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Who really said it

To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor

Not Franklin D. Roosevelt — actually Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1809–1894 · Physician, poet & essayist
Disputed Free to reuse

The sentence comes from Holmes’s The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, chapter 4 (1858), where it reads “To reach the port of heaven, we must sail…”. The popular version changes that to “a port.” Roosevelt did borrow the image, but only a shortened form: he closed his fireside chat of April 14, 1938 with “For to reach a port, we must sail — sail, not lie at anchor, sail, not drift.”

Last verified 2 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, ch. 4 (1858). Often credited to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used a shortened version ("For to reach a port, we must sail — sail, not lie at anchor, sail, not drift.") in his fireside chat of April 14, 1938. · Verbatim: “To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Use the credit shown above instead.

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In context

Evoking the world of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. — American physician, poet & essayist. Theme: "To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor". 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 "To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor". 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 words actually appear

Work
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table
Author
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Location
Chapter IV
Published
1858 (book); text shown from the 1873 James R. Osgood and Company edition

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. Chapter IV

The version credited to Roosevelt is this sentence with “the port of heaven” changed to “a port” and its punctuation changed. What Roosevelt actually said on air, on April 14, 1938, was shorter: “For to reach a port, we must sail — sail, not lie at anchor, sail, not drift.”

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, Project Gutenberg eBook #751

How the line traveled

Public domain

The wording comes from Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.’s The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, published as a book in 1858. That is well before 1931, so the text is in the U.S. public domain. The Gutenberg transcription used here follows the 1873 Osgood edition, which is also pre-1931.

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

How a Holmes sentence became an FDR quote

Roosevelt is not a random target here. He really did use Holmes’s sailing image on the radio, and that true connection is how Holmes’s longer sentence came to circulate under FDR’s name.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Shortened borrowing

He closed his April 14, 1938 fireside chat ↗ with “For to reach a port, we must sail -- sail, not lie at anchor, sail, not drift.” That is a compressed form of Holmes’s idea. It does not include the “sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it” sentence now quoted under his name.

Josephus Daniels Sent it to FDR

According to Wikiquote ↗, citing Carroll Kilpatrick’s Roosevelt and Daniels (1952), Daniels, then ambassador to Mexico, mailed the Holmes passage to Roosevelt with his New Year greetings on January 1, 1936. He said it was “so good you may find a use for it in one of your ‘fireside’ talks.”

The full sentence belongs to Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, chapter IV (1858), where it reads “To reach the port of heaven…” (Project Gutenberg text ↗). Roosevelt spoke only a shortened version, in 1938.

Context

Why the line stuck to Roosevelt

Roosevelt used the image at the very end of his April 14, 1938 fireside chat, which the Miller Center titles “On the Recession.” Just before it he said that abandoning his program “would be to miss the tide and perhaps to miss the port. I propose to sail ahead.” A nautical close suited a president known for his love of the sea, and the line has been repeated under his name ever since.

Later quote collections seem to have merged FDR’s spoken line with Holmes’s fuller sentence: they keep Roosevelt’s secular “a port” but restore Holmes’s “sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it.” That merger is our reading of the texts. No source we found documents exactly when or where it happened.

I propose to sail ahead.

Explore

Filed under

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

Purpose Resilience Courage

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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.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (full text)gutenberg.org

Holmes’s 1858 book. The “port of heaven” sentence is in chapter IV.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced entry for the passage (Autocrat, ch. 4), with the note that Josephus Daniels sent it to FDR in 1936.
Fireside Chat 12: On the Recession (April 14, 1938)millercenter.org

Full transcript, ending with FDR’s shortened “to reach a port, we must sail” line.
Fireside Chat on the Recessionteachingamericanhistory.org

A second transcript of the same 1938 address, confirming the closing wording.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography: physician and poet (1809–1894); Autocrat published as a book in 1858.

The author

About Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

1809–1894 · American physician, poet & essayist

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. was a Boston physician, professor and poet. He is best remembered for the essays he gathered as The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858), table-talk spoken by a boarding-house “Autocrat.” He was the father of Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and the two are often confused in quotation collections.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858), chap. 4; text from the 1873 James R. Osgood and Company edition, Project Gutenberg eBook #751. Roosevelt’s shortened version: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat on the Recession, April 14, 1938.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/to-reach-a-port-we-must-sail-sometimes-with-the-wind-and/

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