Master in the Art of Living - source of quote

I had a strange Internet experience recently. I'm fond of the "Master in the Art of Living" quote. A couple years ago I remember I tried to find the source of the quote, and ended up with sources indicating it was either a traditional Zen Buddhist saying or a quote from James Michener. But a Google Book search of Michener's books didn't turn up the quote.

I did the same search recently and found the following post, on precisely this question. When I got to the bottom of the post I found this:

(This question was inspired by a question from “Will B.” in the comments section at the weblog of Freakonomics: Quotes Uncovered.)

Is there a term for the opposite of deja vu? I.e., I see evidence that I've been here before but I don't have any recollection of the place?  I don't remember putting that request on the Freakonomics blog, so it was bizarre to find out that someone had answered a question that I must have posted.

Here is the full post from the Quote Investigator:

Dear Quote Investigator: I have been deeply moved by an inspirational passage that I thought was written by a Zen Buddhist master:

The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.

However, when I recently searched the internet to locate the name of the Zen master I was shocked to find that the words were attributed to the late author James Michener whose fame was based on writing fat tomes that became bestsellers.

Michener did win a Pulitzer Prize and I do not wish to disparage his work but when I think of a spiritual guide I envision someone different. Could you look into this quote and determine who really created it?

Quote Investigator: There is no compelling evidence that this quote was crafted by Michener. Nor is there evidence of a Zen Buddhist origin. The spiritual tradition of the creator of the passage is Unitarian. Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, an educator and Unitarian minister who is pictured in the center image above, crafted the quotation and used it in a book he authored in the 1930s. His name is often abbreviated as L. P. Jacks.

Several websites that specialize in collecting quotations do attribute the words to James A. Michener, e.g., ThinkExist [TEZ], QuotationsBook [QBZ], and Quoteland [QLZ]. No specific citation into the large body of Michener works is given. There are different versions of the quotation, but the alterations are usually not large.

WorldofQuotes has the passage listed under the category Zen Buddhist Quotes [WQZ]. A website called “The Anywhere Office” prefaces the passage with the following:  ”Here is a quote I have hanging on my home office wall. It ties in perfectly with my philosophy of work life integration.” After the quote is the label: “From the Zen Buddhist text”. Commentators on the webpage wonder if the words should be assigned to James Michener [AWOZ]. Sometimes the passage is used without a specific attribution as in this example of a wife’s loving description of her husband [TSZ]:

She then summed up her “soul mate’s” life in two warm paragraphs she had read somewhere.

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religions. He hardly knows which is which.

He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both.” And with that she said thank you and sat down.

The earliest instance of the quote located by QI occurs in the 1932 book “Education through Recreation” by Lawrence Pearsall Jacks. The passage appears in the first chapter near the beginning of the book. The modern version of the passage has been altered. For example, in this original version, the sub-phrase “his love and his religion” does not appear. The quote begins with “A master” and not “The master” [LPJ]:

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself he always seems to be doing both. Enough for him that he does it well.

Jacks does not credit the words to anyone else, and the paragraph summarizes the main theme of his book. QI thinks he is the likely originator of the influential passage. Thanks for your question and QI hopes that you are able to find enjoyment in your work and your play.

(This question was inspired by a question from “Will B.” in the comments section at the weblog of Freakonomics: Quotes Uncovered.)

[TEZ] ThinkExist website, Quote attributed to James A. Michener, “The master in the art of living”, Accessed 2010 August 27. link

[QBZ] QuotationsBook website, Quote attributed to James A. Michener, “The master in the art of living”, Accessed 2010 August 27. link

[QLZ] QuotationLand website, Category: Motivational Quotes, Quote attributed to James A. Michener, “The master in the art of living”, Accessed 2010 August 27. link

[WQZ] WorldofQuotes website, Category: Zen Buddhist Quotes, “The master in the art of living”, Accessed 2010 August 27. link

[AWOZ] TheAnywhereOffice website, Quote labeled “From the Zen Buddhist text”, “The master in the art of living”, Accessed 2010 August 27. link

[TSZ] 2003, Off the Record by Tim Skubick, Page 394, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Google Books preview) link

[LPJ] 1960 [reprint of 1932 book], Education through Recreation by Lawrence Pearsall Jacks, Page 1 and 2, [reprint of Harper & Row, New York], McGrath Publishing Company &  National Recreation and Park Association, Washington D.C. (Google snippet view, Verified on paper) link