From the Phrase Finder:
"He who hesitates is lost." Who said it, when, and to whom. Any ideas? Thanks.
HE WHO HESITATES IS LOST - "Swift and resolute action leads to success; self-doubt is a prelude to disaster. The proverb goes back to 'Cato' (1713) by English essayist and poet Joseph Addison. First attested in the United States in 'The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" (1858) by Oliver Wendell Holmes." From "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).
Another source says early uses of the proverb related specifically to women. "When love once pleads admission to our hearts, the woman that deliberates is lost," wrote Addison. From the "Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs" by John Simpson and Jennifer Speake (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1998).
"A familiar saying in the twentieth century, "He who hesitates." was quoted by American novelist Edgar Rice Burroughs in 'Gods of Mars' (1912), Eugene O'Neill in 'Beyond the Horizon' (1920), and English novelist Wyndham Lewis in 'The Apes of the God' (1930)." From "Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New" by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).
I loved that movie! And what it said on that tombstone is certainly relevant to the subject of this poll. "He didn't hesitate; he ran like hell." Hilarious.
Nothing to really do with this poll,(I'm not in research mode), but there was an episode of "The Ghost and mrs Murer", when the captain couldn't understand how some twit was burried and commemorated with words on his tombstone that said, "When danger called, he did not hesitate", Finnally, at the end of the show, a storm blew up and revealed the hidden remaining words..":He ran like hell"(guess you had to be there)