Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on (Spurious Quotation)

Jefferson is often mistakenly quoted as having said or written, "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."

A modern-day portrait of Thomas Jefferson in early 19-century attire with a speech bubble next to his head that says, "I said what?!"

Quotation: "When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."

Variations:

  1. "If you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."
  2. "When get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on."
  3. "When you think you have reached the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."

Sources consulted:

  1. Founders Online
  2. Papers of Thomas Jefferson and Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series

Earliest known appearance in print: 19231

Earliest known appearance in print, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: 19962

Other attributions:

  1. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  2. Theodore Roosevelt
  3. Abraham Lincoln
  4. Benjamin Franklin

Status: This quotation has never been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It is listed as a proverb from the American West in a 1946 article in California Folklore Quarterly.3

Footnotes

  1. The School Executive 42 (New York: Buttenheim, 1923): [n.p.].
  2. Patrick Regan and Mary Engelbreit, Mary Engelbreit: The Art and Artist (Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1996), 31.
  3. T.M. Pearce, "The English Proverb in New Mexico," California Folklore Quarterly 5, no. 4 (1946): 354.