[Ads-l] Quote Origin: Don=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99t_?=Just Do Something; Sit There

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The saying in the subject line has been attributed to Vietnamese
Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, U.S. psychotherapist Sylvia Boorstein,
and others.

The earliest close match I found appeared in August 1954 within a news
article by Ollie Crawford in "The Philadelphia Inquirer" of
Pennsylvania. Crawford discussed a proposal to build radar warning
platforms at sea. The platforms would be up to 125 miles from land,
and anyone stationed on such a distant platform would be lonely:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-sit/202787378/

[Begin excerpt]
Their orders will be: "Don't just do something. Sit there."
[End excerpt]

Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/08/06/sit-there/

This quip is a variant of an older remark using the word "stand"
instead of "sit". Jonathan Lighter initiated a thread about the
"stand" variant back in 2011:
https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2011-May/109088.html

Here is a link to the QI article about the "stand" variant, which was
posted in 2014:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/03/22/stand-there/

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole

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