I am only one;
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything;
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

This quotation is often attributed to the Unitarian minister Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909), including in Singing the Living Tradition, where it appears as reading #457. However, WorshipWeb could find no evidence that it originated with him; it does not appear anywhere in the ten volumes of his collected works, in the eighteen volumes of the journal Lend a Hand that he edited, or in anything else written by him that we could find. We believe the best attribution for the quotation is “John Angell James (adapted).” To understand why, join us on a journey…

The quotation given above is very similar to one by the English Nonconformist clergyman and abolitionist John Angell James (1785–1859) from 1848:

I am but one — but I am one. I cannot do much, but I can do something: and all I can do, I ought to do; and by God’s grace will do.
   — John Angell James, The Church in Earnest (1848), p. 28

In the decades after its initial publication, James’s quotation appeared sporadically in periodicals as a filler item, and also in a few books. It is often presented without an attribution. This instance, from the Sailor’s Magazine and Naval Journal in July 1851, is typical:

I am but one, but I am one! — These are the words of a Christian minister. The whole of the sentence runs thus: “I am but one, but I am one. I cannot do much, but I can do something; and all I can do, I ought to do, and by God’s grace will do.”

By the mid-1880s, a variant of James’s quotation began to appear, usually unattributed:

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do, and what I ought to do, by the grace of God I will do.
   — Proceedings at the 22nd Annual Convention of the Grand Lodge of Vermont (1885), Independent Order of Good Templars, p. 19

Note that in this adaptation of James’s quotation, the first two sentences have become more similar to the version at the top of this page. Then, in 1890, Abbie H. Fairfield edited a book of daily quotations and affirmations called Starting Points: How to Make a Good Beginning. The entry for July 29 has the quotation as given at the top of this page, and attributes the words to Edward Everett Hale. In 1902, this version of the quotation, with the attribution to Hale, appeared in another compilation of daily thoughts, as well as in a handbook on English composition.

A few years after these appearances, the altered quotation, with Hale’s name attached, began to appear more frequently in books and periodicals. Finally, in 1938 the quotation, with the attribution to Hale, appeared in the 11th edition of Barlett’s Familiar Quotations. (It had not been included in earlier editions.) Every other quotation from Hale in Bartlett’s includes an actual source; this quotation only includes the notation “For the Lend-a-Hand Society.” 

WorshipWeb’s best guess at the moment is that someone — possibly Abbie H. Fairfield — edited James’s quotation to make it more clear or memorable. Perhaps this person first saw the quotation with the attribution to “a Christian minister,” and for some reason decided to attach Rev. Hale’s name to it. Once the quotation appeared with Hale’s name in the collections of quotations mentioned above, its usage spread.

It is still conceivable that Edward Everett Hale did adapt James’s quotation, and that Abbie H. Fairfield heard him speak or saw a piece of ephemera that contained this version of the quotation. But we emphasize that we currently have no direct evidence for this, and the version of the quotation at the top of this page does not appear in searches on newspapers.com, Google Books, or archive.org at any time earlier than its appearance in Fairfield’s book.

Given this state of affairs, we think that the best attribution to give for the quotation is “John Angell James (adapted).”