“God helps those who help themselves.”
As commonly credited to The Bible and Benjamin Franklin
- Credited to
- The Bible and Benjamin Franklin
- Actually said by
- An ancient Greek proverb
Findings
Often misattributed to the Bible, or to Ben Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanack. The proverb actually originated in Ancient Greece. It shows up in two of Aesop’s fables and in Greek drama: Sophocles wrote that heaven never helps the men who will not act, and Euripides has Orestes say that he who strives will find his gods strive for him equally. Ovid’s version is “divinity helps those who dare” (audentes deus ipse iuvat).
I’m a big fan of “Divinity helps those who dare.”