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Who really said it

The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease

Not Josh Billings — actually Cal Stewart Cal Stewart 1856–1919 · American vaudeville comedian and recording artist
Disputed Free to reuse

The proverb comes from a verse by the vaudeville comedian Cal Stewart, printed as the epigraph to Uncle Josh Weathersby’s ‘Punkin Centre’ Stories in 1903 and signed with the name of his fictional storyteller, Josh Weathersby. We read it in the scanned 1905 edition, whose copyright page confirms the 1903 date. The long-standing credit to the humorist Josh Billings appears to be a confusion of two Joshes: Quote Investigator suggests “some previous researcher confused the fictional character Josh Weathersby with the penname Josh Billings”. Note the familiar six-word proverb is a later condensation — Stewart’s own line is “the wheel what squeaks the loudest is the one what gets the grease”.

Last verified 5 Oct 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease” the modern condensation of Cal Stewart’s verse “But the wheel what squeaks the loudest / Is the one what gets the grease,” in Uncle Josh Weathersby’s “Punkin Centre” Stories (1903); not Josh Billings — traced by Quotle.info · Verbatim: “I don't believe in kickin', It aint apt to bring one peace; But the wheel what squeaks the loudest Is the one what gets the grease.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw). 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 Cal Stewart — American vaudeville comedian and pioneering recording artist. Theme: "The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease". 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 Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease". 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 source

The work
“Uncle Josh Weathersby’s ‘Punkin Centre’ Stories” by Cal Stewart
First published
1903 — Regan Printing House, Chicago; copyright registered to W. L. Eckhardt and Calvin E. Stewart
Where in the book
The epigraph leaf, facing the title page, signed “— Josh Weathersby” (Stewart’s fictional narrator)
Edition we read
The 1905 Thompson & Thomas printing, scanned in full at the Internet Archive

“I don’t believe in kickin’,
It aint apt to bring one peace;
But the wheel what squeaks the loudest
Is the one what gets the grease.”
— Josh Weathersby. Uncle Josh’s Punkin Centre Stories, epigraph leaf

Transcribed from the scanned 1905 edition, spelling and punctuation as printed. “Kickin’” was slang for complaining. The modern proverb compresses these four lines into six words.

Scanned 1905 edition (full view)
Read the epigraph leaf in Uncle Josh's Punkin Centre Stories (1905)
Internet Archive: Uncle Josh’s Punkin Centre Stories (1905)

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator’s investigation ↗ is the anchor, and its verdict is unambiguous: “based on current evidence this adage should be credited to Cal Stewart and not to Josh Billings.” QI gives the earliest appearance as the 1903 Stewart collection, page 6.
  • We confirmed that against the book itself rather than taking it on trust. The Internet Archive’s scan of the 1905 Thompson & Thomas edition ↗ carries the four-line verse on its epigraph leaf, signed “— Josh Weathersby”, and its copyright page reads “Copyright, 1903 By W. L. Eckhardt and Calvin E. Stewart” — independently fixing the 1903 first-publication date that the public-domain status rests on.
  • On the Billings credit, QI cites The Yale Book of Quotations noting that the existence of “The Kicker”, the poem Billings supposedly wrote it in, “has never been verified”, and says the ascription entered the eleventh edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations in 1937 with no supporting citation. Josh Billings was the pen name of Henry Wheeler Shaw, 1818–1885 ↗.
  • QI also documents genuine precursors with different meanings — Franklin’s “The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise” in Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1737, and a 1796 House of Commons remark by Sheridan about greasing “that squeaking wheel in the city” — so the image is older than Stewart even though this phrasing is his.
  • One negative result worth recording: Project Gutenberg’s e-text of the Punkin Centre stories ↗ does not contain the verse — we searched its full text and found no instance of “squeak” or “kickin”. Its transcription omits the epigraph leaf, so it cannot be used to confirm this quotation. The 1905 scan can.
Public domain

Public domain in the United States. The verse was first published in 1903 — a date we confirmed from the copyright notice printed in the book itself (“Copyright, 1903 By W. L. Eckhardt and Calvin E. Stewart”) — which is comfortably before the 1931 cut-off, and Cal Stewart died in 1919. Quote it freely.

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

Often misattributed

One wrong name has dominated this proverb for nearly ninety years, and it seems to be a mix-up between two humorists both called Josh.

Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) Unsupported

The ascription entered Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations in its 1937 eleventh edition without a citation, and reference works have copied it since. QI reports ↗ that The Yale Book of Quotations finds the poem it supposedly comes from, “The Kicker”, has never been verified to exist. QI’s explanation is a confusion between Stewart’s character Josh Weathersby and the pen name Josh Billings.

Ring Lardner Labelled it anonymous

Lardner printed a version of the verse in the Chicago Tribune in July 1913, but he marked it “ANON.” himself — as QI records ↗ — so he made no claim on it.

Benjamin Franklin Different saying

Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1737 has “The worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise”, which QI calls a precursor with a distinct meaning ↗ — about the weakest part complaining most, not about complaint being rewarded.

Quote Investigator’s verdict ↗: credit Cal Stewart, 1903 — not Josh Billings. The modern six-word form is a condensation of his four-line verse.

Context

Why it mattered

Cal Stewart was one of the first recording stars: his “Uncle Josh” monologues sold on cylinders and discs to people who had never seen a vaudeville stage, and the title page of his own book bills him as “The Talking Machine Story Teller”. Putting the verse in a rustic character’s mouth is what made it portable — folk wisdom needs a folk source.

The irony is that the device worked too well. Because Stewart signed the epigraph “Josh Weathersby” rather than with his own name, the proverb drifted to a different Josh entirely, and a reference book made the error permanent in 1937. The character outlived its author’s claim to his own line.

Folk wisdom needs a folk source — and Stewart’s worked so well it cost him the credit.

Explore

Filed under

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

Power Work Character

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 Squeaky Wheel Gets the Greasequoteinvestigator.com

The anchor investigation. Dated citations from Franklin’s 1737 precursor through Stewart’s 1903 verse and Lardner’s 1913 “ANON.” printing to the 1937 Bartlett’s Billings credit, concluding the adage belongs to Cal Stewart.
Internet Archive: Uncle Josh’s Punkin Centre Stories (1905)archive.org

Full-view scan of the Thompson & Thomas edition. The verse is on the epigraph leaf facing the title page, and the copyright page carries the 1903 registration to W. L. Eckhardt and Calvin E. Stewart.
Wikipedia: Cal Stewarten.wikipedia.org

Biography confirming his life dates, 1856–1919, and the “Uncle Josh Weathersby” character of the mythical town of Punkin Center.
Wikipedia: Josh Billingsen.wikipedia.org

Biography of Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818–1885), the humorist whose pen name Bartlett’s attached to the proverb in 1937 without a citation.
Project Gutenberg: Uncle Josh’s Punkin Centre Storieswww.gutenberg.org

Free e-text of the stories. Note: this transcription omits the epigraph leaf — we searched it and the verse is not present — so use the 1905 scan to see the quotation.

The author

About Cal Stewart

Cal Stewart

1856–1919 · American vaudeville comedian and pioneering recording artist

Cal Stewart (1856–1919) was an American comedian and humorist who pioneered both vaudeville monologue and early sound recording — his own book billed him as “The Talking Machine Story Teller”. He is best remembered for Uncle Josh Weathersby, a garrulous old resident of the invented New England village of Punkin Centre, whose stories Stewart sold in print and on cylinder records to a national audience. He signed the verse behind this proverb with his character’s name rather than his own, which is most likely why the credit went astray.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Stewart, Cal. Uncle Josh Weathersby’s “Punkin Centre” Stories. Chicago: Regan Printing House, 1903, 6. Epigraph signed “Josh Weathersby”; page citation per Quote Investigator. Verse read by quotle.info in the 1905 Thompson & Thomas printing (Chicago), whose copyright page records “Copyright, 1903 By W. L. Eckhardt and Calvin E. Stewart”.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease’?” Last verified 5 Oct 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-squeaky-wheel-gets-the-grease/

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