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Who really said it

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle

Not Abraham Lincoln — an anonymous newspaper filler from 1955 Unknown Earliest located 9 May 1955 · author unidentified
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Lincoln died in 1865. The saying first appears in May 1955, as an unattributed one-liner in American local newspapers — the short filler items editors used to plug a column. The earliest located instance credited to Lincoln is from 27 January 1972, in The Age of Melbourne, where a firm quoted it as its motto. It appears nowhere in the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, which is fully searchable, and the Abraham Lincoln Association rejected it in 2003.

Last verified 21 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle” An anonymous newspaper saying, first located 9 May 1955. Not Abraham Lincoln — it postdates him by ninety years and is absent from his Collected Works.

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

Can you use it?

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 Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States. Theme: "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle". 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 "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle". 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

Origin
Anonymous newspaper filler
Earliest located
Times Herald (Carroll, Iowa), 9 May 1955
Lincoln credit begins
27 January 1972, The Age (Melbourne)
Lincoln source
None — absent from the Collected Works

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things that are left by those who hustle. Times Herald (Carroll, Iowa), 9 May 1955

The earliest located wording. Note the extra words — ‘the things that are left’ — which the version people quote has trimmed. Sayings get shorter as they travel; that shortening is one of the ways you can tell circulation has been at work on a line.

Barry Popik — the 1955 newspaper citations

How we traced it

  • The earliest instances located by the quotation researcher Barry Popik are both from the same week of May 1955: the Times Herald of Carroll, Iowa on 9 May, and the Anderson, Indiana Daily Bulletin on 10 May, in a column of one-line jokes called ‘Barbs.’ Neither carries an author. That syndicated-filler pattern is the signature of an anonymous gag, not a presidential aphorism the citations ↗.
  • The Lincoln credit is much later. The earliest documented instance is 27 January 1972, in The Age (Melbourne, Australia) — a company using the line as a corporate motto and crediting Lincoln for it. Seventeen years of anonymous circulation come first.
  • Lincoln’s writings are exceptionally well mapped: Roy P. Basler’s nine-volume Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln is complete, indexed and searchable online. The saying is not in it, in any wording. Absence from a searchable corpus is not proof of a negative in general — but for Lincoln it comes close, which is why the Abraham Lincoln Association put this line on its rejected list in 2003.
  • There is an older cousin worth knowing: ‘All things come to him who hustles while he waits’ is in print by 1893 and is itself commonly misattributed — usually to Thomas Edison. The 1955 line is a sharper rewrite of that Gilded-Age joke, not an inheritance from the 1860s.

We give no rights status. The 1955 newspaper appearances are anonymous filler items with no identifiable author, and while unrenewed US periodical content of that period is very often in the public domain, that depends on facts about renewal we have not checked for these specific papers. What is clear is that the Lincoln route to public domain does not apply — he did not write it, so his 1865 death date is irrelevant here. Quote it as an anonymous 1950s saying. This is not legal advice.

Fact-check

The attribution problem

This is one of the easier ones to settle, because Lincoln is the best-documented American of the 19th century and the saying is a piece of mid-century newspaper furniture with a date on it.

Not Abraham Lincoln ninety years too late

The line first appears in 1955; Lincoln died in 1865. It is absent from Basler’s Collected Works, which is complete and searchable, and the Abraham Lincoln Association placed it on its rejected list in 2003. There is no speech, letter, fragment or reported remark the citations ↗.

1972, in an Australian newspaper documented

The earliest located Lincoln attribution is The Age (Melbourne), 27 January 1972 — a business quoting it as its motto. That is unusually satisfying: we can watch a saying circulate anonymously for seventeen years, get adopted as a corporate slogan, and acquire a president in the same sentence.

‘All things come to him who hustles while he waits’ 1893 — also misattributed

In print by 1893 and usually credited to Thomas Edison, on no evidence. The 1955 saying is a rewrite of it, which places both firmly in the industrial-optimism tradition rather than anywhere near Lincoln.

‘Good things come to those who wait’ different saying

The straight proverb is much older and is usually traced to a 19th-century poem by Violet Fane. The Lincoln line is a joke at its expense — which is why the two are constantly mashed into ‘Good things come to those who wait, but only what’s left…’ That hybrid has no source either.

Anachronistic linguistic tell

The saying needs 'hustle' to mean relentless self-advancing effort. That sense is a late-19th and 20th-century American development; in Lincoln's day the word leaned much more towards shoving and hurrying. The sentence could not have carried its punchline in 1860.

An anonymous American newspaper one-liner, first located on 9 May 1955, which acquired Lincoln’s name in the early 1970s. He has no connection to it, and his complete works are searchable if you want to check the Collected Works ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

It is a joke with a grievance in it. The old proverb tells you to be patient; this one points out that patience is a strategy with a queue in front of it, and that the people at the front are not waiting. Anyone who has watched a promotion go to the person who asked for it recognises the sentiment instantly.

It also explains its own attribution. A line about the rewards of hustle wants a self-made hero, and American English has one on permanent standby. Bolting it to Lincoln converts a wisecrack from a 1955 filler column into national wisdom — which is a fairly hustling thing to do to a quotation about hustling.

Seventeen years anonymous, then a corporate motto, then a president. In that order.

The dates, in order

1865: Lincoln is assassinated. Nothing resembling this line exists in his papers.

1893: 'All things come to him who hustles while he waits' is in print — anonymous, later misattributed to Edison.

9 May 1955: earliest located instance of this saying, Times Herald, Carroll, Iowa — unattributed.

10 May 1955: the Anderson, Indiana Daily Bulletin runs it in its 'Barbs' column of one-liners.

27 January 1972: earliest located Lincoln credit, The Age, Melbourne — quoted as a company motto.

2003: the Abraham Lincoln Association lists it among things Lincoln did not say.

Explore

Filed under

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

Work Success

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.

'Things may come to those who wait…' — the citation trailbarrypopik.com

The 1955 newspaper citations, the 1972 first Lincoln credit, and the 1893 'hustles while he waits' ancestor.
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincolnquod.lib.umich.edu

Basler's nine-volume edition, searchable in full — check for yourself that the line is not there.
Fact check: did Lincoln say it?checkyourfact.com

An independent fact-check reaching the same verdict, noting the Abraham Lincoln Association's 2003 rejection.

Popularly credited author

Why it gets pinned on Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

1809–1865 · 16th President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln led the United States through the Civil War and was assassinated in April 1865. He is American English’s favourite unpaid endorser: rail-splitter to president, self-taught, famously hard-working, and dead long enough that nobody expects a footnote. Any homespun line about effort beating luck will drift to him eventually. There is an extra irony here — in Lincoln’s own lifetime ‘hustle’ mostly meant to shove or to hurry, not the 20th-century sense of grinding ambition the saying depends on. The word gives the game away before the archives do.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Anonymous saying; earliest located instance Times Herald (Carroll, Iowa), 9 May 1955, and Anderson (Ind.) Daily Bulletin, 10 May 1955. Earliest located Lincoln credit: The Age (Melbourne), 27 January 1972. Not in Basler, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln.

MLA (9th ed.)

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” Anonymous saying, earliest located instance 1955.

APA (7th ed.)

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle. (1955). Anonymous saying [earliest located instance].

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle’?” Last verified 21 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/things-may-come-to-those-who-wait

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