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Who really said it

You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending

Not C.S. Lewis — traced to James R. Sherman James R. Sherman American self-help author · earliest documented source (1982)
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

This exact wording appears in none of C.S. Lewis’s works, and the C.S. Lewis Foundation says it “doesn’t sound like him.” Quote Investigator ↗ traces the earliest documented form to 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 popular Lewis wording is a later paraphrase with no primary source.

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending” Not by C.S. Lewis — the line appears in none of his works. The earliest documented version is James R. Sherman's 1982 book "Rejection."

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to C.S. Lewis. 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.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of James R. Sherman — earliest documented source of the saying (1982). Theme: "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the 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 "You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the 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

Where it actually comes from

Popularly credited to
C.S. Lewis (1898–1963) — unsupported
Earliest documented
Rejection
By
James R. Sherman, Ph.D. (Pathway Books, 1982)
Original wording
“You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending.”

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

The earliest documented wording, from James R. Sherman’s 1982 book Rejection. The C.S. Lewis version circulating online is a smoothed-over paraphrase attached to a famous name.

Quote Investigator: We Cannot Go Back and Start Over, But We Can Begin Now and Make a New Ending

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator credits James R. Sherman’s 1982 book Rejection ↗ as the earliest documented instance and calls the C.S. Lewis attribution unsupported.
  • The C.S. Lewis Foundation’s Steve Elmore told Check Your Fact ↗ he was “fairly sure” Lewis did not write it, as “it doesn’t quite sound like him.”
  • William O’Flaherty, author of The Misquotable C.S. Lewis, confirmed on Essential C.S. Lewis ↗ that the words appear nowhere in Lewis’s published work.
  • Zig Ziglar used a version of the saying but credited it to a “Carl Bard,” per Quote Investigator ↗ — another sign the line has no settled author.

The exact wording credited to C.S. Lewis is an unsourced internet paraphrase, so no rights status can be asserted for it. The closest documented origin — James R. Sherman’s 1982 book Rejection — uses different words and would itself be in-copyright.

Fact-check

How it got pinned on C.S. Lewis

This is a textbook feel-good misattribution: a punchy line of self-help wisdom migrated onto one of the internet’s favorite quotation magnets. Lewis never wrote it.

C.S. Lewis Not him

The line is absent from all of Lewis’s published writing. The C.S. Lewis Foundation’s Steve Elmore said it “doesn’t quite sound like him,” and specialist William O’Flaherty lists it among Lewis misquotes, per Check Your Fact ↗.

Maria Robinson Also unsupported

A variant — “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending” — is often credited to a “Maria Robinson,” but Quote Investigator ↗ finds no solid source for her either.

Zig Ziglar / “Carl Bard” Second-hand

Zig Ziglar used a form of the saying but credited an otherwise-undocumented “Carl Bard,” per Quote Investigator ↗ — not claiming it as his own.

The earliest documented version is James R. Sherman’s in his 1982 book Rejection; every attribution to C.S. Lewis is unsupported, per Quote Investigator ↗.

Context

Why the mix-up sticks

The sentiment — you can’t rewrite your past, but you can still change how your story ends — is warm, quotable, and vaguely spiritual, which is exactly the profile of lines that drift toward famous Christian writers like C.S. Lewis. Once a name that respectable is attached, the quote spreads faster and is questioned less.

Ironically, Lewis did write something adjacent in Mere Christianity — about how turning back when you’re on the wrong road is the most progressive move — which may be why the misattribution feels plausible. But feeling Lewis-like is not the same as being written by Lewis.

You can’t rewrite the past — but you can rewrite whose name is on the quote.

Explore

Filed under

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

Hope Resilience 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: “Make a New Ending”quoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation tracing the saying to James R. Sherman (1982) and rejecting the Lewis attribution.
Check Your Fact: Did C.S. Lewis give this advice?checkyourfact.com

Fact-check quoting the C.S. Lewis Foundation denying the attribution.
Essential C.S. Lewis: “Go Back and Change”essentialcslewis.com

William O’Flaherty (author of The Misquotable C.S. Lewis) confirms the line is not in Lewis’s works.
C.S. Lewis on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Wikiquote’s sourced and misattributed sections for Lewis, useful for cross-checking genuine quotations.

Earliest documented source

Who actually wrote it

James R. Sherman

American self-help author · earliest documented source of the saying (1982)

James R. Sherman, Ph.D. was an American self-help writer who ran Pathway Books in Golden Valley, Minnesota, and published a series of short motivational titles in the early 1980s. His 1982 book Rejection contains the earliest documented form of this saying — “You can’t go back and make a new start, but you can start right now and make a brand new ending” — which later mutated into the smoother wording now pinned, wrongly, on C.S. Lewis.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented source

James R. Sherman, Rejection (Golden Valley, MN: Pathway Books, 1982), as identified in “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 ‘You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-cant-go-back-and-change-the-beginning-but-you-can-start

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