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Who really said it

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go

Not Oscar Wilde — an anonymous 1908 magazine joke Anonymous First documented May 1908 · creator never named
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The earliest instance located by Quote Investigator ↗ is an unsigned filler item in Success Magazine in May 1908, headed “Others Whenever” — no creator was named. The gag circulated anonymously for decades; the first known book to hand it to Oscar Wilde is Herbert V. Prochnow’s Speaker’s Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms in 1955, more than half a century after Wilde’s death in 1900.

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

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go” Anonymous. Earliest documented instance: an unsigned filler item headed "Others Whenever" in Success Magazine, May 1908. Not Oscar Wilde, who died in 1900; the earliest known attribution to Wilde is Herbert V. Prochnow's Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (Harper, 1955). Source trail: Quote Investigator, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/08/09/go/

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Oscar Wilde. 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 happiness, character and friendship. Theme: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go". 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 "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go". 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 comes from

Earliest documented
Success Magazine, May 1908
Form
Unsigned filler item headed “Others Whenever”
First with both halves
The Insurance Press, 13 May 1908
Exact modern wording
A Little Book of Aphorisms (1947), printed as ANON.

Some agents create happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. The Insurance Press, 13 May 1908

This is the earliest single-line version documented by Quote Investigator that carries both halves of the joke — written for an insurance trade readership, hence “agents.” The general wording familiar today is not recorded until Frederick B. Wilcox’s 1947 collection, where it is printed as anonymous.

Quote Investigator: the full 1908–1968 citation trail

The paper trail, 1908–1955

  • May 1908 — the earliest instance located by Quote Investigator ↗ is a short unsigned item in Success Magazine headed “Others Whenever,” reading “Some people make happiness wherever they go.” The punchline sat in the headline, and no author was credited.
  • 13 May 1908 — The Insurance Press ran the earliest version QI documents ↗ with both halves in a single sentence: “Some agents create happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
  • 1934 – 1947 — humorist Olin Miller used the gag in his “Sunland Shorts” column in The Miami News on 15 October 1934, but QI notes ↗ it was already in circulation. The exact wording quoted today appears in Frederick B. Wilcox’s A Little Book of Aphorisms (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947), labelled ANON.
  • 1955 — the earliest attribution to Wilde is Herbert V. Prochnow’s Speaker’s Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms, whose 1955 Harper first edition ↗ is catalogued at Open Library; Wikiquote ↗ files the line under “Disputed” and records the same 1955 starting point.

The saying is anonymous. Its earliest documented forms appeared in American magazines in May 1908, but the precise wording quoted today is first recorded in a 1947 collection, A Little Book of Aphorisms, where it is printed unattributed as ANON. Because no author and no single originating publication can be tied to this exact sentence, Quotle asserts no copyright status 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

Why Wilde gets the credit

Oscar Wilde is one of the internet’s great quote magnets: a line only has to be short and clever to end up under his name. This one has a documented origin that has nothing to do with him, and a documented moment where the mix-up begins.

Oscar Wilde Unsupported

Wilde died in 1900; the joke is not documented until 1908. Quote Investigator ↗ states it has found “no substantive evidence” that Wilde employed the saying, and Wikiquote ↗ lists it under “Disputed,” noting no source in Wilde’s writings has been found.

A 1947 aphorism collection Neighbouring-quote error

In Frederick B. Wilcox’s A Little Book of Aphorisms (1947), the anonymous line is printed immediately after a genuine Wilde quotation. QI ↗ points to “the misreading of neighboring quotations” as a major engine of misattribution and suggests inattentive readers of that book decided the second statement was Wilde’s.

Herbert V. Prochnow, Speaker’s Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (1955) First Wilde credit

This Harper volume is the earliest source in which the joke is ascribed to Wilde, per Quote Investigator ↗; a catalogue record ↗ confirms the 1955 first edition. Handbooks like it were mined by later quotation compilers, which is how a stray credit becomes permanent.

Olin Miller Popularizer, not originator

The humorist ran the joke in The Miami News on 15 October 1934, and some sources credit him. QI ↗ is explicit that the gag was already in circulation by then.

“… others whenever they leave” Variant

A widely shared alternative ends “whenever they leave.” QI ↗ records that form in the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1956 — later than the “whenever they go” versions, and equally anonymous.

It is an anonymous American magazine joke, first documented in May 1908, that drifted onto Oscar Wilde’s name in the mid-twentieth century — see Quote Investigator’s full citation trail ↗.

Context

A joke built for filler columns

The line began life as newspaper and magazine filler — the one-sentence gags that editors dropped in to close out a column. That is exactly why no author’s name is attached: filler was routinely reprinted, reworded and re-headlined without credit. In May 1908 Success Magazine ran it with the punchline hidden in the headline, “Others Whenever,” and within weeks Pennsylvania and Michigan papers had picked it up, according to the citation trail assembled by Quote Investigator ↗.

Its shape is what keeps it alive: a compliment that turns into an insult on the last word. That structure also makes it feel Wildean, which is probably why the 1955 credit stuck so hard. But feeling like Wilde is not evidence of Wilde — and the documented record runs from an unsigned 1908 filler item through an anonymous 1947 aphorism collection before his name ever appears.

The punchline was in the headline: “Others Whenever.”

Read the full story

Tracking the exact wording matters here. The 1908 versions read “Some people make happiness wherever they go” and “Some agents create happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” Olin Miller’s 1934 column has “There are some who cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.” The tidy modern form — “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go” — is first recorded in 1947, and it is printed there as anonymous.

No edition of Wilde’s plays, essays, letters or poems has ever been shown to contain the line. His complete works are freely readable at Project Gutenberg ↗, and the absence is not for want of searching: this is one of the most-checked Wilde attributions on the internet.

Explore

Filed under

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

Happiness Character Friendship

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: Some Cause Happiness Wherever They Go; Others Whenever They Goquoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation: a dated citation trail from Success Magazine (May 1908) through the 1947 anonymous printing to the 1955 handbook that first credited Wilde.
Oscar Wilde — Disputed quotationsen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote files this line under “Disputed,” noting the anonymous 1908 insurance-magazine version, the 1955 first Wilde attribution, and that no source in Wilde’s writings has been found.
Oscar Wildeen.wikipedia.org

Biography confirming Wilde’s dates (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) and his body of work — all of it published before the joke is first documented.
Works by Oscar Wildegutenberg.org

Free full texts of Wilde’s plays, essays, poems and fiction, searchable for yourself — the line does not appear in them.
Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (1955)openlibrary.org

Catalogue record for Herbert V. Prochnow’s Harper first edition of 1955 — the earliest book known to ascribe the joke to Wilde.
The quote as circulated onlinegoodreads.com

An example of the misattribution in the wild: the line displayed under Wilde’s name, with the site’s own note that community-added quotes are not verified.

The real author

Who actually wrote it

Anonymous

First documented May 1908 · United States · unsigned magazine filler

No individual has ever been credibly identified as the author of this joke. It surfaces in May 1908 as an unsigned filler item in Success Magazine, and within the same month appears in the Harrisburg Star-Independent, the St. Joseph Daily Press and the New York trade paper The Insurance Press — the classic signature of an unattributed gag travelling the reprint circuit. Later figures associated with it, including the humorist Olin Miller in 1934, were repeating a line that was already in wide circulation.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented source

“Others Whenever.” Success Magazine 11 (May 1908): 303. Earliest documented instance, traced in “Quote Origin: Some Cause Happiness Wherever They Go; Others Whenever They Go,” Quote Investigator, August 9, 2019, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/08/09/go/.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go’?” Last verified 27 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/some-cause-happiness-wherever-they-go-others-whenever-they/

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