Original artwork, not a still
Disputed attribution: Grace Hopper
It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
This is the unofficial motto of anyone who ships first and explains later. Hopper's version made it a computer-age rule of thumb: in a young field, the people who waited for a signed form lost to the people who built the thing. It now sits in startup handbooks, military humour and hacker lore, tied to her name even though the proverb is older than the machines.
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In context
May contain spoilersShow the scene
Hopper used and popularised this advice, but did not invent it. Quote Investigator found her saying it in a speech at Lake Forest College, reported by the Chicago Tribune on 9 December 1982, in the form that it is easier to apologize than to get permission. The earliest match it located is from 1846, when Agnes Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England told of a cardinal advising a quick marriage, since forgiveness was easier to win afterwards than permission beforehand. A US Head Start director, David Hernandez, was quoted using the proverb in 1966, and QI suspects it circulated anonymously before that.
Sources (1)
- Quote Investigator: It's Easier To Ask Forgiveness Than To Get PermissionReply section; 1846, 1966 and 1982 citationsReference checked
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