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Who really said it

We cannot go back and start over, but we can begin now, and make a new ending

Not Zig Ziglar — a widely circulated modern paraphrase James R. Sherman (earliest documented form) American self-help author · earliest verifiable version, 1982
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Zig Ziglar did use a version of this saying, but he explicitly disclaimed authorship — he credited a “Carl Bard” whose existence and authorship Quote Investigator could not verify ↗. The earliest documented form of the line appears in James R. Sherman’s 1982 book Rejection: “You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.” The exact wording quoted here is a later paraphrase that traces to no specific primary source by Ziglar.

Last verified 14 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“We cannot go back and start over, but we can begin now, and make a new ending” Not verified as Zig Ziglar. Ziglar used the saying but credited "Carl Bard"; the earliest documented form is James R. Sherman, Rejection (1982). The exact wording here is a later paraphrase of unknown origin. — Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Zig Ziglar. 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 James R. Sherman — earliest documented form of the saying, 1982. Theme: "We cannot go back and start over, but we can begin now, and make a new ending". 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 "We cannot go back and start over, but we can begin now, and make a new ending". 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 saying’s paper trail

Popularly credited to
Zig Ziglar (also C. S. Lewis, Carl Bard, Maria Robinson)
Earliest documented
Rejection
By
James R. Sherman, 1982
Status
Modern paraphrase — exact wording unsourced

You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.

The earliest verifiable form of the saying, from James R. Sherman’s 1982 book Rejection, per Quote Investigator. The quoted wording — “We cannot go back and start over, but we can begin now, and make a new ending” — is one of several later reworkings, not attested in any Ziglar work as his own.

Quote Investigator: We Cannot Go Back and Start Over

How we verified this

  • The authoritative investigation is Quote Investigator’s ‘We Cannot Go Back and Start Over’ ↗, which locates the earliest version in James R. Sherman’s 1982 book Rejection.
  • Per the same source, Zig Ziglar used the saying but disclaimed it — in a 2000 column and his 2003 collection Zig Ziglar’s Life Lifters he credited “Carl Bard,” a name QI could not otherwise verify.
  • An independent AAP FactCheck ↗ rates the popular C. S. Lewis attribution “False,” and likewise points to Sherman’s 1982 Rejection as the probable source.
  • The wording drifts across sources — Maria Robinson is credited with “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending,” showing how freely this idea is reworded and re-signed.

The exact wording quoted here is an anonymous later paraphrase tied to no identifiable first-publication, so no copyright status can be responsibly asserted. The earliest documented ancestor — James R. Sherman’s Rejection (1982) — would itself be in-copyright, but its wording differs from the line quoted here.

Fact-check

Who really said it

This uplifting one-liner is a floating quotation: the same idea circulates in dozens of wordings, each re-signed with a more famous name. Zig Ziglar is a common signature, but he himself passed the credit along.

Zig Ziglar used it, but disclaimed it

Ziglar did quote the saying — in a 2000 column and his 2003 book Zig Ziglar’s Life Lifters — but he credited it to “Carl Bard,” not himself, per Quote Investigator ↗. Crediting it to Ziglar reverses what he actually did.

C. S. Lewis debunked

Lewis died in 1963 and there is no record of the line in his work; AAP FactCheck ↗ rates the attribution “False.”

Carl Bard unverified name

The name Ziglar cited; Quote Investigator found no independent evidence that a “Carl Bard” authored it, so this credit simply passes the mystery along one more step.

Maria Robinson a different wording

Robinson is widely credited with “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending” — a variant that shows how the ‘make a new ending’ phrasing detaches from any one author.

The earliest documented version is James R. Sherman’s, in his 1982 book Rejection — not Ziglar’s, not Lewis’s — per Quote Investigator ↗.

Context

Why the wording keeps changing

Sayings like this are what folklorists call ‘floating’ quotations: a memorable thought with no fixed author, restated in fresh words and reattached to whichever famous name feels right. Because no single canonical sentence exists, each retelling drifts — ‘make a new start’ becomes ‘start over,’ ‘brand new ending’ becomes ‘a new ending’ — and the exact form quoted here is just one of many.

That drift is exactly why a confident single-author claim is impossible. The honest answer is a chain of attestation, not a signature.

A thought this tidy rarely has one owner — it has a lineage.

Explore

Filed under

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

Hope Change

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 saying to James R. Sherman’s 1982 Rejection and documents Ziglar’s Carl Bard credit.
Zig Ziglar categoryquoteinvestigator.com

QI’s index of quotes investigated in connection with Zig Ziglar.
AAP FactCheck — not from C. S. Lewisaap.com.au

Rates the Lewis attribution False and points to Sherman’s 1982 Rejection.
Check Your Fact — CS Lewis starting-over quotecheckyourfact.com

Independent fact-check debunking the C. S. Lewis attribution of the same saying.
Maria Robinson variant (Quote Investigator)quoteinvestigator.com

Documents the closely related ‘make a new ending’ wording credited to Maria Robinson, tracing it to a 1998 book epigraph.

Earliest documented source

About James R. Sherman

James R. Sherman

American self-help author · earliest documented form of the saying, 1982

James R. Sherman is an American self-help writer whose 1982 book Rejection contains the earliest version of this saying that researchers have located: “You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.” Whether Sherman coined the line or repeated an existing one is not established — but no earlier printed source has been found. The polished modern wording usually pinned on Zig Ziglar or C. S. Lewis is a later reworking of Sherman’s sentence.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented source

James R. Sherman, Rejection (Golden Valley, MN: Pathway Books, 1982), as identified in Garson O’Toole, “We Cannot Go Back and Start Over, But We Can Begin Now, and Make a New Ending,” Quote Investigator, November 5, 2015.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘We cannot go back and start over, but we can begin now, and make a new ending’?” Last verified 14 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/we-cannot-go-back-and-start-over-but-we-can-begin-now-and

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