A rolling stone gathers no moss

A rolling stone gathers no moss is an old proverb, credited to Publilius Syrus, who in his Sententiae states, People always moving, with no roots in one place, avoid responsibilities and cares. Though the original meaning of the proverb was that people who are always travelling have no roots in a particular place, the proverb nowadays refers to people who keep moving to avoid picking up responsibilities and cares.

In English

The conventional English translation appeared in John Heywood's collection of Proverbs in 1546. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable also credits Erasmus, and relates it to other Latin proverbs, Planta quae saepius transfertus non coalescit, or Saepius plantata arbor fructum profert exiguum, which mean that a frequently replanted plant or tree (respectively) yields little fruit. It appears that the original intent of the proverb saw the growth of moss as desirable, and that the intent was to condemn mobility as unprofitable. The contemporary interpretation has turned the traditional understanding on its head.

Erasmus's proverb gave the name "rolling stone" to people who meet this description.

Accuracy

The saying may not be authentic to Syrus; the Latin form usually given, Saxum volutum non obducitur musco, does not appear in the edited texts of Publilius Syrus. It does, however, appear in Erasmus' Adagia, which was first published around 1500.

The literal meaning of the statement itself is true. This was in fact validated by the television show MythBusters, which after the course of six months confirmed that a rolling stone does not grow moss.

Cultural references

In Music

This allusion has taken root in many types of modern music.

Hank Williams' 1952 hit "Lost Highway" begins "Im a rollin stone, all alone and lost, for a life of sin i have paid the cost"

The blues musician Muddy Waters wrote a 1948 song called "Rollin' Stone", which contains the lyrics:

I got a boy child's comin,
He's gonna be, he's gonna be a rollin stone. . .

• From this reference, Brian Jones called the band he founded with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards "The Rolling Stones". Bob Dylan's 1965 song "Like a Rolling Stone", which appeared on his album Highway 61 Revisited, may refer to the original proverb. Jimi Hendrix used the full, translated version of the proverb in the lyrics to the song "Highway Chile" on the album Are You Experienced. From these references, Jann Wenner and Ralph J. Gleason founded the magazine Rolling Stone.

• Don McLean's "American Pie" claims that "...moss grows fat on a rolling stone, but that's not how it used to be."

• The Temptations made the #1 hit Papa Was a Rollin' Stone in 1971.

• Joan Osborne's later song "One of Us" compares God to a "Holy Rolling Stone".

• In more recent rock music, the Dave Matthews Band alludes to the negative connotation of the phrase in the 2002 song "Busted Stuff": "A rolling stone gathers no moss, but leaves a trail of busted stuff."

• Lucky Dube also uses the proverb in his song "Rolling Stone," from the Album The Way It is released in 1999: "I'm a rolling stone, 'Cause a rolling stone, Gathers no moss."

• Sublime's song "Same in the End" alludes, "Daddy was a rollin' rollin' stone. He rolled away one day and then he never came home".

• Noah Gundersen references this proverb in his song "Moss on a Rolling Stone"

In Psychiatry

Because it is so well known, this saying is one of the most common proverbs used in psychological tests for mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, to look for difficulty with abstraction. American research conducted in the 1950’s between Air Force basic airmen and hospitalized Veterans Administration patients with schizophrenia found that the way a person interprets proverbs can be used to determine abstraction ability. The lack of abstraction ability in these studies was statistically significantly higher in the VA patients and it has thus been construed as indicating pathology. As persons with mental illness are generally believed to demonstrate 'concrete' thinking (a tendency to interpret abstract concepts literally) the research results have, in practice, often been improperly generalised to suggest proverbs alone can be a sufficient indicator of mental illness.

A 'concrete' interpretation of the proverb "a rolling stone gathers no moss" would simply restate the proverb in different words, rather than delivering any metaphorical meaning. For example, a 'concrete' interpretation of the proverb is of the kind "If you roll a stone down a hill, it won't pick up any moss". This kind of answer is considered a failure to abstract and fails the psychological test. An example of an abstract interpretation is when substitution of metaphors occurs. A "rolling stone" is interpreted as (eg) an unsettled person or a busy person and "moss" is interpreted as (eg) something to be avoided or conversely, something to be desired. The important feature of the test is the discernment and substitution of metaphors rather than a particularly 'correct' answer.

Critics of using proverbs this way point out that:

• 'sane' persons who have never heard the proverb will interpret the proverb 'concretely'
• proverbs are neither a necessary, nor sufficient test for mental illness;
• while a negative (concrete) result indicates nothing, there is anecdotal evidence that negative results are incorrectly used to diagnose mental illness;
• while a positive (abstract) result strongly indicates no mental illness, there is anecdotal evidence that positive results are frequently ignored.

This method was used in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film) (Forman, 1975) in order to interrogate McMurphy and to test his mental state. His answer was the following: "It's hard for something to grow on something that's moving"