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Who really said it

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good

Not Samuel Johnson — a 20th-century saying Malcolm Forbes / the Ann Landers columns popularized in the 1970s · not Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
Disputed In copyright

Samuel Johnson did not write this. The oldest close match — “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him” — was credited to publisher Malcolm Forbes in Earl Wilson’s newspaper column in 1972, and this exact “absolutely no good” wording spread through advice columnist Ann Landers and the Chicago Tribune around 1977–1978. Johnson’s name was attached only much later.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good” Not Samuel Johnson. This is a 1970s saying: the earliest close match was credited to publisher Malcolm Forbes in 1972, and the exact "absolutely no good" wording spread through Ann Landers' advice columns and the Chicago Tribune by 1978 (per Quote Investigator). It appears nowhere in Johnson's works, letters, or 18th-century biographies.

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The 1970s sources of this wording — Forbes Inc. (Malcolm Forbes) and the syndicated Ann Landers / Chicago Tribune columns). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Malcolm Forbes — American magazine publisher (Forbes) — earliest credited source of the modern saying. Theme: "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good". 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 true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good". 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

Popularly credited to
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
Actually
A 1970s saying — Malcolm Forbes (1972) & the Ann Landers columns
Earliest close match
Earl Wilson’s column, Hartford Courant, 6 Aug 1972
Status
Apocryphal for Johnson — not in his works, letters, or 18th-century biographies

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

The exact wording above is documented in the Chicago Tribune (1978), echoing Ann Landers’ columns of 1977–1978; the underlying maxim was credited to Malcolm Forbes in 1972 as “how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”

Quote Investigator: earliest attestations and attribution history

How we verified this

  • The definitive study is Quote Investigator, which traces the earliest close match to publisher Malcolm Forbes via Earl Wilson’s column in 1972 and calls the Johnson (and Goethe) attributions “unsupported by current evidence.”
  • The scholarly Samuel Johnson site files this line in its Apocrypha, noting there is “no concrete evidence that he ever said it or wrote it” and that it appears in none of his works, letters, or 18th-century biographies.
  • Per QI, this exact “absolutely no good” phrasing runs through advice columnist Ann Landers (1977–1978) and the Chicago Tribune (1978) — nearly two centuries after Johnson’s death.
In copyright

This is a 20th-century saying, not an 18th-century one: the earliest close match dates to 1972 (Malcolm Forbes, via Earl Wilson) and this precise “absolutely no good” wording to 1977–1978 (Ann Landers; Chicago Tribune). As a modern, post-1931 formulation from identifiable publishers it is treated as in copyright; it is emphatically not a public-domain Johnson line.

Fact-check

How Johnson got the credit

This is a feel-good character test that reads like classic 18th-century moralism, so it drifted onto the era’s most quotable name. But the paper trail is entirely modern.

Samuel Johnson apocryphal

The scholarly Samuel Johnson site places it in its Apocrypha: “no concrete evidence that he ever said it or wrote it” — it is absent from his works, letters, and every 18th-century biography. Quote Investigator likewise calls the Johnson attribution “unsupported by current evidence.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe also unsupported

QI notes the same saying is sometimes pinned on Goethe in 2000s publications with no supporting documentation — another magnet-name attribution.

Malcolm Forbes earliest close match

QI’s earliest close match credits publisher Malcolm Forbes in Earl Wilson’s column (Hartford Courant, 6 Aug 1972): “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”

The thought is not Johnson’s: the trail begins in 1972 with Malcolm Forbes and runs through Ann Landers’ columns to the exact “absolutely no good” wording by 1978, per Quote Investigator.

Context

Why the misattribution sticks

The line lands as timeless moral wisdom: real character shows in how you treat people who can neither reward nor punish you. That register — brisk, aphoristic, a little severe — sounds like Dr. Johnson, so his name became the default stamp for an idea he never recorded.

In reality the maxim is a product of 20th-century American print culture: a publisher’s epigram amplified by the enormous readerships of syndicated advice columns, where wordings shift column to column until one crisp version freezes into a ‘quotation’ and picks up a prestigious dead author’s name.

An idea Johnson never recorded, wearing his name.

Explore

Filed under

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

Character Kindness

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 — full attribution historyquoteinvestigator.com

Traces the earliest close match to Malcolm Forbes (1972) and the exact wording to the Ann Landers columns and Chicago Tribune (1978); calls the Johnson and Goethe credits unsupported.
Samuel Johnson Apocrypha — “Not Samuel Johnson!”samueljohnson.com

The scholarly Johnson site explains the line is absent from his works, letters, and 18th-century biographies, and files it as apocryphal.
Wikiquote — Samuel Johnsonen.wikiquote.org

Reference collection of Johnson’s genuinely sourced quotations, useful for confirming what he actually wrote.
BrainyQuote listing (example of the misattribution spreading)brainyquote.com

A typical unsourced quote-site page crediting the line to Johnson — the kind of page that propagates the error.

The author

About Malcolm Forbes

Malcolm Forbes

1919–1990 · American magazine publisher (Forbes) — earliest credited source of the modern saying

Malcolm Forbes was the flamboyant publisher of Forbes magazine, famous for his epigrams (later collected in The Sayings of Chairman Malcolm, 1978). Quote Investigator’s earliest close match for this “character” maxim credits him in a 1972 newspaper column. The precise “absolutely no good” wording, though, was carried and reshaped by advice columnist Ann Landers later in the 1970s — neither of them Samuel Johnson.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Quote Investigator

Garson O’Toole (Quote Investigator), “You Can Easily Judge the Character of a Man by How He Treats Those Who Can Do Nothing for Him,” 28 Oct 2011, quoteinvestigator.com. Earliest close match: Malcolm Forbes in Earl Wilson’s column, Hartford Courant, 6 Aug 1972; exact “absolutely no good” wording, Chicago Tribune, 1978.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-true-measure-of-a-man-is-how-he-treats-someone-who-can

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