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Who really said it

You are all a lost generation

Attributed to Gertrude Stein 1874–1946 · American writer & Paris salon host
Attributed Free to reuse

Credibly and widely credited to Stein as something she said in conversation: Ernest Hemingway printed it as the epigraph to The Sun Also Rises (1926), attributed to “Gertrude Stein in conversation,” and retold the exchange in A Moveable Feast (1964). But no text in Stein’s own hand contains the exact line, and Stein herself said the phrase originated with someone else — so the wording is best called attributed, not verified.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Unconfirmed quote & credit

“You are all a lost generation” Gertrude Stein, in conversation, as recorded by Ernest Hemingway in the epigraph to The Sun Also Rises (1926)

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In context

Evoking the world of Gertrude Stein — American writer, poet & Paris salon host. Theme: "You are all a lost generation". 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.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "You are all a lost generation". 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 source

Attributed to
Gertrude Stein, in conversation
Recorded by
Ernest Hemingway
First in print
The Sun Also Rises (1926), epigraph
Retold in
A Moveable Feast (1964), ch. “Une Génération Perdue”

You are all a lost generation.
— Gertrude Stein in conversation

The wording as Hemingway printed it on the epigraph page of The Sun Also Rises (1926). Hemingway later described the scene in A Moveable Feast, where Stein delivers the line about young people who had served in the war.

Quote Investigator: You Are All a Lost Generation

How we verified this

  • Hemingway printed the line as the epigraph of The Sun Also Rises (1926), reading “You are all a lost generation. — Gertrude Stein in conversation” (Standard Ebooks).
  • Quote Investigator documents that the phrase did not originate with Stein: Hemingway’s 1925 account credits a French garage owner in the Department of Ain, while Stein’s 1937 Everybody’s Autobiography credits a hotel keeper.
  • Wikiquote lists the remark as a genuine Stein statement, sourced to Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast (1964) and the Sun Also Rises epigraph rather than to any text Stein published herself.
Public domain

The exact wording first reached print as the epigraph to Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926), which entered the U.S. public domain on 1 January 2022. Hemingway’s fuller retelling of the conversation in A Moveable Feast (1964) remains in copyright (Hemingway estate / Scribner).

Fact-check

Often misattributed

The line is genuinely tied to Stein — but two popular beliefs about it are shakier than the confident retellings suggest.

Gertrude Stein Overstated

Stein is routinely credited with coining the phrase, but she explicitly attributed it to someone else. Per Quote Investigator, Hemingway’s 1925 account credits a garage owner in France’s Department of Ain, and Stein’s own 1937 Everybody’s Autobiography credits a hotel keeper.

Ernest Hemingway Mediated

There is no Stein-authored text containing “You are all a lost generation.” The wording survives only through Hemingway, who framed it as the Sun Also Rises epigraph “in conversation” and dramatized it in A Moveable Feast nearly four decades later.

Stein really did say something to this effect — but she borrowed the phrase, and the polished wording we quote is Hemingway’s, first fixed in print as his 1926 epigraph (Quote Investigator).

Context

Why it mattered

The single sentence gave a name to the writers and veterans who came of age during the First World War — Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their circle — and it did so before the reader reached the first page of The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway set Stein’s remark against a passage from Ecclesiastes, so the book opens by weighing a generation’s disillusion against the endurance of the earth.

Hemingway’s own feelings about the label were mixed: in A Moveable Feast he recalled resisting it even as he made it famous, which is part of why the phrase carries both Stein’s voice and his.

A name for a generation, borrowed from a garage, sharpened by Hemingway, and pinned forever on Stein.

Explore

Filed under

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

Change Purpose

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.

You Are All a Lost Generationquoteinvestigator.com

The authoritative tracing: the epigraph, the garage-owner vs hotel-keeper accounts, and the 1925/1937 dates.
Gertrude Steinen.wikiquote.org

Lists the remark as a genuine Stein quote sourced to Hemingway rather than to Stein’s own writing.
The Sun Also Rises — Epigraphstandardebooks.org

The exact epigraph text as printed in 1926, alongside the Ecclesiastes passage.
Lost Generationen.wikipedia.org

Background on the term, its literary use, and the competing origin stories.
Who Really Coined the Phrase 'Lost Generation'?interestingliterature.com

Accessible essay on the phrase’s murky French origins and Stein’s role in relaying it.

The author

About Gertrude Stein

Gertrude Stein

1874–1946 · American writer, poet & Paris salon host

Gertrude Stein was an American writer and art collector whose Paris apartment at 27 rue de Fleurus became a hub for modernist writers and painters. She mentored and sparred with the young Ernest Hemingway, who credited her with the phrase that came to name a generation. Stein always maintained she had picked the words up from a French tradesman rather than coining them herself.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926), epigraph; attributed to “Gertrude Stein in conversation.” See also Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (1964), ch. “Une Génération Perdue.”

MLA (9th ed.)

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926.

APA (7th ed.)

Hemingway, E. (1926). The sun also rises. Charles Scribner’s Sons.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You are all a lost generation’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-are-all-a-lost-generation

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