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Who really said it

The best things in life make you sweaty

Not Edgar Allan Poe — an anonymous internet quip Unknown (anonymous internet line) Earliest known source per Wikiquote: a 2009 web forum comment
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Nobody has found this line anywhere in Poe’s writings. The Poe Museum ↗ lists it as a fake Poe quote, and Wikiquote ↗ files it under “Misattributed.” Wikiquote’s earliest known source is a 2009 comment on a South Carolina duck-hunting website. Who first wrote it is unknown.

Last verified 3 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed — copy with the correction

“The best things in life make you sweaty” misattributed to Edgar Allan Poe; it is in none of his works. Earliest known source (per Wikiquote): an anonymous 2009 forum comment. Via Quotle.info

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.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the themes of happiness and work. Theme: "The best things in life make you sweaty". 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 "The best things in life make you sweaty". 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

Claimed author
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
Found in Poe’s works
No. The line is not traced to any poem, tale, essay or letter
Earliest known source
A 2009 comment on a South Carolina duck-hunting website (per Wikiquote)
Debunked by
Museum of Hoaxes (2012) and the Poe Museum (2014)

The best things in life make you sweaty.

No longer context exists. The line has never been found in a Poe text, so the excerpt is just the bare quip that circulates online.

Wikiquote: Edgar Allan Poe, Misattributed

How it was traced

The line has no identified author and no published source, so we make no claim about its copyright status. It does not come from any of Poe’s works, which are all in the public domain, so his public-domain status does not cover 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.

Fact-check

How Poe got the credit

Quote sites, social-media posts and at least one newspaper column credit this line to Edgar Allan Poe. None of them cites a Poe text.

Edgar Allan Poe Misattributed

The Museum of Hoaxes ↗ found the line credited to Poe on many sites, “facebook and tumblr pages especially.” It concludes that “Poe never said this” and that it was not “the kind of thing he would have said.”

Edgar Allan Poe Repeated in print

A column by Gordon Mercer and Marcia Gaines Mercer ↗ (posted June 3, 2012) opens with the line, credits it to Poe (1809–1849), and gives Poe “a thumbs up on this quote.” The Museum of Hoaxes noted that the Richmond County Daily Journal ran an article that used the supposed Poe quotation as its lead.

Poe did not write it. The Poe Museum ↗ lists it among the fake Poe quotes, and Wikiquote ↗ traces its earliest known appearance to a 2009 forum comment by an unknown writer.

Context

Why the joke sticks

Much of this line’s appeal comes from the mismatch: a cheerful line about sweat, credited to the gloomiest name in American letters. The Museum of Hoaxes ↗ could not tell whether the people posting it believed Poe said it or were joking. It doubted that sharers knew enough about Poe’s life to get the joke.

Some people clearly did take it straight. A 2012 newspaper column built a whole piece around it as Poe’s advice on hard work. That is how a throwaway line ends up passed around as a real quotation.

“Of course, Poe never said this.” — Museum of Hoaxes, 2012

Explore

Filed under

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

Happiness Work

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.

Did Poe Really Say That?thepoeblog.org

The Poe Museum curator's list of fake Poe quotes (2014). Entry no. 6 is this line.
Did Edgar Allan Poe say, “The best things in life make you sweaty”?hoaxes.org

The Museum of Hoaxes' 2012 debunking: "Brief Answer: No!"
Edgar Allan Poe — Misattributeden.wikiquote.org

Lists the line as misattributed and names a 2009 forum comment as its earliest known source
The Works of Edgar Allan Poeeapoe.org

The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore's index of Poe's actual writings
Books by Edgar Allan Poegutenberg.org

Free public-domain texts of Poe's works at Project Gutenberg

The name it gets pinned on

About Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

1809–1849 · American poet, short-story writer & critic

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) wrote “The Raven,” “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and his Dupin stories helped invent detective fiction. Many quotations credited to him online are fakes. The Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, keeps a list of them, and this one is on it.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest known source & debunking

Earliest known source: an anonymous 2009 comment on a South Carolina duck-hunting website, as listed in “Edgar Allan Poe,” Wikiquote, Misattributed section. Debunked in Chris Semtner, “Did Poe Really Say That?,” Poe Museum blog, September 10, 2014.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The best things in life make you sweaty’?” Last verified 3 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-best-things-in-life-make-you-sweaty/

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