where does the phrase pull yourself up by your bootstraps come from
Bootstrapping
Tall boots may have a tab , loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap , allowing one to use fingers or a boot hook tool to help pulling the boots on . The saying `` to pull oneself up by one 's bootstraps '' was already in use during the 19 century as an example of an impossible task . The idiom dates at least to 1834 , when it appeared in the Workingman 's Advocate : `` It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots . '' In 1860 it appeared in a comment on philosophy of mind : `` The attempt of the mind to analyze itself ( is ) an effort analogous to one who would lift himself by his own bootstraps . '' Bootstrap as a metaphor , meaning to better oneself by one 's own unaided efforts , was in use in 1922 . This metaphor spawned additional metaphors for a series of self - sustaining processes that proceed without external help . Baron 
Tall boots may have a tab , loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap , allowing one to use fingers or a boot hook tool to help pulling the boots on . The saying `` to pull oneself up by one 's bootstraps '' was already in use during the 19 century as an example of an impossible task . The idiom dates at least to 1834 , when it appeared in the Workingman 's Advocate : `` It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots . '' In 1860 it appeared in a comment on philosophy of mind : `` The attempt of the mind to analyze itself ( is ) an effort analogous to one who would lift himself by his own bootstraps . '' Bootstrap as a metaphor , meaning to better oneself by one 's own unaided efforts , was in use in 1922 . This metaphor spawned additional metaphors for a series of self - sustaining processes that proceed without external help . Baron
The saying `` to pull oneself up by one 's bootstraps '' was already in use during the 19 century as an example of an impossible task. As a metaphor, it means  to better oneself by one's own unaided efforts.
The saying `` to pull oneself up by one 's bootstraps '' was already in use during the 19 century as an example of an impossible task . Bootstrap as a metaphor , meaning to better oneself by one 's own unaided efforts , was in use in 1922 .