Did James A. Garfield say "Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up"?

Q: Did James A. Garfield say "Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up"?

Not confirmed. This is a genuine, period-documented Garfield line: it appears word-for-word in Emma Elizabeth Brown's The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield (1881), among a set of "Notable Extracts from His Speeches and Letters," and it fits his terse, self-reliant style. But the exact origin is not verifiable — Brown groups it with unrelated aphorisms under a single "June 1874" heading, so the specific speech or letter behind it can't be confirmed.

Who really said it

Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up

Attributed to James A. Garfield 1831–1881 · 20th President of the United States

Attributed Free to reuse

This is a genuine, period-documented Garfield line: it appears word-for-word in Emma Elizabeth Brown’s The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield (1881), among a set of “Notable Extracts from His Speeches and Letters,” and it fits his terse, self-reliant style. But the exact origin is not verifiable — Brown groups it with unrelated aphorisms under a single “June 1874” heading, so the specific speech or letter behind it can’t be confirmed.

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

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up” James A. Garfield (attributed) — as compiled in E. E. Brown's 1881 biography

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In context

Evoking the world of James A. Garfield — 20th U.S. President, Union general & Ohio congressman. Theme: "Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up". 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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Provenance

The earliest documented source

Credited to: James A. Garfield
Earliest source: E. E. Brown, The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield (1881)
As grouped: Under a heading ‘From a Speech in the House of Representatives, June, 1874’ — but amid unrelated aphorisms on art, sorrow and courage
Status: Genuine period attribution; exact speech unverified

… the blast of a bugle can never make soldiers or win victories. ∗ Things don’t turn up in this world until somebody turns them up. ∗ We cannot study nature profoundly without bringing ourselves into communion with the spirit of art which pervades and fills the universe. compiled extract

In Brown’s 1881 biography the line is one of a run of asterisk-divided extracts sharing a single speech heading. Because the neighbouring lines leap from soldiery to art to grief, the “June 1874 House speech” label almost certainly can’t apply to all of them — which is why the exact source of this particular sentence stays open.

Full 1881 biography at Project Gutenberg

How we traced it

Wikiquote lists the line in its Sourced section, citing Brown’s 1881 biography, p. 437.
The exact wording is confirmed verbatim in the full 1881 text, printed among “Notable Extracts from His Speeches and Letters.”
Popular quote sites such as QuoteFancy reproduce it with no source at all — the usual pattern for a “magnet” name like Garfield.

Public domain

The source that documents this line — E. E. Brown’s biography — was first published in 1881, placing it firmly in the public domain in the United States. Garfield himself died in 1881, so anything he actually wrote or spoke is long out of copyright as well.

Context

Why the line stuck

The sentence is a compact statement of the self-made ethic Garfield embodied — nothing in the world ‘turns up’ on its own; someone has to make it happen. It reads as a rebuke to the passive optimism of Dickens’s Mr. Micawber, forever ‘waiting for something to turn up.’

That message, plus Garfield’s log-cabin-to-White-House story, is exactly why the line travels well on motivational sites. The catch is that almost none of them say where he said it — and the one early source that does document it groups it too loosely to trust on the specific speech.

Nothing turns up by itself — somebody has to turn it up.

On the doubtful ‘June 1874’ attribution

Brown’s 1881 compilation places this line under the heading ‘From a Speech in the House of Representatives, June, 1874.’ But the extracts sharing that heading range across church-and-state taxation, military bugle-calls, the ‘spirit of art,’ the solace of sorrow, and bravery — subjects no single House floor speech would plausibly cover.

The most honest reading is that the heading marks only the first extract, and the aphorisms after it are undated fragments Brown collected from various sources. So the wording is real and the author is Garfield, but the specific 1874-speech provenance repeated online is not something the record actually supports.

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Filed under

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

Work Purpose

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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.

James A. Garfield — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Lists the line in its Sourced section, citing Brown’s 1881 biography, p. 437.

The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield (1881)gutenberg.org

Full text of E. E. Brown’s biography — contains the exact wording among the ‘Notable Extracts.’

QuoteFancy — Garfield quote pagequotefancy.com

Typical popular reproduction of the line with no source given.

James A. Garfield Papersloc.gov

Library of Congress archive of Garfield’s speeches, letters and diaries for primary-source checking.

James A. Garfield — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the 20th U.S. President for background on his life and oratory.

The true author

About James A. Garfield

James A. Garfield

1831–1881 · 20th U.S. President, Union general & Ohio congressman

James Abram Garfield (1831–1881) rose from an impoverished Ohio childhood to become a college president, Union major-general, nine-term congressman, and, in 1881, the 20th President of the United States. A noted orator with a taste for pithy, self-reliant maxims, he served only about six months before being shot in July 1881 and dying that September. His many aphorisms on effort and character were gathered into memorial biographies almost immediately after his death.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Emma Elizabeth Brown, The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield (1881), 437, in “Notable Extracts from His Speeches and Letters.”

MLA (9th ed.)

Brown, Emma Elizabeth. The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield. 1881, p. 437.

APA (7th ed.)

Brown, E. E. (1881). The life and public services of James A. Garfield (p. 437).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/things-dont-turn-up-in-this-world-until-somebody-turns-them