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Who really said it

Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body

Not George Carlin — actually Roger J. Corless Roger J. Corless 1938–2007 · Professor of Religion, Duke University
Disputed In copyright

The line comes from The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree (New York: Paragon House, 1989) by the Buddhist studies scholar Roger J. Corless — and in the book it reads “all over my body,” not “your body.” The reference site georgecarlin.net lists it among its Bogus Carlin Quotations ↗, noting it appears on none of Carlin’s albums, HBO specials or books — while cautioning that the saying itself may be older than 1989.

Last verified 3 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body” Roger J. Corless, The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree (New York: Paragon House, 1989), part 2, "The Space." Not George Carlin: the "your body" version circulating under Carlin's name is an altered variant, and georgecarlin.net lists it among its bogus Carlin quotations. Traced by Quotle.info, 3 Aug 2026.

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

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The estate of Roger J. Corless and Paragon House). 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 Roger J. Corless — British-born American Buddhist studies scholar · Duke University. Theme: "Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body". 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 "Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body". 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 actual source

Work
The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree
Author
Roger J. Corless (1938–2007)
Published
New York: Paragon House, 1989 (xxi + 329 pp.)
Location
Part 2, “The Space”

But happiness is not something I have, it is something I myself want to be. Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over my body. Part 2 — “The Space”

Note the pronoun: Corless wrote my body. The fuller paragraph — which opens by describing how we make ourselves miserable by closing ourselves off from reality and then collecting things in the hope of possessing happiness — is transcribed with its source at WIST ↗. The Internet Archive’s scan of the 1989 edition is borrow-only, so the interior page could not be independently read for this entry; the transcription and its part-level location come from WIST.

Scanned first edition
The Vision of Buddhism (Paragon House, 1989) at the Internet Archive
Roger Corless quotations, with the fuller passage, at WIST

How we verified this

  • 1989 — Roger J. Corless publishes The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree with Paragon House in New York; the sandwich simile sits in part 2, “The Space.” The edition is held in scan by the Internet Archive ↗ and its bibliographic details are confirmed by a review in the Journal of Asian Studies ↗.
  • The pronoun swap — WIST ↗ transcribes the original as “all over my body” and records that the line is frequently misattributed to George Carlin in a “your body” form.
  • The debunk — georgecarlin.net ↗ lists the line among its Bogus Carlin Quotations, names Corless as the apparent real author, notes it appears on no Carlin album, HBO special or book, and adds that the saying may be older than 1989.
  • Absent from the canon — Wikiquote’s George Carlin page ↗ carries no version of this line in any section, sourced or misattributed.
In copyright

The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree was first published in New York by Paragon House in 1989, so it is firmly within US copyright — the excerpt above is quoted briefly for identification and attribution. The Internet Archive holds the edition on a borrow-only basis, which is consistent with its protected status. No public-domain claim is made for any wording on this page: the “your body” variant that circulates under George Carlin’s name has no identifiable author of its own and no known publication history, and an unsourced meme edit does not create a free text.

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

Two things are wrong with the popular version

This is a double error: the wrong name on the byline, and a word swapped in the text. Both are easy to demonstrate.

George Carlin Not him

The line appears on none of Carlin’s albums, HBO specials or books. georgecarlin.net’s Bogus Carlin Quotations list ↗ puts it under a flat heading saying he did not say it, and observes that it does not even sound like him — he rarely used similes, and his famous routine on possessions, “A Place for My Stuff,” celebrates stuff rather than renouncing it. Wikiquote’s Carlin page ↗ contains no such quotation anywhere.

Roger J. Corless, misquoted Altered

Corless wrote “taping sandwiches all over my body” — a remark about his own grasping, inside a passage on wanting to be happy rather than to have happiness. The version that travels under Carlin’s name changes it to “your body,” turning self-observation into an accusation. WIST ↗ records the original wording and the swap; georgecarlin.net makes the same point, saying the real author is Corless once you put “my” back.

Unknown — possibly earlier than 1989 Open question

georgecarlin.net notes that the saying “may be older” than Corless’s book. No earlier printed appearance has been located, so 1989 is the earliest attestation we can point to rather than a proven point of origin. Quote Investigator has not published an investigation of this line.

The sandwich belongs to a Duke University Buddhist studies professor, not a comedian — and he taped it to his own body. Carlin himself set the test that settles it: per his Wikipedia biography ↗, he stated on his website that nothing online is his unless it came from one of his albums, books, HBO specials, or the site itself. This line comes from none of them.

Context

Why this one stuck to Carlin

The simile is genuinely good, which is most of the explanation. It is concrete, slightly absurd, and it makes its point in one breath — exactly the shape of a Carlin bit. Once a clever anti-consumerist line is loose on the internet without a source attached, it drifts toward the most famous available anti-consumerist voice, and for a generation of English-speaking readers that voice is George Carlin.

The irony is that the sentiment cuts against his actual material. Carlin’s most celebrated riff on possessions, “A Place for My Stuff” — performed in Carlin on Campus ↗ (1984) — is affectionate about stuff rather than renunciatory about it. georgecarlin.net makes the same observation, adding that he rarely reached for similes at all. The line reads like Carlin to people who remember the target of his jokes but not their texture.

A good line with no source attached drifts toward the most famous voice that could plausibly have said it.

What Carlin said about internet quotes attributed to him

Carlin was aware of the problem in his lifetime. Wikipedia’s article on him records that numerous joke lists, rants and essays circulated falsely under his name, and quotes his own website statement that nothing seen online is his unless it came from one of his albums, books, HBO specials, or his site itself — a test this sandwich line fails on every count. See Wikipedia’s George Carlin article ↗.

Corless’s original sits in a passage about the difference between having happiness and being happy — a Buddhist argument about clinging, not a comic’s bit about consumerism. The switch from “my body” to “your body” quietly changes it from self-observation into finger-pointing, which is also more shareable.

Explore

Filed under

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

Happiness Simplicity

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.

Bogus Carlin Quotations: the sandwiches linegeorgecarlin.net

The long-running Carlin reference site’s debunk: states flatly that Carlin did not say this, names Roger J. Corless’s The Vision of Buddhism as the real source, and notes the saying may be older still.
Roger Corless quotations, with the fuller passagewist.info

WIST’s sourced entry gives the original “my body” wording, the surrounding paragraph, the part-level location in the 1989 book, and flags the Carlin misattribution.
The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree (1989)archive.org

The Internet Archive’s scan of the Paragon House first edition (New York, 1989). Borrow-only, so the interior is not openly searchable.
Roger Corlessen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the true author: 1938–2007, Professor of Religion at Duke University, co-founder of Buddhist-Christian Studies, author of the 1989 book.
George Carlin: falsely attributed materialen.wikipedia.org

Documents the wider phenomenon of joke lists and rants circulated under Carlin’s name, and his own on-record test for what is genuinely his.
George Carlin — sourced quotationsen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote’s collection of sourced Carlin material. The sandwiches line appears nowhere on the page — not in the sourced sections, not even among the misattributed entries.
Review of The Vision of Buddhism, Journal of Asian Studiescambridge.org

Scholarly review confirming the book’s bibliographic details: New York, Paragon House, 1989, xxi + 329 pp.

The scholar behind the sandwich

Who was Roger J. Corless?

Roger J. Corless

1938–2007 · British-born American Buddhist studies scholar · Duke University

Roger Corless was born in Merseyside, England in 1938 and spent his career in the United States as Professor of Religion at Duke University, where he specialised in Pure Land Buddhism and Buddhist–Christian dialogue. He co-founded the journal Buddhist-Christian Studies and wrote more than sixty scholarly articles, but his best-known book for general readers is The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree (Paragon House, 1989), a survey written in a deliberately plain, wry register. He died in San Francisco in 2007 — almost certainly without knowing that his sandwich simile had begun a second life under a comedian’s name.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Roger J. Corless, The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree (New York: Paragon House, 1989), part 2, “The Space.” The book’s wording is “taping sandwiches all over my body”; the widely shared “your body” form, credited to George Carlin, is an altered variant. Passage and part-level location as sourced by WIST Quotations ↗.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body’?” Last verified 3 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/trying-to-be-happy-by-accumulating-possessions-is-like/

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