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

Who really said it

No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days

Not Max Planck — an 1890s translation credited to “Müller” Max Müller 1823–1900 · German-born British philologist (identification per Wikiquote)
Disputed Free to reuse

The line is the English gloss of a German couplet, “Nichts ist dem Menschen so schwer zu tragen, / Als eine Reihe von guten Tagen,” printed in James Wood’s Dictionary of Quotations (London: Warne, 1893) and credited there simply to “Müller.” Wikiquote lists it as misattributed to Planck and names Max Müller as the source; nobody has tied it to anything Planck wrote.

Last verified 2 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days” Not Max Planck: this is James Wood’s English rendering of a German couplet credited to “Müller” in his Dictionary of Quotations (London: Warne, 1893). Wikiquote identifies the source as Max Müller. Via Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Max Planck. 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 Max Müller — German-born British philologist & Orientalist. Theme: "No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days". 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 "No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days". 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 really appears

Work
Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources
Compiler
Rev. James Wood
Edition checked
London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1893 (Project Gutenberg transcription); Wikiquote cites the 1899 edition
Credited to
“Müller” (surname only)

Nichts ist dem Menschen so schwer zu tragen, / Als eine Reihe von guten Tagen — No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days. Müller.

As printed among the German entries in Wood’s 1893 edition: the German couplet comes first, then Wood’s English rendering, then the credit. Wood does not say which Müller he meant.

Wood, Dictionary of Quotations (1893), Project Gutenberg

How we traced it

Public domain

The exact English wording is James Wood’s rendering, printed in his Dictionary of Quotations (London: Frederick Warne, 1893). That book was published before 1931, so the wording is in the public domain in the United States.

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

Who gets the credit, and why

Quote sites widely credit this line to the physicist Max Planck, but no work of his is ever cited for it. The English wording was already in print in 1893, credited to a “Müller.”

Max Planck Wrong

Wikiquote ↗ lists the line under Planck’s Misattributed heading and credits it to Max Müller instead. No source has been found showing where the Planck version started. One possibility is a mix-up between two famous Germans named Max, but that is our guess, and no source documents it.

“Müller” / Max Müller Earliest credit found

Wood’s 1893 dictionary ↗ credits the German couplet only to “Müller.” Wikiquote reads that name as the philologist Friedrich Max Müller. Wood himself never gives a first name.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Similar, not this wording

Goethe’s couplet “Alles in der Welt läßt sich ertragen, / Nur nicht eine Reihe von schönen Tagen” (Sprichwörtliches ↗) has the same rhyme and the same idea, but it is a different German text from the one Wood translated.

The documented source is Wood’s Dictionary of Quotations, which already has this exact English wording in its 1893 edition ↗, credited to “Müller” and not to Planck.

Context

An old German idea about too much good luck

The idea that unbroken good fortune is harder to bear than hardship was a familiar one in German verse. Goethe put it in a rhyme: “Alles in der Welt läßt sich ertragen, / Nur nicht eine Reihe von schönen Tagen.” The couplet in Wood’s dictionary, “Nichts ist dem Menschen so schwer zu tragen, / Als eine Reihe von guten Tagen,” uses the same rhyme and the same thought in different words.

The English line now passed around under Max Planck’s name is Wood’s own translation of that couplet. It sat in a Victorian reference book, credited to “Müller,” long before anyone attached it to the physicist.

Nichts ist dem Menschen so schwer zu tragen, / Als eine Reihe von guten Tagen

Explore

Filed under

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

Happiness Resilience

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.

Wikiquote: Max Plancken.wikiquote.org

Lists this line under Misattributed and credits it to Max Müller via Wood (1899).
Wood, Dictionary of Quotations (1893)gutenberg.org

Full text of the 1893 edition, with the German couplet, Wood's English rendering and the credit to “Müller”.
Wood, Dictionary of Quotations (1899 scan)archive.org

Scan of the 1899 Frederick Warne edition, the one Wikiquote cites.
Goethes Reimsprüche: Sprichwörtlichesprojekt-gutenberg.org

Goethe's related couplet “Alles in der Welt läßt sich ertragen, / Nur nicht eine Reihe von schönen Tagen.”
Max Mülleren.wikipedia.org

Biography of the philologist Wikiquote names as the source.
Max Plancken.wikipedia.org

Biography of the physicist the line is usually credited to.

Credited by Wikiquote

About the credited author

Max Müller

1823–1900 · German-born British philologist & Orientalist

Friedrich Max Müller was a German-born British comparative philologist and Orientalist, and one of the founders of Indology and religious studies as Western academic fields. He directed the Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume series of English translations. Wood’s 1893 dictionary credits this couplet only to “Müller”; the identification with Max Müller comes from Wikiquote.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest printing we confirmed

James Wood, comp., Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1893), s.v. “Nichts ist dem Menschen so schwer zu tragen,” credited to “Müller.”

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘No burden is so heavy for a man to bear as a succession of happy days’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/no-burden-is-so-heavy-for-a-man-to-bear-as-a-succession-of/

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