Fake Quotes Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Update: AI Churchill Quotes: Yes, We Have No Bananas

15 January 2025

They may have slipped on a banana, but ChatGPT has only been at this for a few years. "Give them another half decade and they'll probably have picked up every word Churchill wrote." So, before we lazily laugh at the tech boffins' failure accurately to pinpoint the Great Man's every word, we might stop to consider: They are just getting started. As Churchill was wont to say on occasion: "Let not the slothful chortle."

Read More Read More

Red Herrings (Not Churchill’s Words): Cruise Ships and Dogfights

10 October 2024

Neither the ships nor the dogfight quips are traceable to Churchill. "Red herrings" are everywhere, in digital and print media, with no attribution whatsoever. Coming soon from Hillsdale College Press, my new, expanded edition of "Churchill by Himself”: contains nearly 200 famous remarks which Churchill either never said or denied saying. Fastidious digital searches produce no evidence to authenticate them. (Sometimes it was another bloke.)

Read More Read More

Churchill said — WSC with Lt. Gen. Stone and his daughter Sarah (whose husband he did not wish to shoot), on a visit to his old regiment, the 4th Hussars, Cairo, 3 December 1943. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)

Churchill Quips: God, Santayana, Musso & Not Getting Scuppered

5 September 2024

The story goes that in the middle of the Second World War, Churchill's son-in-law Duncan Sandys told WSC that “Hitler and Mussolini have an even greater burden to bear, because everything is going wrong for them.” Supposedly Churchill said in reply: Ah, but Mussolini has this consolation, that he could shoot his son-in-law! I will not dignify that with quotation marks because it is nothing Churchill said. Not even about Vic Oliver, a son-in-law he really disliked. What worried Churchill was what might happen "if God wearied of mankind."

Read More Read More

Churchill in Manchester: Clem in the Gents, Huns at Your Throat

15 May 2024

William Manchester offered two famous Churchill jibes, one original, the other borrowed. David Pitblado reliably confirmed Churchill's famous crack to Clement Attlee in the Gents Loo in the House of Commons. Churchill himself admitted that somebody else first said "The Hun is either at your feet or at your throat."

Read More Read More

Myths of Dear Benito: Churchill’s Alleged Mussolini Complex

5 May 2024

Churchill agreed to defer Italian war debt payments until 1930. Mussolini sent “the warmest expressions of gratitude” and offered him a decoration. Er, no, said WSC. (Imagine if that was among Churchill’s medals.) But Churchill's diplomatic boilerplate in Rome has been used to brand him as a fascist. In context, he referred to the Italians, not the British. And you tend to say polite things about a foreign leader when he has promised to pay back a lot of money.

Read More Read More

Get Ready for Churchill’s Anti-Sesquicentennial

25 March 2024

"Don't worry about attacks on Churchill. He is alive and kicking and haunts the British imagination like no other. He will always be caricatured, as he was in his lifetime. But freedom of speech and expression was one of the things he fought for, and in his time he gave as good as he got. The more provocative comments about him are a backhanded tribute, as they work on the assumption that most people admire him." —Paul Addison

Read More Read More

Fake Churchill Quotations: Democracy, Life, Living, Enemies

15 March 2024

<> Among fake quotations, this one is famous. It was revived by broadcaster Trevor Phillips in The Times. Mr. Phillips was explaining that British Conservatives, almost certainly to be the Opposition after the next election, need to stand strong—particularly against themselves. No quarrel with his logic, only his attribution.

Read More Read More

Teapot Tempest: DeSantis Misquote Goes Viral

25 January 2024

Note! This post falls under the title "pedantry." As I said when Politifact asked: Who cares? Many fake Churchill quotes like Governor DeSantis uttered are honorable things for anyone to have said, and Churchill said many things like them. We like to keep the record straight, and we will keep doing the job of verifying. But these are not big questions, of which there are plenty. RML

Read More Read More

D-Day +79: “Rough Men Stand Ready,” a Shared Sentiment

5 June 2023

On the 79th anniversary of D-Day, this quote is likely to come up again. Neither Churchill's nor Orwell's, it nevertheless resounds with their sentiments. Quote Investigator provides a vast subtext to the various appearances and credits of “Rough men stand ready” over the years. Their conclusion is that no one specifically said the words. But Kipling may have inspired them, and Orwell paraphrased them, and they are in the Churchill spirit.

Read More Read More

Churchill’s Word Play: “Notability or Notoriety”

10 May 2023

Manfred Weidhorn: "The law of averages dictates that some of these dreamers succeed. Churchill was one of them. Hence he is the hero of our hypothetical non-realistic novel. As a young man, Churchill put the world on notice with his memorably declared resolve to be an achiever by either notability or notoriety."

Read More Read More