[Ads-l] Proverb Origin: It Is Better to Die on Our Feet Than to Live on Our Knees

[Jonathan Lighter]

Fantastic work, Garson, as usual.

In  _Catch-22_ (1961)  is the following:

"Why don't you have some sense and try to be more like me? You might live
to be a hundred and seven, too."

"Because it's better to die on one's feet than live on one's knees," Nately
retorted with triumphant and lofty conviction. "I guess you've heard
that saying before."

"Yes, I certainly have," said the treacherous old man, smiling again. "But
I'm afraid you have it backward. It is better to _live_ on one's feet than
die on one's knees. _That_ is how the saying goes."

JL



On Fri, Apr 17, 2026 at 12:32 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> The slogan in the subject line has been attributed to Mexican
> revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata, Spanish politician Dolores
> Ibarruri, French revolutionary leader François-Noël Babeuf, ancient
> Greek tragedian Aeschylus, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S.
> literary figure Ernest Hemingway, and others. I received a request to
> investigate.
>
> Many researchers have explored this saying including Fred Shapiro in
> "The New Yale Book of Quotations"; Nigel Rees in "Brewer's Famous
> Quotations"; Ralph Keyes in "The Quote Verifier"; and David C. Hill at
> his website WIST (wish I’d said that).
>
> The earliest match I found appeared in the Mexican periodical "El
> Mundo Ilustrado" ("The Illustrated World") on September 16, 1906
> within an article about Mexican leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
> written by Luciano J. Rivas:
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Mexicanos imitémoslo, recordando que "vale más morir de pie que vivir
> de rodillas."
> [End excerpt]
>
> [Begin English translation]
> Mexicans, let us emulate him, remembering that "it is better to die
> standing than to live on one's knees."
> [End English translation]
>
> The saying was enclosed with quotation marks which indicated that the
> proverb was already in circulation. Thus, the creator remains
> anonymous. The attribution to Emiliano Zapata is incorrect. The
> attribution was based on the tale of a graffito written by one of
> Zapata’s followers. The attributions to Aeschylus and François-Noël
> Babeuf are also incorrect. The attributions occurred because of sloppy
> translations.
>
> Here is a link to the QI article:
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/04/16/feet-knees/
>
> Feedback welcome
> Garson O'Toole
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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