Abraham Lincoln is a magnet for misattributed quotes, and honestly, I get why. He’s revered as a moral authority, known for his plainspoken wisdom, and quotable enough that people instinctively want more of him. But here’s the pattern I keep seeing: most of these fake Lincoln quotes didn’t get pinned on him until decades after his death—sometimes seventy-five years later, sometimes eighty. That’s long enough that nobody who actually heard him speak was around to say “wait, what?”
The three quotes below follow this exact playbook. Each one appears in print long before Lincoln was ever connected to it. Each one got attributed to him by a mid-twentieth-century author or columnist who provided zero supporting evidence. And each one has since been recycled thousands of times, passed along by people who assumed someone else had checked the receipts. I went looking for those receipts myself. What I found instead was a trail of anonymous newspaper filler, Victorian novelists, and medieval emperors—but no Lincoln. Here’s what actually happened.
“Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
This one gets pinned on everyone—Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, and yes, Abraham Lincoln. But the truth is, it’s an old American saying that nobody famous coined. The earliest version I can find showed up in a Pennsylvania newspaper in 1872: “he who wrestles with a hog must expect to be spattered with filth, whether he is vanquished or not.” Colorful, but anonymous.
The modern phrasing—”you both get dirty and the pig likes it”—was popularized by Cyrus Ching, a federal mediation chief, in a 1948 Saturday Evening Post article. He credited it to an unnamed uncle, not himself. As for the famous-guy versions? Mark Twain got credit by 1963 in a Montana newspaper letter (it appears nowhere in his actual works). Shaw got tagged in 1994 on Usenet. Lincoln didn’t enter the picture until 1996. All misattributions, all decades or centuries late, all unsupported by any primary source.
MISATTRIBUTED
- Commonly attributed to: George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, Cyrus Ching
- Actual source: Anonymous American adage; the modern form was popularized by U.S. federal mediation chief Cyrus Ching in the Saturday Evening Post (January 3, 1948), crediting an unnamed uncle
- Earliest verified appearance: February 3, 1872 — The Cambria Freeman (Ebensburg, Pennsylvania), p. 3: “he who wrestles with a hog must expect to be spattered with filth, whether he is vanquished or not” — view the 1872 page scan (Library of Congress)
- Where the misattribution started: Mark Twain: by August 14, 1963 (a letter in the Sidney Herald, Montana — 38 years earlier than previously documented); George Bernard Shaw: 1994 (Usenet); Abraham Lincoln: 1996. The line appears nowhere in Shaw’s or Twain’s works
- Confidence: High
The verdict: Not Shaw, Twain, or Lincoln: the modern line was popularized by mediator Cyrus Ching in the January 3, 1948 Saturday Evening Post, and the adage itself is verifiable in print back to an 1872 Pennsylvania newspaper.
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
This one’s almost exclusively attributed to Lincoln, and it’s everywhere—motivational posters, graduation speeches, the works. But Lincoln never said it. The earliest documented source is an 1897 issue of St. Nicholas magazine, where writer Laurence Hutton recalled a moment from the 1850s: the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray placed a hand on young Hutton’s head and told him, “Whatever you are, try to be a good one.” The shortened version—without “try to”—was credited to Thackeray by 1904.
So how did Lincoln get involved? In 1946, more than eighty years after Lincoln’s death, a quotation collection called “Good in Everything” credited the line to him with zero supporting citation. No letter, no speech, no witness account—just an attribution dropped in cold. That was apparently enough. The Lincoln version spread, and now Thackeray’s actual advice has been almost completely erased from public memory.
MISATTRIBUTED
- Commonly attributed to: Abraham Lincoln
- Actual source: William Makepeace Thackeray — as recalled by Laurence Hutton in St. Nicholas magazine, March 1897: ‘Whatever you are, try to be a good one’ (said to Hutton in the 1850s)
- Earliest verified appearance: March 1897, St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks — Laurence Hutton’s memoir recalls Thackeray placing a hand on his head and saying ‘Whatever you are, try to be a good one.’ The shortened form was credited to Thackeray by 1904. — read Quote Investigator’s full trace of the 1897 Thackeray citation
- Where the misattribution started: 1946 — H. L. Gee’s quotation collection ‘Good in Everything: A Treasury of Inspiration, Joy, and Comfort’ credited the line to Abraham Lincoln with no supporting citation, more than 80 years after Lincoln’s death.
- Confidence: High
The verdict: Abraham Lincoln never said ‘Whatever you are, be a good one’ — the line traces to William Makepeace Thackeray via an 1897 memoir in St. Nicholas magazine, and was first pinned on Lincoln in a 1946 quotation book without evidence.
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
People love this one because it sounds so Lincoln—magnanimous, strategic, moral. And it does show up in his era, just not from him. The earliest version I can track down appeared in an 1818 Vermont newspaper, telling an anecdote about Emperor Sigismund: when criticized for rewarding his enemies instead of destroying them, he supposedly replied, “do I not destroy my enemies by making them my friends?” Since Sigismund died in 1437, even that version is almost certainly apocryphal. The saying also gets attributed to Cardinal Richelieu.
Lincoln’s name entered the mix in 1940, when Ed Sullivan’s Chicago Tribune column quoted actress Loretta Young crediting it to him—seventy-five years after Lincoln’s death, with no source given. That was enough to launch it. Martin Luther King Jr. repeated the Lincoln version in sermons during the 1960s, and coach John Wooden helped popularize it further. Now it’s everywhere, and almost nobody remembers Sigismund.
MISATTRIBUTED
- Commonly attributed to: Abraham Lincoln, Emperor Sigismund, Cardinal Richelieu
- Earliest verified appearance: April 1818 — Vermont Intelligencer (Bellows Falls, VT) printed the anecdote about Emperor Sigismund, who, reproached for rewarding rather than destroying his enemies, replied: “do I not destroy my enemies by making them my friends?” Sigismund died in 1437, so even this earliest version is almost certainly apocryphal. — see the evidence chain (Quote Investigator)
- Where the misattribution started: 1940 — Ed Sullivan’s Chicago Tribune column quoted actress Loretta Young crediting the saying to Lincoln; this is the earliest known Lincoln ascription, 75 years after his death. MLK’s 1963 sermons and John Wooden later popularized the Lincoln version
- Confidence: High
The verdict: There is no evidence Lincoln ever said this; the anecdote was told about Emperor Sigismund as early as 1818 and was first pinned on Lincoln only in 1940.
Here’s what these three examples taught me: misattribution doesn’t usually happen because someone deliberately fabricates. It happens because someone assumes. A quotation compiler in 1946 thought the line sounded like Lincoln. An actress in 1940 misremembered where she’d heard something inspiring. A letter-writer in 1963 figured Twain must have said it—he said everything else, right?
Once the wrong name is in print, it spreads. People quote the misattribution, and suddenly there are a dozen sources all citing each other in a closed loop. The lesson? If a quote surprises you, or sounds almost too perfect, check it. I do, every time. You’d be amazed how often the real story is more interesting than the myth.
Browse more of Abraham Lincoln’s quotes — real and otherwise — in the full Abraham Lincoln collection.