[Ads-l] "If you don't know where you're going..."

Sat Mar 7 09:08:11 UTC 2026

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Railroad_Telegrapher/gXmjAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22If+you+don%27t+care+where+you+are+going%22&dq=%22If+you+don%27t+care+where+you+are+going%22&printsec=frontcover

"If you don't CARE where you are going ...."

Attributed to the caterpillar, rather than the cat.

The Railroad Telegrapher
probably 1910, or not long after.

------ Original Message ------
From "ADSGarson O'Toole" 
<00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 02/03/2026 19:40:20
Subject Re: "If you don't know where you're going..."

>Excellent work, JL. I have received a few requests to explore this
>topic, but I have not created a QI article yet. DMP has a great
>post-Lewis-Carroll citation.
>
>[ref] 2012, The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, Compiled by Charles
>Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, and Fred R. Shapiro, Quote Page 218, Yale
>University Press, New Haven. (Verified with hardcopy) [/ref]
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.
>1942 M. N. Chatterjee, "Measurement in Education," Social Science 17:
>164: "Does this bring us any nearer to the goal which still remains
>undefined? Means are easily developed, but without proper
>consideration of aims, are not all means equally good? If one does not
>know where he is going, any road will take him there."
>[End excerpt]
>
>I have also gathered electronic notes for a family of sayings which
>flip the final punchline. Your note has inspired me to move forward
>and create a QI article for that family.
>
>Garson
>
>On Mon, Mar 2, 2026 at 8:22 AM Jonathan Lighter
><00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  This may well have been inspired by Alice's exchange with the Cheshire Cat,
>>  and it is now popularly and mistakenly attributed directly to Lewis
>>  Carroll.
>>
>>  The exchange in the book is wryly nonsensical:
>>
>>  `Cheshire Puss,' she began.... `Would you tell me, please, which way I
>>  ought to go from here?"
>>   "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
>>  "I don't much care where--" said Alice.
>>  "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
>>  "--so long as I get _somewhere_," Alice added as an explanation.
>>  "Oh, you're sure to do that,'"said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
>>
>>   The proverb, however, clearly maintains that if you plan poorly, you
>>  shouldn't complain about the poor results.
>>
>>  1944 _Montpelier Evening Argus_ (Oct. 28) 5: Quoting an old oriental
>>  proverb, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you
>>  there."
>>
>>  1958 _Wellsville [N.Y.] Daily Reporter_ (Oct. 10) 8: "If you don't know
>>  where you're going any road will get you there."
>>
>>  1980   Herb Cohen _You Can Negotiate Anything_ (Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle
>>  Stuart) 216: As the Koran says, "If you don't know where you are going, any
>>  road will get you there."
>>
>>  1980 Joe Fox _Trapped in the Organization_ (L.A.: Price/Stern/Sloan) 42:
>>  "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."
>>  --Lewis Carroll    Corollary 1: "If you don't know where you are going,
>>  you'll wind up someplace else." - Lawrence Peter     Corollary 2: Planning:
>>  15 people in a car going 90 miles an hour, and everyone is looking out the
>>  rear view window.
>>
>>  The databases suggest it gained traction only during the 1960s.
>>
>>  The 1980 ex. is the earliest attribution I find to Lewis Carroll.
>>
>>
>>  JL
>>  --
>>  "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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