Elbert Hubbard? Dale Carnegie? Julius Rosenwald? Robert M. Hutchins? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: In the early 1900s the slang expression “handed a lemon” emerged. It referred to experiencing a setback or failure. The term “lemon” meant something which was bad, undesirable, or sub-standard. A humorous expression evolved as a counterpoint. Here are two versions:
(1) If you are handed a lemon then just make lemonade.
(2) When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
This notion has been attributed to U.S. aphorist Elbert Hubbard and to U.S self-help author Dale Carnegie. However, I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Both Elbert Hubbard and Dale Carnegie did employ statements in this family of sayings, but neither originated the family. The earliest instances located by QI were anonymous. Here is an overview with dates:
1907 May: And if you get a lemon, why just make the lemonade. (Anonymous)
1907 Dec: An optimist is now defined as a man who can make lemonade out of all the lemons handed him. (Anonymous)
1908 Jun: If life hands you a lemon, adjust your rose colored glasses and start to selling pink lemonade. (Anonymous)
1908 Jul: He is a great man who accepts the lemons that Fate passes out to him and uses them to start a lemonade stand. (Elbert Hubbard)
1944 May: When life hands you a lemon, add some sugar and make lemonade. (Attributed to Elbert Hubbard)
1948: When you have a lemon, make a lemonade. (Attributed to Julius Rosenwald by Dale Carnegie)
1971 Oct: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade. (Bumper Sticker)
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
In May 1907 “The Kalispell Bee” of Montana printed the following four-line poem without attribution. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Turn failure into victory,
Don’t let your courage fade;
And if you get a lemon, why
Just make the lemonade.
In December 1907 “Biddeford Daily Journal” of Maine printed this remark about optimism without attribution:2
An optimist is now defined as a man who can make lemonade out of all the lemons handed him.
In May 1908 the poem continued to circulate. The “High School Record” of Mankato, Kansas printed a slightly different version of the poem:3
Turn failure into victory,
Don’t let your courage fade,
And if you get a lemon,
Then make the lemonade.
In June 1908 “The Kansas City Post” of Missouri published an entertaining variant about pink lemonade:4
Never say die! If life hands you a lemon, adjust your rose colored glasses and start to selling pink lemonade.
In July 1908 “The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest” printed an instance mentioning a lemonade stand. Elbert Hubbard edited “The Philistine”, and he wrote a section titled “Heart to Heart Talks with Philistines by the Pastor of his Flock” which contained the adage:5
He is a great man who accepts the lemons that Fate passes out to him and uses them to start a lemonade stand.
In December 1908 “The Kansas City Star” of Missouri printed an instance. The sage mentioned in the following excerpt was a reference to Elbert Hubbard who was the leader of the Roycrofters community of artisans in East Aurora, New York:6
“A genius,” says the sage of East Aurora, “is a man who takes the lemons that fate hands him and starts a lemonade stand with them.”
In 1922 the Hubbard version from July 1908 continued to circulate in “Forbes” magazine:7
He is a great man who accepts the lemons that Fate hands out to him and uses them to start a lemonade stand.
—Elbert Hubbard.
In 1944 a newspaper in Danville, Pennsylvania credited Hubbard with a version mentioning sugar:8
Elbert Hubbard was right when he said: ‘When life hands you a lemon, add some sugar and make lemonade.’
In 1948 Dale Carnegie published the bestseller “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”. The 17th chapter was titled “If You Have a Lemon, Make a Lemonade”, and it began with the following:9
While writing this book, I dropped in one day at the University of Chicago and asked the Chancellor, Robert Maynard Hutchins, how he kept from worrying. He replied, “I have always tried to follow a bit of advice given to me by the late Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, Roebuck and Company: ‘When you have a lemon, make a lemonade.’”
In 1971 a newspaper in Buffalo, New York printed the text from a group of bumper stickers:10
Lord Give Me Patience — Right Now …
No News Is Agnews …
When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade …
In 2024 an article published on “The Hill” website linked the saying to Dale Carnegie:11
Whoever said it first, the words of advice usually attributed to Dale Carnegie have been around since the 1940s: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
In summary, this didactic adage was circulating by 1907. The originator remains anonymous. Elbert Hubbard crafted a statement in this family of sayings by 1908. Dale Carnegie published the adage in a book in 1948, but he disclaimed credit by linking the words to business executive Julius Rosenwald.
Acknowledgments: Great thanks to Sue Ferrara whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to previous researchers including Ralph Keyes, Barry Popik, Fred R. Shapiro, and Mardy Grothe.
Image Notes: Illustration of a sliced lemon from Moritz Nie at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
- 1907 May 24, The Kalispell Bee, Women’s Page, Quote Page 2, Column 3, Kalispell, Montana. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1907 December 23, Biddeford Daily Journal, (Untitled item), Quote Page 4, Column 1, Biddeford, Maine. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1908 May, Mankato High School Record, Commencement Number, To Guy or Gui or Gi, Quote Page 11, Column 1, Mankato, Kansas. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1908 June 10, The Kansas City Post, Posters, Quote Page 4, Column 7, Kansas City, Missouri. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1908 July, The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, Editor: Elbert Hubbard, Volume 27, Number 2, Heart to Heart Talks with Philistines by the Pastor of his Flock, Start Page 33, Quote Page 52, The Roycrofters, East Aurora, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1908 December 31, The Kansas City Star, Missouri Notes, Quote Page 6, Column 6, Kansas City, Missouri. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1922 May 27, Forbes, Volume 10, Number 4, Thoughts On Life and Business, Quote Page 185, Column 1, B. C. Forbes Publishing Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1944 May 26, The Morning News, Thoughts For Today, Quote Page 4, Column 5, Danville, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1948, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie, Chapter 17: If You Have a Lemon, Make a Lemonade, Quote Page 128, Simon and Schuster, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
- 1971 October 6, Buffalo Evening News, Reporters’ Notebook, Quote Page 45, Column 8, Buffalo, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- Website: The Hill, Article title: Press: Top psychologist says Trump likely to fall off mental cliff, Article author: Bill Press, Date on website: April 2, 2024, Website description: Political news and information from organization based in Washington D.C. (Accessed thehill.com on April 2, 2024) link ↩︎