MISATTRIBUTED
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
- Commonly attributed to: Maria Robinson — also, variously, Carl Bard and C. S. Lewis
- Earliest documented appearance: 1991, in a sports article in the Anderson Herald Bulletin (Anderson, Indiana). A reporter noticed the words on a sign in the Philadelphia Eagles’ locker room. No author was given. — see Quote Investigator’s trace of the saying
- Evidence for Maria Robinson: None located. Her name is attached across quote-aggregation sites, which cite each other rather than any book, article or speech. Quote researchers found no substantive support for Carl Bard or C. S. Lewis either.
- Confidence: High · Last verified: October 2026
The verdict: The saying is real and has been in circulation since at least 1991, when it was anonymous. Every named author attached to it since then arrived later and without evidence. “Maria Robinson” functions as a placeholder — a name with no identifiable body of work behind it, which is why the attribution has never been dislodged.
The 1991 newspaper appearance comes from Quote Investigator’s documented trace; the absence of support for the named authors is their finding and mine. How I verify quotes →
“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
This one is on therapists’ office walls, in recovery literature, and in roughly every graduation speech given since about 2005, always with the same name attached. The name is almost certainly wrong, and the real history is better.
A Sign in a Locker Room
The earliest appearance anyone has documented is from 1991, in the Anderson Herald Bulletin, a newspaper in Anderson, Indiana. It was a sports piece, and the writer had noticed the line on a sign in the Philadelphia Eagles’ locker room. No author was credited — because, presumably, whoever hung the sign did not know of one either.
That is a very ordinary origin for a saying, and it is the origin most sayings have. Something gets printed on a motivational poster. The poster goes up somewhere people see it. A journalist writes it down. By then the words have no author, only a location.
Where “Maria Robinson” Came From
Nowhere traceable, which is the interesting finding. Search for the quote and you will get thousands of results crediting Maria Robinson with total confidence. Search for Maria Robinson and you will find no book, article, lecture or interview in which she says it. The citations point at other quote sites, which point at each other.
Goodreads, which hosts one of the most-copied versions, states plainly that its quotes are added by users and are not verified. A book title does circulate in connection with the name, but no primary text confirming her authorship has surfaced.
Two other names get attached and fail the same test. Carl Bard appears in lists of guesses. C. S. Lewis gets credited periodically, as he does for a remarkable number of things he did not write — quote researchers have found no substantive support for either.
Why an Unknown Name Sticks Better Than a Famous One
This is the counterintuitive part. Misattributions to famous people get corrected, because somebody who has read the person’s work eventually objects. Nobody objects on behalf of Maria Robinson.
- A famous attribution invites checking. Credit something to Lincoln and a Lincoln scholar will turn up.
- An obscure attribution looks like the result of checking. A specific, unglamorous name reads as evidence that someone already did the research.
- There is no constituency for a correction. No estate, no scholars, no fans who know the bibliography.
So the quote has a name on it that nobody can verify and nobody disputes, which is a more durable arrangement than being wrongly credited to Gandhi.
How to Quote It
Say it is anonymous, first recorded in 1991. If you need to acknowledge the convention, “often attributed to Maria Robinson” is honest in a way that a bare attribution is not. The saying does not need an author to work — it never had one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who actually said “nobody can go back and start a new beginning”?
No one known. The earliest documented appearance is a 1991 article in the Anderson Herald Bulletin describing a sign in the Philadelphia Eagles’ locker room, with no author credited.
Was it Maria Robinson?
There is no evidence for it. Her name appears across quote-aggregation sites that cite one another rather than any published work of hers, and no primary source confirming her authorship has been located.
Did C. S. Lewis write it?
No. Lewis is credited periodically, as he is for many lines he did not write, and quote researchers have found no substantive support for the claim.
About This Article
Written by Margaret Voss. Margaret Voss is an obsessive quote hunter who has spent over 15 years chasing down primary sources and original attributions purely because she can't stand a misattributed quote. She's built an extensive personal archive of manuscripts, letters, speeches, and historical documents along the way, and has gotten pretty good at spotting quotes that have been misattributed for decades. No formal training — just fifteen years of stubborn fact-checking and a refusal to let "probably said by Einstein" slide. More about this site.
Verify this against a primary source
Specifics change, and your situation may differ from the one described here. These are the authorities worth checking directly:
- Quote Investigator — traced attributions and earliest known citations
- Wikiquote — sourced and disputed-attribution listings
- Internet Archive — scans of the original printed sources