Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Lead, follow, or get out of the way

Not Thomas Paine, not Lee Iacocca — an anonymous motto Unknown In American print by 23 January 1961 · no author ever named
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Barry Popik’s citation file traces the saying in print to at least 1961, and the earliest item he lists — a Greensboro (NC) Daily News column of 23 January 1961 — already presents it as an anonymous motto someone had “saw this motto someplace,” with no author attached. Iacocca used the line in Chrysler’s Jeep advertising after Chrysler bought Jeep in 1987; he did not coin it, and no source ties the wording to him first.

Last verified 27 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Lead, follow, or get out of the way” not Lee Iacocca, and not Thomas Paine. It is an anonymous American desk-sign motto, in print by 23 January 1961 (Greensboro Daily News), years before Iacocca used it in Chrysler's Jeep advertising. Earliest citations collected by Barry Popik, The Big Apple. Via Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Thomas Paine. 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.

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

In context

Evoking the themes of leadership, courage and purpose. Theme: "Lead, follow, or get out of the way". 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 "Lead, follow, or get out of the way". 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 earliest documented appearance

Earliest citation
Greensboro (NC) Daily News, 23 January 1961, p. B1, col. 5
Column
“Monday Moanin’” by W. Rhodes Weaver
Form
An unsigned motto, reported second-hand — no author named
Iacocca’s use
Chrysler’s Jeep advertising campaign, after the 1987 purchase of American Motors

Carson Bain saw this motto someplace: “Lead. Follow. Or get out of the way!” 23 January 1961 · Greensboro Daily News

The wording of the first known appearance is three sentences, not one, and the columnist attributes it to nobody — it is already a motto seen “someplace.” Popik’s file also records James A. Rhodes — later Ohio’s governor — using the same idea in his own words in the Bryan (OH) Times: “There’s three things you can do. You can lead, follow or get out of the way. I’m going to have to lead.” (Popik dates that item 19 March 1961, though the transcribed text calls Rhodes governor — an office he did not hold until January 1963.)

Barry Popik's citation file for the saying

How we checked

No rights status can honestly be asserted. The wording has no identifiable author and no identifiable first publication: it enters the record in a January 1961 newspaper column already unattributed, as a motto its subject had seen somewhere. Short proverbial phrases of this kind are generally not protectable on their own, but the individual newspaper articles, books and advertisements that carry it — including Christian Williams’ 1981 Ted Turner biography and Chrysler’s advertising copy — remain under their own copyrights.

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

Four famous names, none of them the source

This line is credited to whoever the speaker most admires. All four of the usual candidates are downstream of a motto that was already anonymous office furniture in 1961.

Thomas Paine Misattributed

The Thomas Paine Historical Association states plainly that the quote does not exist in the Paine corpus and seems to have its origin in the 20th century ↗. Wikiquote carries it in the Misattributed section of its Thomas Paine page ↗. Mitt Romney used it as Paine in his Florida primary victory speech on 31 January 2012; Yale Book of Quotations editor Fred Shapiro called the idea that Paine said it “extremely ridiculous” ↗, and biographer Craig Nelson said flatly that Paine never said it.

George S. Patton No evidence

The variant “Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way” is pinned on Patton in quotation anthologies and on social media, but Barry Popik notes it surfacing on the alt.quotations newsgroup on 20 January 1994 and records that there is no evidence Patton ever said it ↗.

Lee Iacocca User, not source

Iacocca genuinely used the line: MotorCities records that when he introduced the new Jeep — after Chrysler bought American Motors in 1987 — “the ad campaign advised to ‘Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way!’” ↗. But the motto was in American newspapers from January 1961, when Iacocca was still a Ford executive, and no source shows him originating the wording.

Ted Turner Popularizer

Broadcasting reported in 1976 that one of Turner’s miniature desk billboards read “Either lead, follow or get out of the way,” and Christian Williams used the phrase as the title of his 1981 Turner biography ↗. Turner made it famous; he did not invent it either.

The honest answer is that nobody knows who first said it. It enters the record in January 1961 as an unsigned motto someone had simply seen somewhere, and was on office desks by 1963; every famous name attached to it since is a borrower — see Popik’s citation ladder ↗.

Context

Why this one travels

This is a desk-plaque proverb, not a quotation. The early sightings collected by Barry Popik are exactly what office folklore looks like: a motto a Greensboro man had seen somewhere in January 1961; James A. Rhodes — Ohio’s auditor of state then, its governor from 1963 — telling reporters that “there’s three things you can do — you can lead, follow or get out of the way”; a sign on a Kansas businessman’s desk in 1963; a Rotary district governor in 1965; a home-economics banquet speech title in 1969. Nobody in that run is quoting anyone. They are all repeating something already in the air.

The famous names arrived afterwards and gave the line a fake pedigree. Broadcasting noted the motto on a miniature billboard on Ted Turner’s desk in 1976; Christian Williams took it as the title of his 1981 Turner biography; Chrysler’s Jeep advertising under Lee Iacocca put it on television; and in his Florida primary victory speech on 31 January 2012, Mitt Romney delivered it as Thomas Paine — a credit Paine scholars flatly reject.

It became famous as a sign on a desk, not a line in a book.

The citation ladder, in order

1961–1969 — anonymous. Greensboro (NC) Daily News, 23 Jan 1961 (“Lead. Follow. Or get out of the way!”); Bryan (OH) Times, dated 19 Mar 1961 by Popik (James A. Rhodes, Ohio’s governor from 1963); Dallas Morning News, 14 Mar 1963; Atchison (KS) Globe, 28 Jul 1963 (“a neat sign on a businessman’s desk”); Victoria (TX) Advocate, 18 Aug 1965; Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 28 Mar 1969 — all in Popik’s file ↗.

1973–1981 — the celebrity phase. A sign in Battle Creek city manager Aaron Marsh’s office reported by The New York Times, 11 Dec 1973; Ted Turner’s desk billboard in Broadcasting (1976) and the St. Petersburg Times (1978); then Christian Williams’ biography Lead, follow or get out of the way: the story of Ted Turner ↗ (Times Books, 1981).

Explore

Filed under

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

Leadership Courage Purpose

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.

Barry Popik: "Lead, follow or get out of the way"barrypopik.com

The anchor citation file: dated newspaper attestations from 23 January 1961 onward, plus the verdicts that there is no evidence Paine or Patton said it.
Wikiquote: Thomas Paine (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Lists “Lead, follow, or get out of the way” under the page’s Misattributed section, cross-referencing Patton’s “Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.”
Thomas Paine Historical Association: Did Paine write these quotes?thomaspaine.org

States that the quote does not exist in the Paine corpus and appears to originate in the 20th century.
BuzzFeed News: Mitt Romney misquoted Thomas Painebuzzfeednews.com

1 February 2012 report on Romney’s Florida victory speech, with Fred Shapiro and Paine biographer Craig Nelson rejecting the Paine credit.
Lead, follow or get out of the way: the story of Ted Turner (1981)archive.org

Christian Williams’ Times Books biography — the motto as a book title, years before the Chrysler advertising.
MotorCities: Remembering Lee Iacoccamotorcities.org

Robert Tate’s 10 July 2019 piece, which ties the slogan to the Jeep ad campaign Iacocca introduced after Chrysler’s 1987 purchase of American Motors.

Popularizer, not author

The man the quote gets pinned on

Lee Iacocca

1924–2019 · Ford and Chrysler executive; Chrysler chairman and CEO 1979–1992

Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania on 15 October 1924, rose to the presidency of Ford, was fired in 1978, and then ran Chrysler through the federal loan-guarantee rescue, the K-car and the minivan before retiring on 31 December 1992. He was his own pitchman — the man who said “If you can find a better car, buy it” on camera — which is exactly why stray leadership slogans stick to his name. He used “Lead, follow or get out of the way” in Chrysler’s Jeep advertising, but the motto was already circulating on American office desks long before he reached Chrysler.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented print citation

Earliest citation in Barry Popik’s file: W. Rhodes Weaver, “Monday Moanin’,” Greensboro (NC) Daily News, 23 January 1961, p. B1, col. 5, as collected in Barry Popik, “Lead, follow or get out of the way,” The Big Apple, 4 June 2010.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Lead, follow, or get out of the way’?” Last verified 27 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/lead-follow-or-get-out-of-the-way/

Something wrong on this page?

Tell us what’s off. A link helps but isn’t required — “this is the wrong person” is a useful report on its own. Nothing here changes the page directly; it goes to our review queue and a human checks it.

Only used to tell you if we act on your report. We never sell or share it.

Copied