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Who really said it

When somebody says it's not about the money, it's about the money

Not H. L. Mencken — actually Kin Hubbard Kin Hubbard 1868–1930 · American cartoonist and humorist · creator of Abe Martin
Disputed Free to reuse (1916 wording)

Quote Investigator ↗ traces the saying to Kin Hubbard’s syndicated Abe Martin feature, printed in the Franklin Evening News of 24 November 1916 in dialect: “When a feller says: ‘It hain’t th’ money, but th’ principle o’ th’ thing,’ it’s th’ money.” The smooth modern one-liner is a much later rewording, and no Mencken book, column or letter has ever been produced for it — QI mentions Mencken only as an incorrect credit given by Senator Dale Bumpers in January 1999.

Last verified 10 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“When a feller says: 'It hain't th' money, but th' principle o' th' thing,' it's th' money.” Kin Hubbard, "Abe Martin," Franklin Evening News (Franklin, PA), November 24, 1916 — earliest documented instance per Quote Investigator. Popularly reworded as "When somebody says it's not about the money, it's about the money" and commonly misattributed to H. L. Mencken. Via Quotle.info.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to H. L. Mencken. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

Hubbard’s documented 1916 wording is free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed. The polished modern paraphrase has no identified author or first publication, so quote the sourced original rather than presenting the rewording as public domain.

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In context

Evoking the world of Kin Hubbard — American cartoonist, humorist and journalist · creator of Abe Martin. Theme: "When somebody says it's not about the money, it's about the money". 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 "When somebody says it's not about the money, it's about the money". 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 documented source

Work
New Sayings By Abe Martin; and Velma’s Vow
Author
Kin Hubbard (Frank McKinney Hubbard), 1868–1930
First printed
“Abe Martin” syndicated column, Franklin Evening News (Franklin, PA), 24 November 1916
Also collected in
Abe Martin: Hoss Sense and Nonsense (1926)

When a feller says: ‘It hain’t th’ money, but th’ principle o’ th’ thing,’ it’s th’ money. Abe Martin, 1916

This dialect version is the wording Quote Investigator documents as the earliest instance. The familiar modern sentence — “When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money” — is a later smoothing with no identified author, not anything Hubbard or Mencken is recorded as writing.

New Sayings By Abe Martin (c. 1916), free scan listed at The Online Books Page

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator ↗ names the earliest documented instance: Kin Hubbard’s syndicated Abe Martin feature in the Franklin Evening News of 24 November 1916, reading “When a feller says: ‘It hain’t th’ money, but th’ principle o’ th’ thing,’ it’s th’ money.” QI notes it appeared the same year in Hubbard’s book New Sayings by Abe Martin and Velma’s Vow.
  • Wikiquote’s sourced Hubbard page ↗ carries the saying as “When a fellow says, ‘It hain’t the money, but th’ principle o’ the thing,’ it’s th’ money,” cited to Hoss Sense and Nonsense (1926), with a modernised variant from Clifton Fadiman’s The American Treasury, 1455–1955, p. 993.
  • Per QI, the centennial edition of John Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations credited Hubbard with the line, citing his 1926 collection — so the correct attribution was in the standard reference work long before the internet reassigned it. Quote Investigator ↗
  • The earliest Mencken credit QI records is a Senate floor speech. In January 1999, arguing against President Clinton’s conviction, Senator Dale Bumpers told the Senate: “H.L. Mencken said one time, ‘When you hear somebody say, this is not about money — it’s about money.’” Fox News ↗
Public domain

Hubbard’s documented wording was first published in a newspaper column on 24 November 1916 and collected in books of 1916 and 1926 — all well before 1931, so the text shown here is in the public domain in the United States. Hubbard himself died in 1930. The polished modern paraphrase circulating under Mencken’s name has no identified author or first publication, so no rights claim is made for that specific wording.

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

Who it gets pinned on

This is a proverb with a documented author who almost never gets named. The polished modern wording circulated unattributed for years, and then collected famous owners.

H. L. Mencken No source ever cited

The Quote Investigator survey ↗ of this saying mentions Mencken exactly once — as an incorrect credit given by U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers in January 1999, during President Clinton’s Senate impeachment trial. Fox News transcribes the moment ↗: “H.L. Mencken said one time, ‘When you hear somebody say, this is not about money — it’s about money.’” QI does not validate the attribution, and no Mencken book, essay, column or letter has been produced for it.

Goodreads, AZQuotes and similar sites Unsourced

Goodreads ↗ prints the line under Mencken’s name with no book or date attached, above its own disclaimer that quotes are community-added and unverified; AZQuotes ↗ does the same with no source at all. Neither offers anything a reader could check.

George Young, and Shannon Sharpe's grandfather Folk credit

Before Mencken got it, the saying was being handed to whoever had said it most recently. QI’s timeline ↗ records columnist Mike Lupica crediting football executive George Young in August 1995, and Shannon Sharpe crediting his grandfather in December 1999 — the classic signature of a proverb whose real author has been forgotten.

The line is Kin Hubbard’s, first documented in his Abe Martin column of 24 November 1916 and credited to him in Bartlett’s as early as the 1955 centennial edition — Quote Investigator ↗.

Context

How a dialect gag became a Mencken aphorism

Hubbard’s original is written the way Abe Martin talked: “When a feller says: ‘It hain’t th’ money, but th’ principle o’ th’ thing,’ it’s th’ money.” The joke is not about money at all — it is about the gap between the reason people give and the reason they have. That is a durable enough observation that it survived being stripped of every apostrophe Hubbard put in it.

By the 1990s the dialect was gone and the saying was floating free. Quote Investigator’s timeline ↗ picks it up in sports commentary — tennis player Jim Courier in March 1995, and columnist Mike Lupica crediting football executive George Young in August 1995 — and then in January 1999 Senator Dale Bumpers put it on the Senate floor with Mencken’s name on it, the earliest Mencken credit QI records. An unattributed proverb plus a famous cynic is a stable compound, and the line has circulated under Mencken’s name since.

“It hain’t th’ money, but th’ principle o’ th’ thing” — it’s th’ money.

The reference books got it right before the internet got it wrong

The line was not obscure. Per Quote Investigator ↗, the 1955 centennial edition of John Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations credited Hubbard, citing his 1926 collection Hoss Sense and Nonsense. Wikiquote ↗ also records a modernised rendering — “When a fellow says, ‘It ain’t the money but the principle of the thing,’ it’s the money” — in Clifton Fadiman’s The American Treasury, 1455–1955, p. 993. The smoothing-out of the dialect was already under way in print, decades before anyone thought to hand the line to Mencken.

Explore

Filed under

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

Truth Character Power

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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.

Quote Origin: When They Say It's Not About Money, It's About Moneyquoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation. Dates the saying to Kin Hubbard's Abe Martin column of 24 November 1916 and records the Mencken credit as an error by Senator Dale Bumpers in January 1999.
Kin Hubbard — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations page carrying the saying under Hubbard's name, cited to Hoss Sense and Nonsense (1926), with the modernised variant from Fadiman's The American Treasury.
New Sayings By Abe Martin; and Velma's Vow (c. 1916)onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu

Catalogue entry for the 1916 Hubbard collection in which the saying also appeared, with a link to the free full scan at Indiana University's digital library.
Abe Martin's Almanack (1908) — full scanarchive.org

A freely readable Internet Archive scan of a Kin Hubbard Abe Martin volume, flagged NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT — useful for seeing the dialect one-liner format the 1916 saying belongs to.
Kin Hubbard — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography of Frank McKinney Hubbard (1868–1930), with the Abe Martin run in The Indianapolis News from 17 December 1904 and his book bibliography.
Dale Bumpers' impeachment speech rememberedfoxnews.com

Transcribes the Senate-floor moment where Bumpers credited the line to Mencken — the earliest Mencken attribution Quote Investigator records.

The true originator

The man who actually wrote it

Kin Hubbard

1868–1930 · American cartoonist, humorist and journalist · creator of Abe Martin

Frank McKinney “Kin” Hubbard was an Indianapolis cartoonist and humorist whose creation Abe Martin — a lean, hat-wearing philosopher from fictional Bloom Center in Brown County, Indiana — ran in The Indianapolis News from 17 December 1904, six days a week for twenty-six years. Each drawing carried a one-sentence crack in rural dialect, and the best of them outlived the cartoon entirely. Hubbard’s specialty was exactly this kind of deflating observation about what people claim to be arguing about versus what they are actually arguing about.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Kin Hubbard, “Abe Martin,” Franklin Evening News (Franklin, PA), November 24, 1916 — earliest documented instance per Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: When They Say It’s Not About Money, It’s About Money,” August 29, 2020. Collected the same year in New Sayings by Abe Martin; and Velma’s Vow (Indianapolis: Abe Martin Pub. Co., c. 1916), and later in Abe Martin: Hoss Sense and Nonsense (1926).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘When somebody says it's not about the money, it's about the money’?” Last verified 10 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/when-somebody-says-its-not-about-the-money-its-about-the/

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