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Who really said it

The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men

Not Charles De Gaulle — an anonymous adage traced to 1907 Elbert Hubbard 1856–1915 · American writer and publisher of The Philistine
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The oldest form Quote Investigator ↗ found is “The graveyards are full of people the world could not do without.” It was printed as a free-standing, unsigned saying in Hubbard’s magazine The Philistine in May 1907. The “indispensable” wording grew out of it over the following decades. QI calls the evidence for both Clemenceau and de Gaulle weak.

Last verified 1 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men” popularly credited to Charles de Gaulle, but Quote Investigator calls that evidence weak. The idea appears unsigned in Elbert Hubbard’s The Philistine (May 1907), and the de Gaulle credit surfaces in a 1981 column. Source: Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Charles de Gaulle. Use the credit shown above instead.

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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 Elbert Hubbard — American writer, publisher & founder of the Roycroft community. Theme: "The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men". 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.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men". 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 known form

Earliest form
The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, May 1907, p. 190
Attribution
Printed free-standing, without attribution
“Indispensable” wording
In circulation by 1924 (Irish Dáil debate)
De Gaulle credit
Patrick Buchanan column, Ludington Daily News, April 18, 1981

The graveyards are full of people the world could not do without.

As reported by Quote Investigator: The Philistine (May 1907) printed this as a free-standing saying with no attribution. The “indispensable men” wording credited to de Gaulle is a later version.

Quote Investigator: The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men

How the saying evolved

  • 1907: Elbert Hubbard’s The Philistine prints, unsigned, “The graveyards are full of people the world could not do without” (Quote Investigator ↗; also listed on Wikiquote ↗).
  • 1924: In the Irish Dáil, Mr. McGarry says “Glasnevin Cemetery is full of indispensable people,” the first “indispensable” version QI records (Quote Investigator ↗).
  • 1962: Time reports that opposition posters quoted the late Premier Georges Clemenceau: “The cemeteries are full of indispensable men” (Quote Investigator ↗).
  • 1981: Patrick Buchanan’s column “The Indispensable Man – Reagan” says “The graveyards are full of indispensable men, Charles de Gaulle once remarked” (Quote Investigator ↗).

The popular wording is an anonymous adage that changed over decades, and no single identifiable work is its source. So no copyright status is claimed for it. The 1907 Philistine line is a different, earlier wording.

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 credited, and why it doesn’t hold

Like many old adages, this one has been pinned on a string of notable or invented speakers. Quote Investigator found none of them to be the originator.

Charles de Gaulle Weak evidence

The earliest de Gaulle credit QI found is Patrick Buchanan’s syndicated column in the Ludington Daily News, April 18, 1981. QI cites no de Gaulle speech or writing containing the line and calls the evidence “weak” (Quote Investigator ↗).

Georges Clemenceau Weak evidence

In 1962 Time reported opposition posters quoting Clemenceau: “The cemeteries are full of indispensable men.” In 1968 the Victoria Advocate reported a Communist editor quoting Clemenceau with a variant, “The cemeteries are full of men who were once thought to be indispensable.” QI judges this evidence weak too (Quote Investigator ↗).

“Vladmir Bjornberg,” an “Icelandic poet” Likely invented

The Recruiters’ Bulletin credited this name with “The graveyards are filled with the men the world could not get on without.” QI suspects the editor made the name up (Quote Investigator ↗).

R. C. O’Brien Late claimant

Winchell credited O’Brien with a “cemeteries are filled with people who thought the world couldn’t get along without them” version in 1929, and O’Brien claimed to have coined it in 1940. Both dates come well after the 1907 printing (Quote Investigator ↗).

QI concludes that the core idea “appeared by 1907 in the work of Elbert Hubbard,” that many versions evolved, and that an “indispensable” version was circulating in Ireland by 1924. Its verdict on the famous names: the evidence for Clemenceau or de Gaulle “is weak” (Quote Investigator ↗).

Context

Why the line attaches to great men

The adage warns against thinking anyone is irreplaceable. That makes it a natural fit for a towering leader, which is probably why it ended up on Clemenceau and then de Gaulle. Buchanan’s 1981 column used it in a piece titled “The Indispensable Man – Reagan.”

The documented record is humbler. The idea first shows up as an unsigned filler line in a small American magazine, then passes through newspaper columns and parliamentary banter for decades before the “indispensable men” wording settles.

Glasnevin Cemetery is full of indispensable people.

Was there a French version?

QI notes that a 1948 English translation of Jacques Nels’s novel A Man of Means contains “The cemeteries are full of indispensable people.” It says this makes it possible that a French version existed early. QI also notes it had not yet checked that citation on paper (Quote Investigator ↗). Even so, no source ties the line to de Gaulle himself.

Explore

Filed under

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

Humility Mortality

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 Investigator: The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Menquoteinvestigator.com

The definitive trace, with citations from 1907 to 1981 and the verdict on Clemenceau and de Gaulle.
Elbert Hubbard on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the 1907 Philistine line among Hubbard's quotes.
Charles de Gaulle on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

De Gaulle's attributed and misattributed lines. The graveyards adage does not appear.
Elbert Hubbard on Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the Roycroft founder and publisher of The Philistine.
Charles de Gaulle on Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the French general and president (1890–1970).

Earliest known form

Where the idea first shows up

Elbert Hubbard

1856–1915 · American writer, publisher & founder of the Roycroft community

Elbert Hubbard founded the Roycroft arts-and-crafts community in East Aurora, New York. He edited and published the magazine The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, which was full of short aphorisms. The oldest known version of this adage appeared there unsigned in May 1907, and it “has been attributed to Hubbard for many decades,” though Quote Investigator stops short of saying he coined it. He died in 1915 aboard the RMS Lusitania.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest form located by Quote Investigator

Earliest form located by Quote Investigator: “The graveyards are full of people the world could not do without,” The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest (East Aurora, NY), May 1907, 190, unattributed. See “The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men,” Quote Investigator, November 21, 2011, https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/11/21/graveyards-full/.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-graveyards-are-full-of-indispensable-men/

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