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Who really said it

Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices

Not Knute Rockne — he quoted it and said so William Fitzjames Oldham 1854–1937 · Methodist Episcopal bishop & missionary
Quote Investigator calls Oldham the leading candidate but labels the conclusion tentative — treat the origin as earliest-known, not settled. Free to reuse

The earliest known appearance is a report in the Boston Methodist weekly Zion’s Herald on 7 November 1906, which credited Bishop William Fitzjames Oldham with the “bon mot” that some people “think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” Knute Rockne did print a version in a 1926 newspaper column — but he put it in quotation marks and said he had heard it somewhere, explicitly disclaiming authorship.

Last verified 22 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices” often credited to Knute Rockne, but Rockne quoted it in 1926 and said he had heard it. Earliest known appearance: Bishop William F. Oldham, reported in Zion's Herald, 7 November 1906. Via Quotle.info

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

Can you use it?

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In context

Evoking the world of William Fitzjames Oldham — Methodist Episcopal bishop & missionary to South Asia. Theme: "Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices". 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.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices". 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 first appears

Publication
Zion’s Herald
Issue
Vol. 84, no. 45 — 7 November 1906, p. 1433, col. 2 (Boston, Mass.)
Credited to
Bishop William Fitzjames Oldham, reported second-hand in a “Notes” column
Rockne’s use
The Des Moines Register, 5 November 1926, p. 11 — in quotation marks, with a disclaimer

Bishop Oldham scored with his audience with a bon mot to the effect that some people “think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” reported speech

Note the framing: the reporter writes “to the effect that,” so even the 1906 item is a paraphrase of something said aloud. No text written by Oldham himself has been located containing this sentence.

Quote Investigator’s full citation timeline

How we verified this

Public domain

The earliest documented text is the 7 November 1906 issue of Zion’s Herald, published in the United States well before 1931, so that reporting is in the public domain. Rockne’s 1926 Des Moines Register column is likewise pre-1931. The saying itself is a short aphorism of uncertain coinage, and no post-1930 copyrighted work is the source of the popular wording.

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.

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Fact-check

Four famous names, none of them the source

This saying has been hung on at least four well-known people, in each case decades after it was already circulating. The pattern is always the same: someone repeats a line they heard, and the repetition becomes the attribution.

Knute Rockne quoted, not coined

Rockne’s column in The Des Moines Register of 5 November 1926 opens with the saying inside quotation marks and adds that he had heard the remark once upon a time — an explicit disclaimer of authorship ↗.

William James unsupported

The “A great many people think they are thinking…” wording was credited to James in a 1946 Louisiana newspaper, 36 years after his death; Quote Investigator reports the support for the James attribution is “quite weak” ↗.

Edward R. Murrow late ascription

A Mattoon, Illinois newspaper credited Murrow with a “re-arranging their prejudices” version in 1949 — more than forty years after the saying first appeared in print ↗.

Luther Burbank different wording

In 1926 the botanist was credited with the cousin line that people who do not think should at least re-arrange their prejudices once in a while — a variant, not the source ↗.

The earliest documented appearance is Zion’s Herald, 7 November 1906, crediting Bishop William Fitzjames Oldham — whom Quote Investigator calls the leading candidate, while noting the conclusion is tentative ↗.

Context

A quip that outran everyone who said it

This is a textbook “orphan aphorism.” It starts life as a line delivered from a platform, gets reported second-hand in a church weekly, and then circulates for decades with no owner — so each generation staples it to whoever sounds most plausible. A football coach in 1926, a psychologist in 1946, a broadcaster in 1949.

What makes the Rockne version unusual is how clearly he disowned it. His 1926 column opens with the saying in quotation marks and the admission that he had heard it before; the quotation marks were doing exactly the job quotation marks are supposed to do. Ninety years of reprinting erased them.

Rockne put it in quotation marks. History took the quotation marks off.

Read the full story

The 1946 attribution to William James is the version most people meet today, usually in the form “A great many people think they are thinking…” It surfaced 36 years after James died, and Quote Investigator reports finding no closely matching statement in his work — describing the support for the James attribution as “quite weak.”

A cousin saying circulated under Luther Burbank’s name in 1926: that people who do not think should at least re-arrange their prejudices once in a while. It is a variant of the same joke, not evidence of a separate origin.

Explore

Filed under

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

Doubt Wisdom

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 citation timelinequoteinvestigator.com

Garson O’Toole’s investigation, with the 1906 Zion’s Herald first citation, Rockne’s 1926 column, and the later James and Murrow ascriptions.
Quote Investigator: Oldham tag pagequoteinvestigator.com

QI’s index of articles tagged to William Fitzjames Oldham — this saying is the sole entry.
William Fitzjames Oldhamen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the bishop credited in 1906: born Bangalore 1854, died 1937, founder of the Anglo-Chinese School in Singapore.
Zion’s Heralden.wikipedia.org

Background on the Boston weekly that carried the 1906 report — founded 1823, the first weekly Methodist publication in America.
Knute Rockneen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the Notre Dame coach (1888–1931) to whom the line is popularly credited.
Wikiquote: Knute Rockneen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote’s Rockne page carries no entry for this saying in any of its sections.

Earliest known source

The bishop with the better line

William Fitzjames Oldham

1854–1937 · Methodist Episcopal bishop & missionary to South Asia

Born in Bangalore to an Irish family, Oldham converted to Methodism in 1873 and sailed for Singapore in 1885, where he founded the Anglo-Chinese School the following year. He was appointed Missionary Bishop of Southern Asia in 1904 and served as a general bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1916 until his death. He was a working preacher and lecturer, which is exactly the setting in which the line first surfaces — as a platform quip reported by a religious weekly, not a sentence from a book.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented appearance

“Notes,” Zion’s Herald, vol. 84, no. 45 (7 November 1906), 1433, col. 2 (Boston, Mass.), as cited in Garson O’Toole, “Quote Origin: People Think They Are Thinking When They Are Merely Rearranging Their Prejudices,” Quote Investigator, 10 May 2017.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices’?” Last verified 22 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/many-people-think-they-are-thinking-when-they-are-merely/

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