A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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“Thank you, ATM fees, for allowing me to buy my own money” (3/27)
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Entry from November 03, 2013
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give” has often been credited to Winston Churchill (1874-1965), but The Churchill Centre has determined that the saying is not Churchill’s. Norman MacEwen (1881-1953), senior commander of the Royal Air Force, is also sometimes credited with the saying, but there is no evidence that he said it, either.
 
“You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give” appeared in “Mirrorgrams” in the Altoona (PA) Mirror in 1944.
 
   
Wikiquote: Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG OM CH TD FRS PC (Can) (November 30 1874 – January 24 1965) was a British politician & statesman, best known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He was Prime Minister of the UK from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
(...)
Misattributed
You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.
. Variant: We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
. Extensive research of writings by and about Churchill at the Churchill Centre fails to indicate that Churchill ever spoke or wrote those words.
. Some sites list Norman MacEwen as the originator of the quote.
 
13 December 1944, Altoona (PA) Mirror, pg. 8, col. 2:
MIRRORGRAMS
(...)
You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give.
       
27 July 1946, Kingston (NY) Daily Freeman, “Office Cat” by Junius, pg. 7, cols. 3-4:
Happiness is not so much in having as in sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
 
26 December 1949, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), pg. 28, col. 4:
C.R.O.P. IS BEHIND
ON 1949 PROGRAM
Big Santa Claus Counting
On Yuletide Generosity

(The Associated Press)
Dayton, Ohio, Dec. 26—The nation’s mass production Santa Claus—Christian Rural Overseas Program (CROP)—is counting on traditional Yuletide spirit to see it through its ambitious 1949 program.
(...)
“But, we are worred—worried that the 1949 totals will not reflect the true spirit of Christmas in America, the spirit of CHristian brotherhood that means we make a living by what we get and we make a life by what we give.”
(William Z. Cline, national CROP field director.—ed.)
 
4 August 1950, The Daily Review (Hayward, CA), pg. 6, col. 5:
DOCKSOLOGY:
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
 
Google Books
Living God’s Way:
Daily Devotions that Encourage Men and Women to Follow the Master in the Pathway of Glorious Living

By Reuben K. Youngdahl
Minneapolis, MN: T.S. Denison
1953
Pg. 168:
If we are to have great joy in the journey along the way, we should remember that we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
 
21 May 1955, Aberdeen (SD) American-News, “3 Minuted a Day” by James Keller, pg. 2, col. 5:
As some one had put it: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
 
Google News Archive
4 November 1963, Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, “Poor Man’s Plato” by Hal Boyle (AP), pg. 4, col. 4:
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”—the Farmers’ Almanac.
 
Google Books
Quote Unquote
By Lloyd Cory
Wheaton, IL: Victor Books
1977
Pg. 132:
We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. (Duane Hulse)
 
Google Books
The Speaker’s Quote Book:
Over 4,500 Illustrations and Quotations for All Occasions

Edited by Roy B. Zuck
Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications
1997
Pg. 165:
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. — Winston Churchill
   
Google Books
Living Life as a Thank You Journal
By Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons
Berkeley, CA: Cleis Press, Inc.
2012
Pg. ?:
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. —NORMAN MACEWAN
     
The Churchill Centre
Quotes Falsely Attributed
Last Updated on Monday, 23 April 2012 18:53
(...)
“You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.”
While often attributed to Churchill, a search of over 2.5 million words by and about Churchill in The Churchill Centre’s research database fails to show that Churchill ever spoke or wrote those words.  Equally encouraging, perhaps, are words he DID utter in Dundee, Scotland, on 10 October 1908:
 
“What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?  How else can we put ourselves in harmonious relation with the great verities and consolations of the infinite and the eternal?  And I avow my faith that we are marching towards better days.  Humanity will not be cast down.  We are going on swinging bravely forward along the grand high road and already behind the distant mountains is the promise of the sun.”
 
Googel Books
Serve to Win:
The 14-Day Gluten-Free Plan for Physical and Mental Excellence

By Novak Djokovic
New York, NY: Zinc Ink (Random House)
2013
Pg. ?:
Perhaps you noticed Winston Churchill’s quote at the beginning of this book: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityBanking/Finance/Insurance • Sunday, November 03, 2013 • Permalink


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