Who really said it

I have forgotten the books I have read and the dinners I have eaten, but they both helped make me

Q: Did Ralph Waldo Emerson say "I have forgotten the books I have read and the dinners I have eaten, but they both helped make me"?

No. Credited to Emerson since its first appearance, but he almost certainly never said it. The earliest documented instance is June 1896 — fourteen years after Emerson's death — and Quote Investigator found no evidence the line appears in any of his essays, journals, letters, or lectures. It is an unsourced saying that circulated under his name.

Not Ralph Waldo Emerson — an apocryphal saying Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803–1882 · American essayist, lecturer & poet

Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Credited to Emerson since its first appearance, but he almost certainly never said it. The earliest documented instance is June 1896 — fourteen years after Emerson’s death — and Quote Investigator found no evidence the line appears in any of his essays, journals, letters, or lectures. It is an unsourced saying that circulated under his name.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“I have forgotten the books I have read and the dinners I have eaten, but they both helped make me” Apocryphal — attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson but unsourced; first appeared in 1896, 14 years after his death. Per Quote Investigator.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Ralph Waldo Emerson. 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

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Provenance

An 1896 saying, retroactively pinned to Emerson

Attributed author: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
Earliest known appearance: The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, June 1896
Status: Apocryphal — no primary source in Emerson’s works
Investigated by: Quote Investigator (2016)

“I have forgotten the books I have read,” said Emerson; “and so I have the dinners I have eaten; but they both helped make me.”

The wording as it first appeared in The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, June 1896, in an article by Charles Gordon Ames about the clergyman William Henry Furness. Even here it is only reported as something “Emerson” said — with no citation to any of his works.

Quote Investigator: full investigation and chronology

How we verified this

The saying is examined in full by Quote Investigator (2016), which located its earliest strong match in The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine of June 1896.
QI found no convincing evidence that Emerson — who died in 1882, well before the line surfaced — ever wrote or spoke it, and uncovered no substantive alternative author.
The wording drifted across early printings: an 1896 version reads “the dinners I have eaten,” while a 1905 New-York Tribune version reads “the meals I have eaten… they have all helped to make me” — a sign of an oral saying, not a fixed text.

No status can be asserted with confidence. The exact wording is an apocryphal saying whose true author is unknown; while its earliest printings (1896 onward) are old enough to be public domain as documents, the line cannot be tied to any identifiable work by Emerson or anyone else, so quotle.info makes no rights claim.

Fact-check

Why Emerson gets the credit

The line has been printed under Emerson’s name since it first appeared — but that first appearance came long after he died, and no one has ever found it in anything he wrote.

Ralph Waldo Emerson unsupported

Quote Investigator found no convincing evidence Emerson wrote or spoke this. He died in 1882; the earliest known instance is June 1896. It appears in none of his essays, journals, or letters.

G. B. Emerson not established

Because the 1890s sources say only “Emerson,” educator George Barrell Emerson has occasionally been floated, but QI treats the case for Ralph Waldo Emerson as more plausible while confirming neither.

The honest answer: this is an apocryphal saying with no identifiable author, attached to Emerson’s name from its earliest 1896 printing onward — not a documented Emerson quotation.

Context

A saying that changed shape as it traveled

The quote reads like polished Emerson, which is exactly why it stuck to him. But the details betray an oral saying rather than a written text: its wording is unstable from the very first printings. An 1896 version says “the dinners I have eaten… they both helped make me”; a 1905 New-York Tribune version says “the meals I have eaten… they have all helped to make me.” A fixed literary quotation does not drift like that — a piece of folk wisdom does.

Even the 1896 source that started the trail only reports it secondhand as something “Emerson” said, with no citation. That is the signature of a misattribution: a memorable line, a famous name, and no source anyone can check.

He died in 1882. The line first appears in 1896 — reported secondhand, with no source.

Explore

Filed under

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

Growth Wisdom

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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 investigationquoteinvestigator.com

Traces the saying to 1896 and finds no evidence Emerson said it

Ralph Waldo Emerson quotesen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote’s sourced and misattributed Emerson material

Talk: Ralph Waldo Emersonen.wikiquote.org

Editor discussion of disputed and unsourced Emerson lines

Emerson’s works at Project Gutenberggutenberg.org

Emerson’s essays and journals — searchable, and the line is not in them

Goodreads: the popular “meals” variantgoodreads.com

Shows how widely the unsourced version circulates under Emerson’s name

The name on the quote

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803–1882 · American essayist, lecturer & poet

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the leading voice of American Transcendentalism, famous for essays such as Self-Reliance and Nature. His aphoristic style and towering reputation make him one of the internet’s biggest magnets for feel-good quotations he never actually wrote. This is one of them: it surfaced in 1896, fourteen years after his death, with no source in any of his works.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Quote Investigator

Garson O’Toole (Quote Investigator), “I Have Forgotten the Books I Have Read and the Dinners I Have Eaten, But They Both Helped Make Me,” June 20, 2016. Earliest documented instance: The Harvard Graduates’ Magazine, June 1896.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I have forgotten the books I have read and the dinners I have eaten, but they both helped make me’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-have-forgotten-the-books-i-have-read-and-the-dinners-i