This is a proverb that is much older than Stalin. Wikiquote gives the French form, on ne saurait faire d’omelette sans casser des œufs, as dating from 1742 or earlier. An English version was printed in Walker’s Hibernian Magazine in May 1796, in an account of the French royalist general Charette. No source shows Stalin saying it. Its link to the Soviet Union comes from writers like Walter Duranty, who used it of the “Bolshevist leaders” in the New York Times in 1933.
“You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs” traditional proverb of French origin (French form 1742 or earlier; in English print by 1796). Not Joseph Stalin. Source: Quotle.info
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Provenance
Where the saying actually appears
Earliest English print cited
Walker’s Hibernian Magazine (Dublin)
Article
“Some Particulars Respecting the Capture of Charette,” May 1796, p. 411
French original
On ne saurait faire d’omelette sans casser des œufs (1742 or earlier, per Wikiquote)
Stalin source
None found
It was remarked to him that he had caused the death if [sic] a great many persons. Yes, he replied, omlets are not made without breaking eggs.
1796
As transcribed by quote researcher Garson O’Toole on the American Dialect Society list (Feb. 4, 2011), from the Google Books scan. “Omlets” is the magazine’s own spelling. O’Toole noted that the scan’s text recognition misreads it as “toilets,” which kept the passage hidden from searches.
Wikiquote’s Joseph Stalin page lists the line under Misattributed. It says the English version “first appeared in English in 1796” and comes from a French form dating from 1742 or earlier, which it attributes to François de Charette. Charette was not born until 1763, so he was repeating the proverb, not coining it. Wikiquote: Joseph Stalin — Misattributed ↗
Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, answered a reader in 2011: “Neither Lenin nor Stalin nor Duranty originated this saying.” He cited Robert Louis Stevenson’s “You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs” (1897) and an 1859 version by T. P. Thompson. Freakonomics: Quotes Uncovered ↗
Garson O’Toole found an earlier English example: Walker’s Hibernian Magazine, May 1796, p. 411, in an account of the capture of the royalist general Charette. ADS-L, Feb. 4, 2011 ↗
The Soviet connection comes from journalism, not from Stalin. In the New York Times of March 31, 1933 (“Russians Hungry, But Not Starving”), Walter Duranty wrote “to put it brutally” that “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.” He applied it to the “Bolshevist leaders.” Transcription at garethjones.org ↗
✓Public domain
The excerpt above comes from Walker’s Hibernian Magazine of May 1796, which is in the public domain in the US. The modern wording is a traditional proverb with no single author. Walter Duranty’s 1933 New York Times article is a separate, later work and is quoted on this page only in brief.
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 gets the credit, and why it is wrong
The saying is often used to sum up Soviet brutality, so it gets credited to the Soviet leaders themselves. The evidence points to a much older proverb.
✕
Most commonJoseph Stalin No source
No speech, writing or interview by Stalin is known to contain it. Wikiquote files it under “Misattributed,” and Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, wrote that “neither Lenin nor Stalin nor Duranty originated this saying.” Shapiro, 2011 ↗
✕
Also commonVladimir Lenin No source
The reader who wrote to Shapiro said “hundreds of web sites” credit Lenin or Stalin. Shapiro’s answer was that neither one originated it. Freakonomics ↗
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The Soviet linkWalter Duranty Used it, didn’t coin it
This New York Times Moscow correspondent used the proverb on March 31, 1933 to describe the Bolshevist leaders’ indifference to casualties. Wikiquote cites this as the place where the saying was tied to Stalin. Shapiro says Duranty did not originate it. Wikiquote ↗
✕
Soviet contextLazar Kaganovich
Wikiquote notes that Time magazine credited the line to Stalin’s associate Kaganovich in a Soviet context. The proverb was centuries older than any Soviet official. Wikiquote ↗
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Earliest English printFrançois de Charette Quoted using it
The 1796 Dublin magazine reports that this French royalist general gave the proverb as his reply when told he had caused many deaths. ADS-L ↗ Wikiquote credits the French form to Charette but dates it to 1742 or earlier, before he was born (1763), so he was repeating an existing proverb. Wikiquote ↗
✓It is a traditional proverb of French origin, printed in English by 1796, and nothing shows Stalin ever said it. Wikiquote: Misattributed ↗
Context
Why it stuck to Stalin
In March 1933, during the famine in Ukraine and other Soviet grain regions, the New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty published “Russians Hungry, But Not Starving.” The piece played down reports of mass starvation. In it he used the old proverb about eggs and omelettes to describe the Soviet leadership’s attitude to casualties. Wikipedia: Walter Duranty ↗
After that, the saying became a byword for brutal ends-justify-the-means thinking. Over time the words were pinned on the regime’s leaders themselves, Lenin or Stalin (and, in Time magazine, Kaganovich), though none is documented saying it.
But—to put it brutally—you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.
Duranty’s full sentence (New York Times, March 31, 1933)
“But—to put it brutally—you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, and the Bolshevist leaders are just as indifferent to the casualties that may be involved in their drive toward socialization as any General during the World War who ordered a costly attack in order to show his superiors that he and his division possessed the proper soldierly spirit.” Transcription at garethjones.org ↗
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Anonymous · French form 1742 or earlier · in English print by 1796
Nobody knows who first said “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs”. It is a folk proverb that came into English from French: on ne saurait faire d’omelette sans casser des œufs. An English version was printed in Dublin in 1796, and Robert Louis Stevenson used the familiar form in 1897. In the twentieth century it became shorthand for the claim that the ends justify the means. That is how it came to be pinned on Soviet leaders.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest English print cited
“Some Particulars Respecting the Capture of Charette.” Walker’s Hibernian Magazine (Dublin), May 1796, 411. Cited by Garson O’Toole, “Proverb: omlets are not made without breaking eggs (antedating 1796 May),” ADS-L, February 4, 2011.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs’?” Last verified 1 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-cant-make-an-omelette-without-breaking-eggs/