Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that's why they call it the present
Not Eleanor Roosevelt — an anonymous modern sayingAnonymousOrigin unknown · full saying first documented June 1993
?Attribution status: No evidence in Roosevelt’s writings; the earliest documented full version credits an unnamed journalist.?Reuse status: Rights unconfirmed
Quote Investigator traced this saying and found no substantive evidence that Eleanor Roosevelt ever said or wrote it; the earliest attribution to her that QI located is a 1999 Usenet post, long after her death in 1962. The line is a stitched-together modern proverb: the “history / mystery” rhyme and the “gift / present” pun evolved separately for decades before being combined, and the earliest full version QI documents is a June 1993 graduation speech at Rutgers Preparatory School, where the speaker credited only “a former journalist.” The creator remains anonymous.
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that's why they call it the present” Anonymous — not Eleanor Roosevelt. The earliest documented full version of "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, and that is why it's called the present." appears in a June 1993 graduation speech at Rutgers Preparatory School, credited to an unnamed former journalist. Quote Investigator found no evidence Eleanor Roosevelt said or wrote it; the earliest attribution to her dates to 1999. Verified at quotle.info.
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Eleanor Roosevelt. 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 themes of time, gratitude and happiness. Theme: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that's why they call it the present". 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 "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that's why they call it the present". 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
What the record actually shows
Earliest full version
Graduation address, Rutgers Preparatory School, New Jersey
Date
June 1993 — speaker credited only “a former journalist”
Earliest Roosevelt credit
1999, a Usenet newsgroup message — 37 years after her death
Creator
Anonymous; the two halves of the saying evolved separately
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, and that is why it’s called the present.
Earliest documented full version
The wording of the earliest full version Quote Investigator documents, from June 1993. The speaker attributed it to an unnamed former journalist, not to Eleanor Roosevelt.
1855 – c.1939, the rhyme alone.Quote Investigator ↗ documents the history/mystery pairing in an 1855 Christmas verse, an Emily Dickinson poem of around 1873 (“Yesterday is history / ‘Tis so far away… Yesterday is mystery”), a 1910 newspaper line, and a 1939 tailor’s message to graduates. No gift, no present.
1991, the pun alone. Liz Curtis Higgs uses “Every day is a gift, that’s why we call it the present,” crediting an anonymous source — per QI ↗.
June 1993, the halves join. The earliest full expression QI locates, in a New Jersey graduation speech, credited to an unnamed former journalist. A Family Circus panel of 31 August 1994 runs a close variant. See the citations ↗.
1999, Roosevelt’s name appears. A Usenet post is the earliest Roosevelt ascription QI found; Wikiquote ↗ keeps the line in its Disputed section because no book crediting her cites an original reference.
2008, the wording goes global. Master Oogway delivers the line in Kung Fu Panda, framing it as “a saying” — see Wikiquote: Kung Fu Panda ↗. The QI chronology does not cover the film; it is the populariser, not a source.
No rights status can honestly be asserted. The saying has no identified author and no identified first publication — Quote Investigator concludes the creator is anonymous and the earliest documented full version is a 1993 spoken address. Because the origin is unknown, quotle.info makes no public-domain claim; specific later renderings (the 1994 Family Circus panel, the 2008 Kung Fu Panda screenplay) are separately protected works owned by their publishers and studios.
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.
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Fact-check
Who gets the credit, and why it’s wrong
Four names get attached to this line, in different ways — two people are genuinely credited with it, one is a film character who popularised it, and one used only half of it while crediting an anonymous source. None of the attributions holds up.
✕
The whole sayingEleanor Roosevelt No evidence
Quote Investigator located no substantive evidence ↗ for the ascription, and dates the earliest attribution to her to a 1999 Usenet message — she died in 1962. Wikiquote files it under Disputed ↗, noting that the books crediting her cite no original reference.
✕
The “gift of God” variantBil Keane, Family Circus Later, and differently worded
Goodreads credits the line to Bil Keane ↗ (QI renders the name “Bill Keane”; the cartoonist spelled it Bil). QI does document a Family Circus panel of 31 August 1994, but its wording is different — “Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a GIFT. That’s why it’s called the present” — and it postdates the June 1993 full version ↗.
✕
The popular modern wordingMaster Oogway, Kung Fu Panda (2008) Populariser, not originator
The “gift / present” pun aloneLiz Curtis Higgs Credited an anonymous source
QI’s 1991 citation ↗ has Higgs using “Every day is a gift, that’s why we call it the present” while crediting an anonymous source — so even the pun was already in circulation.
✓The honest answer is that nobody owns this line. The earliest documented full version, in June 1993 ↗, was itself credited to an unnamed “former journalist,” and Quote Investigator concludes the creator remains anonymous — while allowing that earlier examples may still be found.
Context
A proverb assembled from spare parts
Most fake quotes are a real line pinned to the wrong mouth. This one is stranger: it is a saying that grew, piece by piece, out of ordinary newspaper English. Quote Investigator’s chronology shows the “history / mystery” rhyme circulating on its own from the mid-nineteenth century — an 1855 Christmas verse in The Daily Post, a 1910 line in The Courier-Journal, a 1939 tailor’s message to graduates reading “Yesterday is History — Tomorrow, a Mystery — But Today is NOW AND TODAY IS YOURS!”
The “gift / present” pun is a separate invention, documented by QI in 1991 in the work of Liz Curtis Higgs, who herself credited an anonymous source. The two halves are welded together in the earliest full version QI found: a June 1993 graduation speech in New Jersey. A Family Circus panel ran a close cousin in August 1994, and the line reached global saturation in 2008 when Master Oogway delivered it in Kung Fu Panda. Eleanor Roosevelt’s name only enters the record in 1999.
The two halves of this saying spent a century apart before anyone joined them.
Read the full story
Emily Dickinson is sometimes dragged in as an ancestor, and QI does document a poem of hers from around 1873 beginning “Yesterday is history / ‘Tis so far away” and continuing “Yesterday is mystery.” It is a genuine antecedent for the rhyme, not a source for the modern proverb — there is no gift, and no present.
QI is explicit that its 1993 citation may not be the end of the story: it suspects earlier examples of the full saying exist and may yet be found. That honest hedge is worth keeping. What is settled is the negative finding: nothing links the line to Eleanor Roosevelt.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1884–1962 · U.S. First Lady, diplomat & human-rights advocate
Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, from 1933 to 1945, and afterwards a United Nations delegate who chaired the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She was a prolific writer — a daily newspaper column, several memoirs, and an enormous correspondence — which is precisely why the absence of this line from her documented work matters. She is the credited name here, not the source: the saying is an anonymous twentieth-century proverb that only became attached to her decades after she died.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest documented full version
Unnamed member of the Board of Trustees, graduation address, Rutgers Preparatory School, New Jersey, June 1993, reported in The Central New Jersey Home News, New Brunswick, 14 June 1993, p. B2, as documented in Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: The Past Is History. The Future Is a Mystery. Today Is a Gift. That’s Why It’s Called the Present,” 26 July 2023. Wording as documented: “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift, and that is why it’s called the present.” Attributed by the speaker to an unnamed former journalist; no attribution to Eleanor Roosevelt is documented before 1999.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift, that's why they call it the present’?” Last verified 22 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/yesterday-is-history-tomorrow-is-a-mystery-and-today-is-a/