“You don’t have to lay awake nights to be a success. Just stay awake days” is a jocular saying that has been cited in print since 1948 and is of unknown authorship. “You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed—just stay awake days” was cited in 1956. “You don’t have to stay up nights to succeed, you have to stay awake days” was cited on Twitter in 2009.
27 February 1948, Western Observer (Anson, TX), pg. 8, col. 4:
You don’t have to lay awake nights to be a success. Just stay awake days.
21 April 1948, Trenton (NJ) Evening Times, pg. 3, col. 3:
You don’t have to lay awake nights to be a success. Just stay awake days.
4 June 1948, Nocona (TX) News, pg. 6, col. 1:
You don’t have to lay awake nights to be a success. Just stay awake days.
15 April 1956, Boston (MA) Sunday Advertiser, “The Cheering Section” conducted by Bruce Patterson, Pictorial Review, pg. 8, col. 4:
You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed—just stay awake days.
Huntingtonian
Google Books
Teacher’s Treasury of Stories for Every Occasion
By Millard Dale Baughman
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
1958
Pg. 285:
You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed. Just stay awake days. — Healthways
Google News Archive
14 November 1969, The Morning Record (Meriden, CT), “The Light Touch” by Spence Gowrie, pg. 7, col. 1 ad:
You don’t have to stay up nights to succeed. Just stay awake days.
(Howes, Gearing and Gowrie, Inc.—ed.)
Google News Archive
16 November 1969, The Victoria Advocate (Victoria, TX), “On the House” by Bob Woolson, pg. 15A, col. 5:
You don’t have to stay up nights to succeed. Just stay awake days.
Google Books
14,000 Quips & Quotes:
For Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers
By E .C. McKenzie
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1990, ©1980
Pg. 480:
You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed; just stay awake days.
Google Books
20,000 Quips & Quotes
By Evan Esar
New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Books
1995, ©1968
Pg. 55:
You don’t have to lie awake nights to succeed — just stay awake days.
Twitter
Tatiana Gerberg
@TatianaGerberg
You don’t have to stay up nights to succeed, you have to stay awake days. http://www.24traits.com
12:31 AM - 3 Aug 2009
Twitter
Dr. Bea Carson
@DrBea
You dont have to stay up nights to succeed; you have to stay awake days. - Source Unknown
9:05 AM - 22 Aug 2014
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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More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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