Try to do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I was skimming through the 2022 book by Stephen R. Covey and Cynthia Covey Haller titled Live Life in Crescendo. On page 220 they quote Theodore Roosevelt as once having said:

 

“Do what you can with what you have where you are.”

 

It also shows up at web sites like Brainy Quote and quotefancy. While it sounded profound, I wondered if Teddy had really said that, or if it perhaps came from Emerson, Lincoln, or Twain.

 

Garson O’Toole has an article about it at Quote Investigator on December 17, 2022 titled instead Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are. It also is discussed in a post at SUE BREWTON’S BLOG On Quotes and Misquotes for December 31, 2014 titled Squire Bill Widener vs. Theodore Roosevelt. Both say it really is from An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt on page 337 but appears as follows:

 

“There is a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire Bill Widener of Widener’s Valley, Virginia, which sums up one’s duty in life: ‘Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.’ “

 

“Squire Bill” is the nickname for William Meek Widener (1840 - 1920), whose grave is shown here.

 

The best commentary about the first version of the quote is in a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon on February 24, 1992 with this dialogue:

 

Calvin: I read that Teddy Roosevelt once said “Do what you can with what you have where you are.”

Hobbes: That’s good advice.

Calvin: Of course, I doubt he was in the tub when he said that.