[Ads-l] Adage: If life gives you lemons, make lemonade

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The saying in the subject line has been examined in The Quote
Verifier, The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, The New Yale Book of
Quotations (NYBQ), and Barry Popik's website. I was sent a request,
and now there is an article on the Quote Investigator website with
some new earlier citations:

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/04/04/life-lemonade/

Here is an overview with dates:

1907 May: And if you get a lemon, why just make the lemonade. (Anonymous)

1907 Dec: An optimist is now defined as a man who can make lemonade
out of all the lemons handed him. (Anonymous)

1908 Jun: If life hands you a lemon, adjust your rose colored glasses
and start to selling pink lemonade. (Anonymous)

1908 Jul: He is a great man who accepts the lemons that Fate passes
out to him and uses them to start a lemonade stand. (Elbert Hubbard)

1944 May: When life hands you a lemon, add some sugar and make
lemonade. (Attributed to Elbert Hubbard)

1948: When you have a lemon, make a lemonade. (Attributed to  Julius
Rosenwald by Dale Carnegie)

1971 Oct: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade. (Bumper Sticker)

Here are more details for the initial citation which is a four-line poem:

[ref] 1907 May 24, The Kalispell Bee, Women's Page, Quote Page 2,
Column 3, Kalispell, Montana. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

https://www.newspapers.com/image/954031120/?terms=%22lemonade%20

[Begin excerpt]
Turn failure into victory,
  Don't let your courage fade;
And if you get a lemon, why
  Just make the lemonade.
[End excerpt]

NYBQ has a separate entry for the quotation ascribed to Elbert
Hubbard. The accompanying citation in the Literary Digest is dated Jan
23, 1909. Here is a 1908 citation directly from Hubbard in his
publication The Philistine:

[ref] 1908 July, The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest, Editor:
Elbert Hubbard, Volume 27, Number 2, Heart to Heart Talks with
Philistines by the Pastor of his Flock, Start Page 33, Quote Page 52,
The Roycrofters, East Aurora, New York. (Google Books Full View) link
[/ref]

https://books.google.com/books?id=Dyk2AAAAMAAJ&q=lemonade#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
He is a great man who accepts the lemons that Fate passes out to him
and uses them to start a lemonade stand.
[End excerpt]

While exploring this topic I looked into the slang expression "hand
someone a lemon". See the separate article about this on the ADS
mailing list.

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

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