosevelt’s own wording is “what you’ve got”; the most-shared modern form softens it to “what you have,” per Quote Investigator.
Public domain

The documented source — Roosevelt’s Autobiography — was first published in 1913, well before the 1931 U.S. copyright cutoff, so the text is in the public domain. The saying itself is older folk speech attributed to Squire Bill Widener.

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

Often misattributed

This is one of the most repeated Roosevelt “quotes,” and it is not quite his. Roosevelt did write the words — but as a quotation he was passing along, with the credit attached.

Theodore Roosevelt Popularized, not originated

Roosevelt printed the line in his 1913 Autobiography but introduced it as “a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire Bill Widener.” Readers kept the sentence and dropped the credit, per Quote Investigator.

“have” vs. “got” Common misquote

Roosevelt’s text reads “what you’ve got”; the most-circulated version smooths it to “what you have,” a small but real change noted by Quote Investigator.

George Washington Carver Later reattribution

The saying was linked to Carver in a 1942 newspaper item, one of several later voices who used variants of the same thought, per Quote Investigator.

The real, documented source is Roosevelt’s 1913 Autobiography, where he quotes Squire Bill Widener — confirmed by the Theodore Roosevelt Center.

Context

Why it mattered

The line lands like a Roosevelt maxim — terse, bracing, self-reliant — which is exactly why his name stuck to it. But in the Autobiography he is doing something more modest: crediting a plain-spoken Virginia farmer whose wisdom he wanted to preserve.

That small act of attribution is what the internet erased. Strip the “quoted by Squire Bill Widener” clause and you get a clean presidential quotation — tidy, shareable, and slightly false.

Roosevelt wrote it down. He also told you it wasn’t his.

Explore

Filed under

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

Resilience Simplicity Work

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.

Quote Investigator: full origin analysisquoteinvestigator.com

Traces the line to Roosevelt’s 1913 Autobiography and credits Squire Bill Widener.
Theodore Roosevelt Center: quote pagetheodorerooseveltcenter.org

Scholarly note confirming Roosevelt credited Widener in Autobiography ch. IX.
Did TR Really Say That? (fake-quotes guide)trlibrary.com

The Roosevelt Presidential Library’s guide to misattributed TR quotations.
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (full text)gutenberg.org

Public-domain e-text of the 1913 work that contains the line.
Theodore Roosevelt on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced and misattributed quotations associated with Roosevelt.

The author

About Squire Bill Widener

Squire Bill Widener

19th-century Virginia farmer · the man Roosevelt actually quoted

“Squire Bill” Widener was a farmer of Widener’s Valley in southwestern Virginia whom Theodore Roosevelt credited with a line of plain rural wisdom. Almost nothing else about him is documented — he survives in the record chiefly because Roosevelt set his words down in print. The saying is best read as folk philosophy Roosevelt admired and relayed, not a maxim Roosevelt coined.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Roosevelt’s Autobiography (1913)

Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography, ch. IX “Outdoors and Indoors” (New York: Macmillan, 1913), quoting Squire Bill Widener of Widener’s Valley, Virginia.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/do-what-you-can-with-what-youve-got-where-you-are/

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