Who said “eat a live frog”? The story behind the saying
In short
No evidence shows that Mark Twain said “eat a live frog”. Quote Investigator traces the saying to the French writer Chamfort, around 1795: swallow a toad every morning, and nothing will disgust you for the rest of the day. Twain’s name first appears in 1988. Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog! (2001) turned it into a productivity method.
Search “eat the frog” and the same line comes back again and again: Mark Twain said that if you eat a live frog first thing in the morning, nothing worse will happen to you all day. The line is old, but the name attached to it is wrong. Its trail runs from a Paris book of the 1790s to a 2001 business book.
Did Mark Twain say “eat a live frog”?
No document shows that he did. Quote Investigator, which traces quotations through dated sources, found no evidence linking Twain to the saying. The earliest Twain link it found is a 1988 column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, 78 years after Twain’s death in 1910. Even that columnist hedged: he thought it was Twain, and added that if it wasn’t, it should have been. In 1989, a Maryland paper credited Twain with a version about two frogs.
Brian Tracy credits Twain too, in the introduction of Eat That Frog! and on his own website.
Where does “eat the frog” come from?
The oldest known version is French. In a collection of Nicolas Chamfort’s writings published in Paris around 1795, Chamfort reports a remark by a “M. de Lassay”. In our translation:
M. de Lassay, a very gentle man who knew society well, used to say that one should swallow a toad every morning, so as to find nothing more disgusting for the rest of the day, when one had to spend it in society.
The joke targeted high society: after a toad for breakfast, nothing said in the salons could taste worse. The animal was a toad (crapaud), and nobody said it was alive. Both details changed later.
How did the toad become a live frog?
Quote Investigator dates each step:
| Year | What changed |
|---|---|
| About 1795 | Chamfort reports M. de Lassay’s advice: swallow a toad every morning before spending the day in society. |
| 1877 | English books quote it. John Morley’s Aphorisms drops Lassay and credits Chamfort himself. |
| 1896 | Émile Zola’s essay “Le Crapaud” in Le Figaro tells a young writer to swallow a live toad every morning before work. The toad stands for the insults and malice of critics. An English translation that year says “frog”. |
| 1976 | A sign in a Seattle ticket office advises eating a live toad first thing in the morning: nothing worse will happen the rest of the day. |
| 1988 | First known credit to Mark Twain, in a Cleveland newspaper. |
| 2001 | Brian Tracy publishes Eat That Frog!. The frog becomes your most important task. |
By 1976, the saying had its modern shape: a live animal, first thing in the morning, nothing worse to come. Tracy’s book then made the frog stand for a task.
What does “eat the frog” mean?
“Eat the frog” means doing first the task you are most likely to put off. Brian Tracy defines your frog as your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to postpone, and advises doing it first thing each morning. If you have two big tasks, he says to start with the bigger, harder one.
In everyday life, a frog is the tax return, the call to the landlord, the overdue report. Size doesn’t decide it: a 10-minute phone call is a frog if you have put it off for a week. The eat the frog method page explains how to choose yours.
Who wrote Eat That Frog!?
Brian Tracy wrote Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, published by Berrett-Koehler in April 2001. New editions followed in 2007 and 2017.
The French edition, Avalez le crapaud !, was published in 2003 by Éditions du Trésor caché in Gatineau, Québec, translated by Marie-Andrée Gagnon. A revised and expanded edition followed in 2017. The French title brings back Chamfort’s toad.
Does eat the frog work with ADHD?
It can, with one adjustment. Eat the frog assumes you can start the frog. When starting is the part that sticks, shrink it: a 2-minute first step (“open the tax website”), or 5 minutes with permission to stop. Our pages on ADHD and procrastination and the 2-minute first step show how. If ADHD weighs on you, talk to a health professional.
Frequently asked questions
Did Mark Twain say “eat a live frog”?
No evidence shows he did. Quote Investigator found the first link between Twain and the saying in a 1988 newspaper column, 78 years after his death. The saying is much older: it goes back to the French writer Chamfort, around 1795, who reported it as a remark by a M. de Lassay about swallowing a toad.
What is the original “eat a live frog” quote?
The oldest known version is in Chamfort’s Caractères et anecdotes, published around 1795. M. de Lassay used to say that one should swallow a toad every morning, so as to find nothing more disgusting for the rest of the day when spending it in society. The frog, the word “live” and the link to work came later.
What does “eat the frog first” mean?
It means doing the task you are most likely to put off before anything else, ideally first thing in the morning. In Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog! (2001), your frog is your biggest, most important task. Once it’s done, it no longer hangs over the rest of your day.
Who wrote Eat That Frog?
Brian Tracy. Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time came out in April 2001 from Berrett-Koehler, with new editions in 2007 and 2017. In French, it is Avalez le crapaud ! (Éditions du Trésor caché, 2003).
Is it a frog or a toad?
Both, depending on the era. Chamfort’s version, around 1795, and Zola’s essay of 1896 used a toad, crapaud in French. English versions used both words over the next century. Brian Tracy’s 2001 book made “eat that frog” the common form, and its French edition went back to the toad: Avalez le crapaud !
Sources
- Quote Investigator, “Eat a Live Frog Every Morning, and Nothing Worse Will Happen to You the Rest of the Day” (2013, updated 2025)
- Chamfort, “Caractères et anecdotes” (French text), Wikisource
- Brian Tracy, “Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time”, Berrett-Koehler, 2001, Open Library record
- Open Library, editions of “Eat That Frog!” (2001, 2007, 2017 and later)
- Brian Tracy, “Eat That Frog: Brian Tracy Explains the Truth About Frogs”, briantracy.com (2022)
- Brian Tracy, “Avalez le crapaud !”, Éditions du Trésor caché, 2003, Open Library record
- Brian Tracy, “Avalez le crapaud !”, revised and expanded edition (2017), catalogue of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
