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Who really said it

There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking

Not Thomas Edison — condensed from Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723–1792 · English portrait painter & first President of the Royal Academy
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The thought traces to Reynolds’s Twelfth Discourse (delivered 1784, published 1797), whose phrase “evade and shuffle off real labour, —the real labour of thinking” was later condensed by critic Irving Babbitt (1910) into an aphorism. Edison hung the line in his labs but credited it to Reynolds; the popular one-line wording is a paraphrase, not Edison’s own words. Per Quote Investigator.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking” Not Thomas Edison. The line condenses Sir Joshua Reynolds's Twelfth Discourse (1784/1797); Edison posted it in his labs but credited Reynolds. — verified at Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Thomas Edison. Use the credit shown above instead.

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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.

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In context

Evoking the world of Sir Joshua Reynolds — English portrait painter & first President of the Royal Academy. Theme: "There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking". 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 "There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking". 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

Original thought
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourse XII
Delivered / Published
10 December 1784 · published 1797
Condensed by
Irving Babbitt, The New Laokoon (1910)
Edison connection
Placards in his labs, reported Jan. 1921 — credited to Reynolds

“A provision of endless apparatus, a bustle of infinite enquiry and research, or even the mere mechanical labour of copying, may be employed, to evade and shuffle off real labour, —the real labour of thinking.”

Reynolds’s original 1797 sentence — the seed of the modern aphorism. The compact “no expedient … to avoid the labor of thinking” form is a much later condensation.

Quote Investigator: full chronology

The paper trail

  • Quote Investigator traces the aphorism to Reynolds’s 1784/1797 Twelfth Discourse, condensed by critic Irving Babbitt in 1910.
  • B. C. Forbes reported in The American Magazine (January 1921) that Edison posted the line in his laboratories — attributing it to “Sir Joshua Reynolds,” per QI.
  • Wikiquote lists the exact popular wording under “Misattributed,” noting Edison liked and posted it but did not originate it.

Reynolds’s underlying 1797 Discourse XII is long in the public domain, but the compact popular wording (“no expedient … to avoid the labor of thinking”) is an evolved paraphrase not tied to a single identifiable pre-1931 work in this exact form, so no clean copyright status can be asserted for the line as quoted.

Fact-check

How Edison got the credit

This is a textbook misattribution: Edison admired the line, hung it around his laboratories, and openly credited Sir Joshua Reynolds — but later writers dropped Reynolds’s name and left Edison holding the quote.

Thomas Edison Misattributed

Wikiquote files this exact sentence under “Misattributed,” noting Edison liked and posted it but did not write it. Dale Carnegie’s How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948) helped cement the Edison credit, per QI.

Sir Joshua Reynolds Original

The idea comes from Reynolds’s Twelfth Discourse (1784/1797): “to evade and shuffle off real labour, —the real labour of thinking.” Critic Irving Babbitt condensed it toward the modern aphorism in 1910, per Quote Investigator.

Edison posted it and credited Reynolds; the compact one-liner is a paraphrase of Reynolds by way of Babbitt, not Edison’s own sentence. See Quote Investigator.

Context

Why the line stuck to Edison

Edison was America’s emblem of hard, practical work, so an aphorism praising mental effort felt like something he should have said. He did display it — but as a quotation from Reynolds, not as his own coinage.

The sentence itself is a slow accretion: Reynolds’s dense 1797 clause about “the real labour of thinking” was streamlined by Irving Babbitt in 1910, then circulated as placards and mottos until the words hardened into the crisp modern one-liner — and the original author’s name fell away.

Edison hung the words on his wall and signed them “Reynolds.” History erased the credit anyway.

The wording drift

Reynolds (1797): “…to evade and shuffle off real labour, —the real labour of thinking.”

Babbitt (1910): “there is scarcely any expedient to which man will not resort in order to ‘evade and shuffle off real labor.’”

Forbes/Edison (1921): “There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.”

Modern popular form: drops “real” and swaps “resort” for “go” — “…will not go to avoid the labor of thinking.”

Explore

Filed under

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

Wisdom Work Doubt

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 investigationquoteinvestigator.com

Traces the aphorism from Reynolds (1784/1797) through Babbitt (1910) to Edison’s labs and the later misattribution.
Wikiquote: Thomas Edison (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Lists the exact popular wording under Misattributed, crediting Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Reynolds, Discourses on Artgutenberg.org

Public-domain text of Reynolds’s fifteen Royal Academy Discourses, including Discourse XII.
Irving Babbitt, The New Laokoon (1910)archive.org

The 1910 work where Babbitt condensed Reynolds’s sentence toward the modern aphorism.
Wikipedia: Joshua Reynoldsen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the true originator of the underlying thought.

The true source

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Sir Joshua Reynolds

1723–1792 · English portrait painter & first President of the Royal Academy

Sir Joshua Reynolds was the leading English portraitist of the 18th century and the founding President of the Royal Academy of Arts. His annual Discourses to Academy students — delivered 1769–1790 — are landmarks of art theory, and it is a sentence from his Twelfth Discourse, on avoiding “the real labour of thinking,” that later generations compressed into the aphorism now pinned on Edison.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary & chronology

Joshua Reynolds, Discourse XII (delivered 1784; published in The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1797); condensed form traced in Irving Babbitt, The New Laokoon (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910). Chronology per Quote Investigator, “There Is No Expedient to which a Man Will Not Resort to Avoid the Real Labor of Thinking,” 15 May 2014.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/there-is-no-expedient-to-which-a-man-will-not-go-to-avoid

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