“You can run into debt, but you have to crawl out”

“You can run into debt, but you have to crawl out” is a jocular saying with a long history. “People ‘run’ into debt; but, sometimes, they ‘crawl out of it’” was cited in print in many American newspapers in 1870. The financial joke has made many collections of sayings; the name of the original author is not known.
 
 
Google News Archive
1 October 1870, Boston (MA) Daily Evening Transcript, “Hints and Suggestions,” pg. 1, col. 4:
People “run” into debt; but, sometimes, they “crawl out of it.”
   
Google News Archive
11 August 1882, Three Rivers (MI) Tribune, “Pith and Point,” pg. 6, col. 5:
Almost anybody can run into debt; but nearly everybody has to crawl out of it.
 
Google Books
25 November 1882, Household Words, “Odds and Ends,” pg. 80, col. 1:
ALMOST anybody can run into debt; but nearly everybody has to crawl out of it.
 
Google News Archive
6 August 1915, Neppel (WA) Record, “Luke McLuke Says,” pg. 4, col. 3:
You can run into debt. But you have to crawl out.
 
Google Books
14,000 Quips & Quotes:
For Speakers, Writers, Editors, Preachers, and Teachers
By E. C. McKenzie
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1990, ©1980
Pg. 125:
Many who are quick to run into debt find it takes a long time to crawl out.
   
Google Books
The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Proverbs
By David MacFarlane
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
2001
Pg. 161:
You can run into debt, but you have to crawl out. — American
 
Google Books
The Real Book of Real Estate:
Real Experts. Real Stories, Real Life
By Robert T. Kiyosaki
Philadelphia, PA: Vanguard Press
2009
Pg. 245:
As my grandpa Palmer used to say, “Any damn fool can run into debt, but everyone will crawl out!”