The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

Quote Investigator reports an anonymous related saying in Puck (24 December 1902), a distinct version Hubbard introduced as someone else’s remark in The Philistine (May 1914), and a near-modern wording credited to Hubbard in a newspaper advertisement (3 April 1915). Its account reproduces this exact popular wording under Hubbard from Evan Esar’s Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (1949); QI’s footnote specifies that it checked a 1989 reprint, not the first edition. All these publications are known here through QI and were not independently inspected. Wikiquote dates the Philistine passage to May 1913 instead; that discrepancy remains unresolved. Exact and distinctive-phrase searches of the atlas’s A Message to Garcia and Great Teachers texts found no match. The exact wording’s author and its textual route from the earlier sayings remain unestablished; this is not a search of Hubbard’s complete writings.

1. 24 December 1902Before it · credited to no oneAccording to Quote Investigator, an anonymous Puck filler item supplies its earliest located member of this saying family, not the exact popular wording.Puck, volume 52, filler item, 24 December 1902 (New York: Keppler and Schwarzmann), p. 2. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
2. May 1914Before itAccording to Quote Investigator, Hubbard prints a distinct related remark about plans overtaken by achievement, introducing it as someone else’s observation; direct descent from Puck is not established.Elbert Hubbard, ‘Heart-to-Heart Talks with Philistines by the Pastor of His Flock’, The Philistine, volume 38, number 6, May 1914, p. 178. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
3. 3 April 1915Before it · credited to Elbert HubbardAccording to Quote Investigator, a newspaper advertisement credits a near-modern precursor wording to Hubbard, not the exact popular wording used here.The Democrat-Forum, Maryville, Missouri, advertisement, 3 April 1915, p. 4, column 1. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
4. 1949Earliest found · credited to Elbert HubbardThe earliest exact popular wording located in the consulted QI account is credited to Hubbard in Esar’s dictionary; QI checked a later reprint.Evan Esar (ed.), The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1949), Hubbard section, p. 101. Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source

A motivational saying credited to Hubbard in later quotation collections. Quote Investigator reports an anonymous related saying in Puck in 1902 and a distinct version Hubbard introduced as someone else’s remark in 1914; neither establishes who composed this exact wording.

Practical achievement can overtake claims that something is impossible.

Doubt, Work, Society, Change, Wisdom

• No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one. (misattributed)
• Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring. (not found) Marilyn Monroe
• Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book. (not found) Marcus Tullius Cicero
• Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. (not found) Oscar Wilde
• Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt. (misattributed) Mark Twain

• quoteinvestigator.com/2015/01/26/doing
• en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elbert_Hubbard

“The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” Attributed to Elbert Hubbard. No. This wording is credited to Hubbard in a later quotation collection, but no checked Hubbard text establishes it. Related sayings circulated earlier; the exact wording’s author remains uncertain. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/the-world-is-moving-so-fast-these-days/ (checked 27 October 2026).

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