you can't take it with you

proverb

It is not possible to take one's material wealth or possessions to whatever world may await one after death.

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Meanings

proverb
  1. It is not possible to take one's material wealth or possessions to whatever world may await one after death.

    Dealers also quietly bought gold fillings from morticians, proving that you can't take it with you.

    1980 January 14, “Business: The Great Sell-Off”, in Time
    2 more examples

    "The clause which—at my death—makes you sole owner of the whole concession. You see—the odds were scarcely even, were they? It wasn't likely anything would happen to you!" . . . "What's it matter to you now?" Trent said, with unintentional brutality. "You can't take it with you."

    1900, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 6, in A Millionaire of Yesterday

    You can't take it with you, of course, but your intended heirs may not be able to take it with them, either, if you do not explicitly state through a will who is supposed to get what.

    2007 August 3, Conrad de Aenlle, “All the right (and wrong) moves”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 Jul 2011
Cite this entry
APA

you can't take it with you. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/you%20can't%20take%20it%20with%20you

MLA

“you can't take it with you.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/you%20can't%20take%20it%20with%20you. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “you can't take it with you,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/you%20can't%20take%20it%20with%20you.

Source: you can't take it with you on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.