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Who really said it

Never answer an anonymous letter

Not originally Yogi Berra — a 19th-century quip Unknown (a 19th-century saying) In print by 1838; joke form by 1876 · author unrecorded
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Quote Investigator traces the maxim back through the 1800s — a version appeared in an 1838 issue of Mechanics’ Magazine, an 1873 letter-writing manual, and as a joke in the Sioux County Herald of Orange City, Iowa in 1876, decades before Berra was born. Berra himself denied the line in Yogi: It Ain’t Over (1989), then included it in The Yogi Book (1998).

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

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Never answer an anonymous letter” not original to Yogi Berra: a 19th-century quip, in print in joke form by 1876 (Sioux County Herald, Orange City, Iowa). Berra denied the line in 1989, then printed it in The Yogi Book (1998). Via Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Yogi Berra. 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 themes of wisdom and character. Theme: "Never answer an anonymous letter". 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 "Never answer an anonymous letter". 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 paper trail

Earliest joke form
Sioux County Herald (Orange City, Iowa), 1876, “Nubbins of Humor”
Earlier as plain etiquette
Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette, 1838; Analysis of Letter-Writing, 1873
Berra denies it
Yogi: It Ain’t Over (Berra with Tom Horton, McGraw-Hill, 1989), p. 11
Berra prints it
The Yogi Book: “I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said!” (Workman Publishing, 1998)

It is a wise thing never to answer an anonymous letter until you have found out who wrote it. 1876 · Orange City, Iowa

The 1876 Sioux County Herald humour-column version, as transcribed by Quote Investigator — the earliest form of the joke located to date, roughly half a century before Berra was born.

Quote Investigator: Never Answer an Anonymous Letter

How the attribution was tested

  • Quote Investigator ↗ assembles the pre-Berra citations — 1838, 1873 and the 1876 Iowa newspaper joke — and concludes that “this quip has a long history, and a version was in circulation by 1876.”
  • Wikiquote ↗ places the line in its Misattributed section, recording the denial in Yogi: It Ain’t Over (1989), p. 11 and the later embrace in The Yogi Book (1998).
  • Both books are real and datable: Open Library ↗ records Yogi: It Ain’t Over as Berra with Tom Horton, McGraw-Hill, 1989, and the 1998 Yogi Book ↗ as Workman Publishing, New York.
  • No transcript, broadcast, interview or contemporaneous report has been located in which Berra says the line — the only book bearing his name that carries it is the 1998 collection, published 122 years after the joke was already in print.

Rights here are genuinely unsettled, so we assert nothing. The idea is an anonymous 19th-century maxim whose 1838, 1873 and 1876 appearances are long out of copyright, but the exact five-word sentence as it circulates today is documented under Berra’s name in The Yogi Book (Workman Publishing, 1998), which is firmly in copyright. Because we cannot tie the precise modern wording to a specific pre-1931 printing, we do not claim public domain for it.

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

How it became a Yogi-ism

This is a textbook quote-magnet case: an old anonymous joke that sounds so much like Yogi Berra that it eventually became one — with Berra’s own late-life blessing.

Yogi Berra Misattributed

Wikiquote ↗ lists it under Misattributed, noting that Berra “expressly denied this widespread attribution” in Yogi: It Ain’t Over (1989), p. 11, but later embraced it in The Yogi Book (1998).

Quote-list sites and listicles Predated

The saying was already circulating a century earlier: an 1838 Mechanics’ Magazine letter, an 1873 letter-writing manual and an 1876 Iowa newspaper humour column all carry it, per Quote Investigator ↗.

The bare five-word form Stripped down

The 1876 newspaper version carries a second clause — “It is a wise thing never to answer an anonymous letter until you have found out who wrote it” — recorded by Quote Investigator ↗. The short form is what circulates under Berra’s name.

Best evidence: an anonymous 19th-century quip, in circulation by 1876, that Berra first disowned and then adopted — Quote Investigator ↗ concludes only that “this quip has a long history, and a version was in circulation by 1876.”

Context

Why this one sticks to Yogi

The joke only works if you take it literally: you can’t answer a letter whose sender you don’t know. That collision of flat practicality and obvious impossibility is the exact shape of a Yogi-ism, which is why the line drifted onto Berra’s name and stayed there — even though its documented life in print begins in the 1830s and its joke form runs in an Iowa newspaper humour column in 1876.

Berra’s own position moved. In his 1989 autobiography he ruled the line out; by the 1998 Yogi Book it is printed under his name with a straight-faced defence — some letters, he notes, carry a return address but no signature. Quote Investigator’s summary is that he “has expressed uncertainness about the saying, but he now believes that he did say it in the past.”

He denied it in 1989 and claimed it in 1998. The saying itself was already more than a century old.

The paper trail before Berra

1838 — Mechanics’ Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal, and Gazette prints a reply beginning “It has been a rule with me never to answer an anonymous letter…” — the principle stated as ordinary etiquette, no joke intended.

1873 — a letter-writing manual, Analysis of Letter-Writing, advises that “You should never condescend to answer an anonymous letter…”

1876 — the Sioux County Herald of Orange City, Iowa runs the punchline version in a humour column: “It is a wise thing never to answer an anonymous letter until you have found out who wrote it.” All three citations are laid out by Quote Investigator ↗.

Explore

Filed under

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

Wisdom Character

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 Origin: Never Answer an Anonymous Letterquoteinvestigator.com

The anchor investigation: 1838, 1873 and 1876 citations, Berra’s 1989 denial and 1998 reversal.
Yogi Berra — Misattributeden.wikiquote.org

Files this line under Misattributed, citing the 1989 denial (p. 11) and the 1998 embrace.
The Yogi Book (1998) — catalogue recordopenlibrary.org

Open Library record confirming Workman Publishing, New York, 1998, 127 pages.
Yogi: It Ain’t Over (1989) — catalogue recordopenlibrary.org

Open Library record: Berra with Tom Horton, McGraw-Hill, 1989 — the book in which he denied the line.
Yogi Berraen.wikipedia.org

Biography: 1925–2015, ten World Series titles, Hall of Fame 1972, and both books.

The man it gets pinned on

Who was Yogi Berra?

Yogi Berra

1925–2015 · Yankees catcher, manager & accidental aphorist

Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra (born St. Louis, 12 May 1925; died West Caldwell, New Jersey, 22 September 2015) caught 19 seasons in the majors, almost all for the New York Yankees, winning ten World Series rings as a player — more than anyone in baseball history — and entering the Hall of Fame in 1972. Off the field he became the most quotable man in America, and the most quote-magnetised: dozens of folk sayings and vaudeville one-liners drifted onto his name simply because they sounded like him. He knew it, and titled his 1998 collection The Yogi Book: “I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said!”

For writers & researchers

Cite this

How to cite this page

Earliest documented in “Nubbins of Humor,” Sioux County Herald (Orange City, Iowa), 1876, as “It is a wise thing never to answer an anonymous letter until you have found out who wrote it”; cited in Garson O’Toole, “Quote Origin: Never Answer an Anonymous Letter,” Quote Investigator, 13 October 2013. The bare five-word form appears under Berra’s name in Yogi Berra, The Yogi Book: “I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said!” (New York: Workman Publishing, 1998).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Never answer an anonymous letter’?” Last verified 22 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/never-answer-an-anonymous-letter/

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