You Only Live Once - YOLO

[Garson O'Toole]

Thanks for you response Charlie. I noticed that the Dictionary of
Modern Proverbs did not list “You only live once”, but did mention it
in the discussion of “You only go around once in life, so grab all the
gusto you can!”

I concluded that you and your co-authors had antedated the saying to
the 1800s or earlier. But I also saw that the saying was not listed in
the appendix of “No Longer Modern Proverbs”. I thought you might have
located a very early cite.

There are variants in the 1700s such as “we live but once in this
world” where “only once” is replaced by “but once”.

Garson

On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 4:09 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: You Only Live Once - YOLO
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Garson--
>
> Research for DMP deemed "You only live once" not "modern"--a conclusion that your research (exemplary, as usual!) has further confirmed.
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Garson O'Toole [adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM]
> Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:49 PM
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Some students who are about to graduate from High School asked me
> about a phrase and an acronym that have recently been popularized by
> hip hop artist Drake. Here is link to a post on the topic:
>
> You Only Live Once – YOLO
> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/05/24/live-once/
>
> The Yale Books of Quotations has a 1923 citation for “We only live
> once.” The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs has a 1966 cite for a
> variant: “You only go around (round) once in life.”
>
> The QI entry above lists some cites in the 1800s. It is not easy (for
> me) to determine when the phrase is being used as a proverb, motto, or
> catch phrase. So I included a variety of examples.
>
> Some extended versions of the saying are attributed to the comedian
> Joe E. Lewis such the following in 1952:
>
> You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.
>
> Additional interesting examples would be welcome. Thanks.
>
> Garson
>
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