ATTRIBUTED
If you aren't at the table, you may be on the menu
Attributed
Widely credited, but not traced to a source.
This quote is widely credited to the author across popular collections, but we haven't traced it to a primary published source. The attribution is plausible, but unconfirmed — cite it with care.
Source
Quote Investigator, "If You Don't Have a Seat at the Table, You're Probably on the Menu" (Jan. 13, 2021), citing a 1993 newspaper quotation of Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
Editorial Note
This saying circulates in several near-identical variants ("you may be on the menu," "you might be on the menu") and is credited in passing to many figures — Elizabeth Dole, Ann Richards, Jim Hightower, Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bloomberg — but in every documented instance the speaker appears to be using an already-current saying rather than demonstrably coining it. The earliest solid citation is a 1993 newspaper item quoting Senator Elizabeth Dole ("If you aren't at the table, you may be on the menu"), and no documented use predates hers. No primary source establishes an originator, and this is neither a misattribution nor a genuine dispute — it is an unowned modern political proverb. We file it under Elizabeth Dole as attributed because hers is the earliest documented use, not because evidence shows she coined it.
