Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Poetry ·310 of 348
"Took the road less traveled by."
They never said that.
What people say
"Took the road less traveled by."
What was actually said
"I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference." Robert Frost — "The Road Not Taken" (1916)
Why it stuck
The poem's title — "The Road Not Taken" — is not "The Road Less Traveled." The poem describes two roads worn "really about the same." Frost is writing an ironic poem about self-mythology, not a commencement-speech moral.
The poem's real subject is how we reshape past decisions in hindsight. Nearly every usage gets this backwards.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.