Did Mark Twain say, “Buy land, they're not making it anymore”?

There is a popular statement on the Internet attributed to an American writer that it is best to invest in land, because it is not a renewable commodity. We decided to check if he said anything like that.

In slightly different formulations, the recommendation to buy land meets the attribution to Twain in Media, on websites with collections of quotes and aphorisms, on portals for sale land plots And real estate, on social networks, (“VKontakte", Facebook*, X), on blogging platforms (“Zen", LiveJournal), forums And services questions and answers. There is this quote on the page with Twain’s sayings in Russian “Wikiquote"

The saying about the value of land that is no longer produced is widespread not only in Russian, but also in English - and also mainly with indicating by Twain. However, sometimes a quote attributed to and American actor Will Rogers. However, Verified did not find it in Twain's texts, which have been carefully studied and digitized in the more than a century since his death.

The viral quote is not in the archive Mark Twain Projects Online, collected with the support of the University of California at Berkeley, nor in the database Twain Quotes, which includes texts written by Mark Twain or dedicated to the writer, nor in Twain electronic archive, compiled by the University of Virginia Library. This phrase was not found in a large collection of quotes “Mark Twain at your fingertipsedited by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, who had access to the originals of most of his works through her friendship with the writer’s daughter.

The Quote Investigator Authentication Project also studied this statement and found no evidence that Twain had anything to do with it (nor, indeed, did Rogers). The earliest example of the use of this phrase discovered by journalists is a 1905 publication in the McCracken Enterprise newspaper, published in McCracken, Kansas, USA: “The other day an old gentleman, advising a friend to buy land, said: “The Almighty God makes no more land, but he makes children every morning.” However, Twain was not mentioned in this text. The earliest instance of a quote being attributed to a writer was found by Quote Investigator in an issue of the British newspaper Evening Standard, published in May 1971, 61 years after the writer's death. Since Twain was and remains known for his vivid aphoristic language, this attribution did not raise doubts among the audience, and in subsequent years the statement was actively attributed to him.

Thus, there is no credible evidence that Twain had anything to do with the quote about the benefits of investing in land. A very similar statement appeared in the American press during the writer’s lifetime. However, they began to attribute it to the writer several decades after his death, which also indicates an erroneous attribution.

*Russian authorities consider the company Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, to be an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: Marr, T. E., photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Incorrect quote attribution

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Quote Investigator. Quip Origin: Buy Land; They're Not Making It Anymore
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3. Did Mark Twain say: “Nothing is easier than quitting smoking!” I've done this hundreds of times"?