Who said build a better mousetrap and the world

What if the phone was connected to a line in your house, attached to a wall? Igor: This is the opposite of a better mousetrap. You are talking about a landline. No one will want to go back to using his or her landlines.

Antonio: It does sound familiar, now that you mention it. America Participates. Back to Our Roots. Business History. Director's Notes. Disability History. Donor Spotlight. Freedom Summer. From the Collections. Intern Perspectives. Jazz Appreciation. Julia Child Recipe of the Week. Kids in Museums. Boldface has been added to excerpts: 1. If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or make a better mouse trap than his neighbors, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Emerson died on April 27, , so the above passage was ascribed to him shortly after his death. In the following days, months, and years the quotation appeared in a wide variety of periodicals and books together with the acknowledgement. Minor alterations in the text occurred as the quotation was widely replicated. The saying was employed as a filler item in newspapers, and it also appeared in columns containing miscellaneous short news items and sayings.

The specific circumstances when Emerson spoke or wrote the statement were not specified. Over the decades the phrasing has evolved. An exact match for the passage above has never been found in the published writings or personal journals of Emerson. A mousetrap was not mentioned; instead, other goods and services were specified: 4. Common Fame. I trust a good deal to common fame, as we all must. If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.

Emerson was a popular speaker who delivered numerous public lectures over a period of decades. He used his journals as source material for his speeches, but the phrasing employed in the notebooks and speeches was variable. Indeed, a woman named Sarah S. Detailed information is given further below. Let some of those people who are forever bemoaning their obscurity ponder these words of Emmerson:.

For many years this citation was the earliest known match for the saying. Yule was one of the compilers, and her testimony will be presented later in this article: 8. If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap, than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

In June a school for teachers called the Cleveland Kindergarten Training School held graduation exercises. If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or make a better mouse trap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.