[Ads-l] Quip Origin: One never needs a vacation so much as the day after returning from one

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The television series Criminal Minds features quotations, and I was
sent a request to explore several of them. The television writers
credited U.S. aphorist and publisher Elbert Hubbard with the following
remark:

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.

Hubbard did include this expression in an editorial piece he wrote in
his journal "The Philistine" in 1904, but I found an earlier instance
of the joke in August 1899 within "The Boston Cooking-School
Magazine". The journalist and cyclist Mary Sargent Hopkins published a
piece titled "Out-of-Doors for the Home-Maker". Hopkins disclaimed
credit for the remark and used the label "old saying". Thus, the
originator was anonymous.

[Begin excerpt]
Too often vacation means an annual trip somewhere, but rest is found
nowhere. The last remnants of strength have been used in the
preparation, and the whole endeavor absorbs more vitality than can be
regained by the change.

There is an old saying that one never needs a vacation so much as the
day after returning from one.
[End excerpt]

Here is a link to the QI article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/08/06/vacation-need/

Feedback and illuminating citations would be welcome.
Here are links to other recent QI articles that I have not mentioned
on this list:

Quote Origin: Books Will Not Exist in About Five Years
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/08/09/books-exist/

Quote Origin: Love Is the Crowning Grace of Humanity, the Holiest
Right of the Soul, the Golden Link Which Binds Us to Duty and Truth
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/07/30/love-golden/

Quote Origin: Being Powerful Is Like Being a Lady. If You Have To Tell
People You Are, You Aren't
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/07/29/powerful-lady/

Quote Origin: Sure, He Was Great, But Don’t Forget That Ginger Rogers
Did Everything He Did Backwards and in High Heels
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/07/26/dance-heels/

Quip Origin: Nothing Is Impossible for the Person Who Doesn’t Have To
Do It Himself
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/07/23/impossible-person/

Garson O'Toole
QuoteInvestigator.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org