A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it’s not open.

No sourced Zappa utterance was found in the main and Talk Wikiquote pages or in the complete AFKA texts consulted here: the Jim Ladd/Nuggets interview (April 1977), D. Housing/Berkeley Barb (27 March–2 April 1980), Friedman and Lyons/The Progressive (November 1986), and Bob Marshall (21–22 October 1988), searched for parachute and the open-mind wording. The atlas has no full-text Zappa corpus, so this is a bounded search, not proof that he never repeated it. Barry Popik documents the earliest appearance located in this run in the Standard Examiner of 20 October 1927, credited only to the Louisville Times; that item was not directly inspected. Independently, the OCR layer of the Santa Anna News issue of 4 November 1927 contains the parachute comparison and the Louisville Times credit. Popik also documents a similar saying attributed to Lord Dewar in April 1928, but the earlier unsigned newspaper item prevents confidently naming him as its inventor. The author and the first credit to Zappa remain unestablished. The dated 19 June 2012 Scoop.it post establishes a later Zappa credit, not its origin; its commenters’ unsupported assertion that he used the motto often is not evidence that he did.

1. 20 October 1927Earliest found · credited to Louisville Times (no individual named)The Standard Examiner prints the comparison and credits the Louisville Times, not an individual author; earliest appearance of the saying located in this run, through Popik’s citation.Minds are like parachutes: They function only when they are open.—Louisville Times.The Standard Examiner (Ogden City, Utah), 20 October 1927, p. 14, column 6. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. 4 November 1927Spread · credited to Louisville Times (no individual named)The Santa Anna News reprints the parachute comparison with a Louisville Times credit.The Santa Anna News (Santa Anna, Texas), 4 November 1927, PDF page 2 (printed page number not established). Checked in the text of a page scan, not the image. Source
3. 7 April 1928Credited to Lord DewarThe Deseret News reports Lord Dewar using the open-mind/parachute comparison at a spiritualist meeting.’Peer Expert at Business, Novice As Spiritualist’, The Deseret News, 7 April 1928, section 3, p. 9, column 1. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
4. 19 June 2012Credited to Frank ZappaA Scoop.it post titles the saying as Zappa’s; commenters dispute the attribution on the same page.Zappa: A mind is like a parachute, Scoop.it, Quote for Thought, 19 June 2012. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source

A familiar open-mindedness slogan is circulated under Zappa’s name. A dated Scoop.it post used a title crediting him in June 2012, but commenters on the same page disputed that credit. Versions of the saying were already in newspapers in 1927, before his birth.

The mind is useful only when receptive to new information, just as a parachute must open to work.

It should not be presented as a saying coined by Zappa. Whether he ever repeated the older maxim is a separate question for which no checked source was found.

No checked Zappa source found; the saying predates his birth. Original authorship remains unknown.

Reason, Wisdom, Education

• Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. (not found) Aristotle
• A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. (misattributed) Maya Angelou
• You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. Dr. Seuss
• Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder. (not found) Henry David Thoreau
• Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. (not found) Maya Angelou

• barrypopik.com/blog/minds_are_like_parachutes_they_only_function_when_open
• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Frank_Zappa
• scoop.it/topic/quotes-for-thoughts/p/1989729381/2012/06/19/zappa-a-mind-is-like-a-parachute

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it’s not open.” Attributed to Frank Zappa. No. It is not in Zappa’s works, and who first wrote it is not known. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/a-mind-is-like-a-parachute/ (checked 27 October 2026).

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