‘you can take (a person) out of ——, but you can’t take —— out of (a person)’: meaning and early occurrences

[A humble request: If you can, please donate to help me carry on tracing word histories. Thank you.]

 

Of American-English origin, the phrase you can take (a person) out of ——, but you can’t take —— out of (a person), and its variants, mean: the influence of a particular place or situation on the character of a person or thing cannot be eradicated by removing the person or thing from the place or situation in question.

These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase you can take (a person) out of ——, but you can’t take —— out of (a person) and variants that I have found:
Note: In early use, this phrase referred to rural life as opposed to urban life:

1-: From the column The Week in Calgary Society, published in The Morning Albertan (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) of Saturday 20th July 1907 [page 7, column 2]:

Vacation time is with us again. No matter how delightful one’s surroundings are, few there are who do not think longingly of the a pure air of the prairie, free and boundless, and the rush of mountain stream as the warm days come, and trust to have some rest and recreation from the rush of one’s usual busy life. As some one has said: “You can take a man out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of a man.”

2-: From an advertisement for the grand opening sale of lake-front bungalow sites at Lake View Heights, Morris Co., N.J., published in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Sunday 17th July 1910 [Section 4, page 11, column 2]:

Spend your vacation here in healthful, out-of-town happiness. The “lure of the land” is strong in the heart of every man. “You can take a man out of the country,” says a backwoods philosopher, “but you can’t take the country out of the man.” Let us take you to the country for one day. Sit down on the banks of this beautiful lake. We feel sure you will purchase a plot, as the terms are only $20 down and $5 per month.

3-: From an interview of John Gardner Murray (1857-1929), Bishop of the Episcopal Church, published in The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland, USA) of Wednesday 11th January 1911 [page 4, column 1]:

“I have a farm of 200 acres near Emmittsburg, at the foot of the Blue Ridge, and there is no prettier scenery in Maryland […].
[…] Although I was not born in the country proper, for my birthplace is Lonaconing, Maryland, I have lived in the country a great deal of my life, and so I naturally like to have some place away from the haunts of men to which I can go every now and then. I run to my farm almost every week during the winter, and spend a day or so looking things over. […]
“Who was it said, ‘You can take a man out of the country, but you cannot take the country out of a man.’ Well, that is my case, I suppose.”

4-: From The Osage Journal (Pawhuska, Oklahoma, USA) of Thursday 16th November 1911 [page 1, column 3]:

IT MEANS SUBSTANTIABILITY.

There is some sense to this cry “Back to the Farm.”
The trouble with so many folks who live in the cities and towns is that they fail to realize how unfortunate they really are; and the trouble with a great many of those on the farm is that they don’t know how well off they are.
A long time ago, some wag sprung the fact that “You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.”
Don’t know so much about that. Just about nine-tenths of all the great men of this country started life on a farm—in the country, of course. And they never got the “country” out of their systems, either. Good thing they didn’t.
We might add that “you can take the city kid out of the city, but never take the city out of the kid.”
One has to live awhile on the farm, go away and return in order to appreciate what a good thing he left.
Guess it’s kind-a poor doings to get up about four in the morning, go out and feed a stable full of horses and a lot full of cows, and then smell that country sausage frying in the kitchen. Fellow can’t eat a thing, I guess. Couldn’t hardly eat a few slapjacks with a little of that sausage gravy, could you? Poor, eh?
Nothing like that in town—not even the ozone.—Ok. Farmer.

5-: From The Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia, USA) of Sunday 8th September 1912 [page [illegible], column 1]—here, the plural noun the sticks designates the backwoods, the country:

“You can take a man out of the sticks, but you can’t take the sticks out of a man,” said a customer and good friend of Ab M. Wilkins, with Dougherty-Little-Redwine company. This veteran dry goods man moved to Atlanta some few months ago, but still yearned for the good old home he left behind, and recently moved back to dear old Comer, where so many happy contented days had been passed.

6-: From the following advertisement, published in the Jackson Daily News (Jackson, Mississippi, USA) of Sunday 15th September 1912 [page 3, column 7]:

You can take a man out of the country, but can never get the country out of the man.

I Want to Go Back to the Country,

and will sell all of my town property at a sacrifice. The list is as follows:
House and lot No. 745 Congress street 50×150 ft. lot; 6-room house with all modern conveniences.
[&c.]
Apply to
R. S. Withers,
Capitol Auto Co., Phone 152.
Jackson, Miss.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.