---
name: "Don't just do something. Sit there."
date: 2026-08-07
link: "https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/08/06/sit-there/"
linkText: "quoteinvestigator.com"
source: "Quote Investigator"
topics: [words-and-humor]
tags: [quotes, attribution, etymology]
description: "Widely credited to Thich Nhat Hanh; first found in 1954, as orders written for men stationed alone on radar platforms at sea."
---

Usually filed under mindfulness and attributed to Thich Nhat Hanh or Sylvia Boorstein. The earliest match Quote Investigator can find is a 1954 Philadelphia Inquirer column about radar platforms to be built 125 miles out at sea, where whoever drew the posting would be extremely alone: "Their orders will be: 'Don't just do something. Sit there.'" The joke came first; the wisdom was retrofitted.
