The earliest link to Parker is The Algonquin Wits ↗ (1968), edited by Robert E. Drennan, which lists the line in her chapter without context — a year after her death. Quote Investigator ↗ judges that she probably did use it, while adding that the evidence is not decisive and that she almost certainly did not invent it: the same wordplay was in print by 1928.
“You can't teach an old dogma new tricks” attributed to Dorothy Parker; earliest printed credit in The Algonquin Wits (1968). The pun itself dates to at least 1928. Via quotle.info
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In context
Evoking the world of Dorothy Parker — American poet, critic and short-story writer. Theme: "You can't teach an old dogma new tricks". 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 teach an old dogma new tricks". 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
Earliest credit to Parker
The Algonquin Wits (1968), ed. Robert E. Drennan, p. 124
Earliest known instance of the pun
Life magazine, 3 May 1928 — in the affirmative form
Parker died
7 June 1967 — a year before the first printed credit
Verdict
Probably said it; did not originate it
You can't teach an old dogma new tricks.
The line as printed in Drennan’s 1968 collection, which Quote Investigator verified on paper ↗ at quote page 124. The 1928 antecedent runs the other way: “She has proved that you can teach an old dogma new tricks!”
Quote Investigator’s investigation ↗ records that the saying was ascribed to Parker in The Algonquin Wits (1968), edited by Robert E. Drennan, listed among her witticisms “without any additional context”. QI notes the citation as verified on paper: Citadel Press, New York, quote page 124.
That is a year after Parker died, and QI says so directly: “Parker died in 1967, and it would be nice to have an earlier linkage. Perhaps future research will discover a better citation for her.” No primary source in her own hand or voice has been found, which is why this page says attributed rather than verified.
She did not coin it. QI’s earliest instance is a 3 May 1928 Life magazine parody section ↗, in a piece about the film star Clara Bow, using the affirmative form: “She has proved that you can teach an old dogma new tricks!” QI traces further instances in 1929, 1933 and 1943, and suggests the pun “may have been independently concocted on multiple occasions”.
Our two anchor sources disagree on the verdict, and we are following the specialist. Wikiquote files the line under Misattributed ↗, citing an anonymous 1953 instance in the trade journal Sales Management. QI, which examined the question at length, concludes instead that Parker “probably did employ” the 1968 version though the evidence “is not decisive”. Both agree she was not the originator; they differ on whether she ever said it.
This exact wording is first documented in The Algonquin Wits (1968), so it is treated as in copyright in the United States. The 1928 Life antecedent is old enough to be public domain, but it is a different sentence — the affirmative form, about Clara Bow — and public-domain status does not carry across to the negative version quoted here. This is not legal advice.
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
What she is wrongly given credit for
The attribution here is not the problem — Quote Investigator thinks Parker probably did say it. What is wrong is the assumption that she made it up.
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The claim that she coined itDorothy Parker Not the originator
The pun was already in print in a 3 May 1928 Life magazine parody ↗, in the affirmative form, and recurs in 1929, 1933 and 1943. QI calls it “unlikely that she crafted it” and suggests it may have been invented independently more than once.
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The competing verdictWikiquote Files it as misattributed
Wikiquote lists the line under Misattributed ↗, pointing to an anonymous 1953 instance in Sales Management. We follow Quote Investigator’s fuller treatment instead, but readers should know the two sources reach different verdicts.
A pun this economical — one letter added to a proverb everyone already knows — is almost designed to be reinvented. That is exactly what Quote Investigator’s chronology shows: a 1928 magazine parody, a 1933 column about the end of Prohibition, a 1943 economics address, a 1973 book review, and Tom Lehrer’s Vatican Rag along the way. No single line of descent connects them.
It is also why the attribution question here is milder than usual. Parker is not being credited with someone else’s sentence so much as with a joke that was in the air, and the honest answer is a divided one: she may well have said it, and she certainly did not invent it.
She may well have said it. She certainly did not invent it.
Read the full story
This page is the rare case where our two anchor sources disagree, and we have kept the disagreement visible rather than picking the tidier answer. Wikiquote files the line as misattributed on the strength of a 1953 anonymous instance. Quote Investigator, working from a longer chronology that reaches back to 1928, concludes Parker probably did use the version Drennan printed. Both findings rest on real citations; they answer slightly different questions, and only one of them — did she originate it? — has a firm answer, which is no.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1893–1967 · American poet, critic and short-story writer
Dorothy Parker (born Dorothy Rothschild, 22 August 1893 — 7 June 1967) was an American poet, critic, short-story writer and screenwriter, and a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Her collections include Enough Rope (1926) and Death and Taxes (1931). Her particular gift was compression — the review or riposte that lands in a single line — which is both why this pun sits so naturally under her name and why so many unsourced ones end up there too.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
The primary source (Chicago)
Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Citadel Press, 1968, p. 124. Earliest documented attribution to Parker, published a year after her death; verified on paper by Quote Investigator.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You can’t teach an old dogma new tricks’?” Last verified 15 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-cant-teach-an-old-dogma-new-tricks/