Churchill’s Phony “Success” Quotes
Wasn’t on Twitter 24 hours before encountering the two most popular Churchill misquotes: (1) “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” (2) “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.”
These pop up by the dozens every day; while included in some poorly researched quote books, neither can be found among Churchill’s 50 million published books, articles, speeches and papers; and words about him by close colleagues. They are also sometimes ascribed (also without attribution) to Abraham Lincoln. Moreover, based on editing the 4000 quotes in Churchill By Himself, I don’t believe it sounds like his prose. Click here for what he really said about success—and courage.
One thought on “Churchill’s Phony “Success” Quotes”
Thank you for this post. I remember during my law graduation ceremony last November a Swiss federal judge quoted the definition of success according to Churchill. Inspiring but to be added to the list of the “they-never-said-it” quotes.