--- title: Hillary Clinton: PAC Website Uses Questionable Proverb description: The PAC used a quote with questionable origins on its website. canonical: https://time.com/4779880/hillary-clinton-onward-together-pac-african-proverb/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-15T21:49:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:56:16.195Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton's New PAC Used a Proverb With Questionable Origins og:description: It's often cited as an "African" proverb og:url: https://time.com/4779880/hillary-clinton-onward-together-pac-african-proverb/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a490db08b1d0ae1/6988cc140a4a2228e59ce0b4/hillary-clinton-trump-health-care-bill-democrats-republicans.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 2017 Gloria Awards: A Salute to Women of Vision Gala og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton's New PAC Used a Proverb With Questionable Origins twitter:description: It's often cited as an "African" proverb twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5a490db08b1d0ae1/6988cc140a4a2228e59ce0b4/hillary-clinton-trump-health-care-bill-democrats-republicans.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton's New PAC Used a Proverb With Questionable Origins > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 15, 2017 9:49 PM UTC  Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks onstage at the Ms. Foundation for Women 2017 Gloria Awards Gala at Capitale on May 3, 2017 in New York City. Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks onstage at the Ms. Foundation for Women 2017 Gloria Awards Gala at Capitale on May 3, 2017 in New York City. Daniel Zuchnik—FilmMagic/Getty Images  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 15, 2017 9:49 PM UTC Following her shocking loss to Donald Trump, [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4773354/donald-trump-james-comey-fired-hillary-clinton-email-investigation/) has taken her next steps, launching a Political Action Committee dedicated to advancing liberal causes. But the PAC is already coming under scrutiny for posting an “African” proverb that has questionable origins. Included on the website of[ Clinton’s PAC, Onward Together,](http://fortune.com/2017/05/15/hillary-clinton-launches-political-action-committee-dedicated-to-liberal-causes/) is the proverb: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” But according to Jezebel, while this quote is often mentioned as an “African proverb” — on Clinton’s PAC website it is just listed as a proverb — it may not actually be from afriday “In my passing experience, the “\~African Proverb” type of wisdom—extremely general, with a veneer of authenticity borrowed from the continent where human life originated—seems particularly popular among tech types, NGO types, techy NGO types, Ted Talks and evangelical Christians,” Jia Tolentino, who now writes for the _New Yorker,_ [wrote on Jezebel ](http://jezebel.com/on-the-origin-of-certain-quotable-african-proverbs-1766664089)in March of 2016. “I haven’t been able to find, ever, the origins of the proverb,” Imani Owens, assistant professor of African-American literature and culture at the University of Pittsburgh, [told NPR](http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/07/30/487925796/it-takes-a-village-to-determine-the-origins-of-an-african-proverb?utm%5Fmedium=RSS&utm%5Fcampaign=nprstoriesfromnpr&utm%5Fsource=twitterfeed&utm%5Fmedium=twitter) last summer, after Cory Booker used the quote in his speech at the Democratic National Convention. NPR also consulted with Johnnetta Cole, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, who said that she was confident the quote originated in Africa but couldn’t pinpoint a specific place. 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