Quote Investigator’s best candidate is the Emporia editor William Allen White. A 1935 Seattle Daily Times column tells of him giving the advice to cub reporters. A 1946 retelling has White giving it to Franklin P. Adams, so Adams is the listener, not the author. QI calls the evidence indirect, and the popular “your editor will delete it” wording is a later paraphrase.
“Substitute 'Damn' Every Time You're Inclined to Write 'Very'” advice credited to William Allen White, Seattle Daily Times, October 18, 1935 (via Quote Investigator). Not Franklin P. Adams, who is the listener in a 1946 retelling. · Verbatim: “If you feel the urge of 'very' coming on, just write the word, 'damn,' in the place of 'very.' The editor will strike out the word, 'damn,' and you will have a good sentence.”
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Mark Twain. Use the credit shown above instead.
Can you use it?
? We couldn’t establish where this was first published, so there’s no rights status to give. Credit it as shown above — just don’t present it as public domain, and get permission for commercial or published reuse.
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In context
Evoking the world of William Allen White — Editor of the Emporia Gazette, Kansas. Theme: "Substitute 'Damn' Every Time You're Inclined to Write 'Very'". 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 "Substitute 'Damn' Every Time You're Inclined to Write 'Very'". 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 full telling
Full anecdote
Seattle Daily Times, “Strolling Around the Town,” 18 October 1935
Earlier brief credit
The Pittsburgh Press, “Twilight Thinks,” 6 October 1922
Adams version
Orrville Courier Crescent (Ohio), 19 December 1946. White tells the joke to Franklin P. Adams
Research
Quote Investigator, 2012 (updated 2025)
“I never give advice,” said Mr. White, “but there is one thing I wish you would do when you sit down to write news stories, and that is: Never use the word, ‘very.’ It is the weakest word in the English language; doesn’t mean anything. If you feel the urge of ‘very’ coming on, just write the word, ‘damn,’ in the place of ‘very.’ The editor will strike out the word, ‘damn,’ and you will have a good sentence.”
As transcribed by Quote Investigator from the Seattle Daily Times, 18 October 1935. The columnist says the meeting with young newspapermen in Lawrence, Kansas, happened “several years ago.”
1922: The Pittsburgh Press prints a quip: “Will Allen White advises the use of ‘damn’ in place of ‘very.’” (Quote Investigator ↗)
1935: a Seattle Daily Times column gives the full anecdote. White advises cub reporters in Lawrence, Kansas, to write “damn” in place of “very,” because the editor will strike it out (Quote Investigator ↗)
1946–47: a retelling has White giving the advice to Franklin P. Adams. Reader’s Digest prints a version in January 1947, credited to “Brock Pemberton, quoted in Kansas City Star” (Quote Investigator ↗)
Today: quote sites carry a smoothed version (“your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be”) and often credit Mark Twain, as Goodreads does ↗
The popular wording is a paraphrase of unknown origin; it does not appear in any period text Quote Investigator transcribes, so no rights status can be claimed for it. The 1935 and 1946 newspaper versions are worded differently, and both are retellings by unnamed columnists, not White’s own writing.
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
Why Twain (and Adams) get named
This writing tip has passed through several famous names. None of them is backed by a source in that person’s own words.
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Named in a retellingFranklin P. Adams Listener, not author
In the 1946 Orrville Courier Crescent version, White “once told Franklin P. Adams” how to get rid of the word. That makes Adams the person receiving the advice. In every version Quote Investigator ↗ cites, Adams is the listener; none has him saying or writing it. Adams’s Wikiquote page ↗ does not list it.
✕
Quote sitesMark Twain No evidence
Quote Investigator ↗ found no substantive evidence that Twain said it, and notes the line is not on the Twain Quotes website edited by Barbara Schmidt. Even so, sites such as Goodreads ↗ credit Twain.
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1947 credit lineBrock Pemberton Source of a retelling
Reader’s Digest (January 1947) printed the Adams version under the credit “Brock Pemberton, quoted in Kansas City Star.” Quote Investigator ↗ suggests this may be where that version came from. The joke itself is still White’s.
✓The advice is credited to William Allen White from 1922 on, and the 1935 Seattle Daily Times has the full anecdote. Quote Investigator ↗ calls White the best candidate but says the evidence is not direct.
Context
Why the joke works
The joke is a piece of newsroom craft. “Very” adds nothing, so a writer who puts “damn” in its place hands the editor a word that will certainly be cut. What is left is the stronger sentence. The 1935 telling has White calling “very” “the weakest word in the English language.”
In the newspapers Quote Investigator found, the story always stays with White, while the listener changes: first unnamed cub reporters in Kansas, later Franklin P. Adams. QI suggests White may simply have told the joke more than once.
The editor will strike out the word, ‘damn,’ and you will have a good sentence.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
William Allen White bought the Emporia Gazette and edited it for the rest of his life. That made him “the Sage of Emporia” and a national voice for middle America and the Progressive movement. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1922 editorial “To an Anxious Friend.” Newspapers from 1922 on credit him with the advice to swap “damn” for “very.”
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest full telling found by Quote Investigator
“Strolling Around the Town,” Seattle Daily Times (Seattle, WA), October 18, 1935, Second Main News Section, front page; anecdote about William Allen White. As cited in Quote Investigator, “Advice Origin: Substitute ‘Damn’ Every Time You’re Inclined to Write ‘Very,’” August 29, 2012, updated February 26, 2025.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Substitute 'Damn' Every Time You're Inclined to Write 'Very'’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/substitute-damn-every-time-youre-inclined-to-write-very/