20,000 Quips & Quotes · 1968 exact wording · 1923 precursor
“The Secret of Getting Ahead Is Getting Started”: Origin and Attribution
No reliable Mark Twain book, speech, letter or contemporary report has been identified. An anonymous bank advertisement printed the close precursor “Half the game of getting ahead is getting started” in December 1923, thirteen years after Twain’s death. Evan Esar printed the exact familiar short sentence in 1968 without establishing a Twain source.
Popular wording
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
Documented wording
“Half the game of getting ahead is getting started.”
Context
How the saying developed
The dated record points to anonymous practical advice that developed over time. Bank advertisements used the close precursor in 1923, the exact short wording appeared in a reference book in 1968 and an expanded “manageable tasks” version was linked to Mark Twain only much later.
Attribution note
Credit the short sentence to “Anonymous” or “Origin uncertain; exact wording documented by 1968.” Mark Twain and Agatha Christie should not be named without a reliable primary source.
- Popular attribution
- Mark Twain
- Document
- 20,000 Quips & Quotes
- Exact wording
- Evan Esar, page 71
- Earlier wording
- Earlier precursor: Coshocton Tribune bank advertisement
- Date
- 1968 exact wording · 1923 precursor
Dated wording history
Review the chronological evidence behind the popular motivation quote.
The external attribution chronology records the anonymous 1923 newspaper advertisements, the exact wording in Evan Esar’s 1968 reference book and the later famous-name attributions.
Evan Esar, 20,000 Quips & Quotes — bibliographic record ↗ Mark Twain Project Online: critically edited writings ↗ Fact-check of the unsupported Agatha Christie attribution ↗