Skip to main content

Success Quote by Dwight Morrow

"The world is divided into people who do things - and people who get the credit"

About this Quote

A neat little grenade of social realism dressed up as common sense, Dwight Morrow's line cuts to the heart of how power actually circulates: not through effort, but through attribution. As a businessman and public figure, Morrow isn't romanticizing "hard work" so much as warning you that labor and recognition are different economies, often run by different people.

The intent is double-edged. On one hand, it flatters the doers: the builders, fixers, implementers who keep institutions running while someone else takes the bow. On the other, it normalizes a hierarchy in which credit is a commodity captured by those positioned closest to the microphone: executives, politicians, founders, the well-networked. The sentence hinges on that blunt dash, turning what could be a motivational poster into a cynical organizational chart.

The subtext is about visibility and narrative control. "Doing things" is private, messy, and distributed; "getting the credit" is public, tidy, and singular. Morrow implies that recognition isn't merely unfairly allocated, it's strategically managed. Credit follows status more reliably than it follows contribution, which is why modern workplaces still reward presentation, proximity to decision-makers, and the ability to tell a clean story about a complicated process.

Context matters: Morrow came up in early 20th-century American finance and diplomacy, worlds built on delegation and representation. In that ecosystem, being the face of the work can matter more than the work itself. The quote doesn't ask you to stop doing; it asks you to notice who owns the story afterward.

Quote Details

TopicLeadership
Source
Rejected source: The Society of Free States (Dwight Whitney Morrow, 1919)IA: societyfreestat00morrgoog
Text match: 40.43%   Provider: Internet Archive
Evidence:
ple expected we have proved to ourselves and to the rulers and people of grermany that for her
Other candidates (1)
Dwight Morrow (Dwight Morrow) compilation98.3%
ns 2000 p 672 the world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit try
FeaturedThis quote was our Quote of the Day on July 12, 2023
More Quotes by Dwight Add to List
The world is divided into people who do things - and people who get the credit
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Dwight Morrow (January 11, 1873 - October 5, 1931) was a Businessman from USA.

3 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes