A new Phrase Index of Churchill quotes is part of a expanded new fifth edition of my quotations book, Churchill by Himself: In His Own Words.

Published by Hillsdale College Press, the new edition will carry a brand new title in keeping with its far greater content. Earlier editions contained 3500 entries; they now total over 5000. Many new ones derive from The Churchill Documents from 1942 to 1965, also published by Hillsdale. The preliminary proofs total 736 pages, without the indexes. We expect about 800 pages, some 150 more than before. More comprehensive than ever, the indexes are the work of award-winning indexer Do Mi Stauber.

The popular Phrase Index was introduced with the third edition, Churchill in His Own Words, in 2011. The idea was to assist readers in locating famous (and not so famous) quips and quotes that are not indexed by their best-known words. For example, “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat” is in Chapter I, “Immortal Words,” but the Phrase Index speeds the reader to its page by indexing it under the “Bs.”

Previous Phrase Index still available

The 2011 Phrase Index was a great asset in quickly finding the quotation readers require. Aside from obvious lines from the great war speeches, it contains some 500 famous and obscure Churchill phrases. They range alphabetically from “Abdullah is in Transjordania where I put him” to “Zionism, my heart is full of sympathy for….”

The pagination of the third edition did not change. (We found only one quote which had to be removed as fictitious.) So the current, Third Edition Phrase Index can also be used with earlier editions entitled Churchill By Himself. For a copy please contact me.

The index also doubles as a handy quick exposure to Churchill’s humor and wisdom. Browse through the entries and you’re sure to find some that are either familiar enough, or intriguing enough, that you’ll want to look up the exact words, date and place.

If, even with this tool, you still can’t find what you are looking for, please contact me.

“Red Herrings”

The most popular appendix, famous quotations Churchill never said, is likewise expanded in the new volume. However, I keep it up to date in four parts on this website. There are over 200 now. You will find Part 1 here.

“The Biblical Churchill”

Adding the fifteen-page Phrase Index to Churchill By Himself in 2011 meant deleting something, since we wanted to retain the pagination. So we deleted a previous Appendix, “The Biblical Churchill.”

“The Biblical Churchill” will return as an appendix in the new expanded edition, along with several other new appendices. Meanwhile, the complete text is available in three parts:

1: “His Largest Single Source of Quotations.”

2: “A House of Many Mansions.”

3: “Be Ye Men of Valour.”

Another new appendix is “Hearsay Doesn’t Count: Churchill’s Racist Epithets are Extremely Rare.” As in its appearance in the Hillsdale publication Grand Alliance, this essay will be fully footnoted.

Reader note

This post falls under the title “pedantry.” As I said when Politifact asked: Who cares? Many fake Churchill quotes like Governor DeSantis’ 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. So if pedantry is not your thing, go on to another post. RML

DeSantis redux

On January 22nd Florida Governor Ron DeSantis dropped out of the interminable American presidential primary campaign. Unfortunately, he did so with a quotation incorrectly credited to Sir Winston Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

That is heard as often as the other success misquote: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Yet the sentiments are honorable, whether Churchill said them or not. He did say, for example: “success cannot be guaranteed. There are no safe battles.” (The Second World War IV, 277—thanks for this, Cdr. Larry Kryske.)

The Governor’s line was, however, somewhat inappropriate. If what really counts is “the courage to continue,” DeSantis was saying he lacked the courage. Yet he is demonstrably courageous. So the Churchill quote he wanted was: “…never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.” (And that one is genuine.)

Media frenzy

Immediately, a score of news outlets crowed that DeSantis had misquoted Churchill. It is encouraging that the half-lifetime some of us have spent correcting fake Churchill quotes has its effect. I suspect, however, that the kerfuffle had more to do with piling on the Governor than advancing truth about Churchill.

The cacophony was accompanied by the usual media misinformation. One of the Churchill societies solemnly informed reporters that they had surveyed 50 million words by and about Churchill to prove the line was phony. (That was true in 2013, when I wrote it, but they need to get up to date. Our scans for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project now cover 80 million words.)

Rapidly, Google Alerts for “Winston Churchill” piled up in my in-box. Most of the stories just copied from each other, as usual. But Kenneth Silber’s piece in SpliceToday was original, accurate and balanced, and I thanked him for it. Among other things, Silber credits the admirable QuoteInvestigator.com for tracking the “success” line back to a 1938 Budweiser beer ad. And before that to a 19th century whaler named George Fred Tilton! “Success is not final” has also been ascribed without attribution to Abraham Lincoln.

Other appearances

Churchill’s phony success quotes pop up by the dozens on the web, and even in some poorly researched quote books. But they cannot be found in his 80-million-word canon. Hillsdale’s digital scans include all of his published books, articles, speeches and papers; and words about him by family or colleagues. Moreover, based on editing 5000 quotes in the next edition of my book, Churchill By Himself, I don’t believe it even sounds like him. For what he really said about success—and courage—see links below.

My colleague Bill Schaub reminds me that—unfortunately—“success is not final” etc. is also the very last line you see in the generally exemplary Gary Oldman film Darkest Hour. Bill found a video of the last six minutes on YouTube.

“Governor DeSantis, who I understand is a genuine Churchillian, perhaps relied too much on his memory or was a victim of poor staffwork,” Bill writes. That is so, but thanks for reminding me of Gary Oldman’s stellar performance. It still sends shivers through the spine.

Further reading

“Success: What Churchill Really Said,” 2019.

“Churchillian (Or Yogi Berra) Drift: How Quotations Are Invented,” 2013.

“All the Quotes Winston Churchill Never Said,” 2018.

One remark I love to quote but cannot locate is Churchill’s self avowed quest for fame by “notability or notoriety.” Great word play. The best I can remember is seeing it in one of the early companion volumes of the official biography, edited by his son Randolph. Where may I find it?  —M.L., New Jersey

A: No attribution

By placing “notability” first, Churchill clearly thought it was better to be notable than notorious. Alas, a search of Hillsdale College’s massive digital scans of 80 million words by and about him comes up empty.

The only instance of “notability and notoriety” together is in Manfred Weidhorn‘s “Patterns in Churchill’s Charmed Life” (Finest Hour 99, Summer 1998):

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.

Hits and misses

There are 1000 occurrences of “notability” (including “notable,” etc.) in the Churchill canon, but only 121 for “notoriety.” Being lazy, I looked up the 121.  Alas no reference includes “notability” in the phrase except Professor Weidhorn’s article.

Now Manny Weidhorn is rarely wrong, and was evidently quoting WSC from somewhere. But where? The only Churchill quote that’s even close was in his autobiography My Early Life, 1930 edition, 231. He is writing about his epic escape from the Pretoria prison camp in the Boer War:

I was not to languish as a prisoner. I was to escape, and by escaping was to gain a public reputation or notoriety which made me well-known henceforward among my countrymen, and made me acceptable as a candidate in a great many constituencies.

When it came to painting, at least, Churchill thought notoriety had to be earned by hard work. From “The Academy Reveals Britain’s Brave Gaiety” (Daily Mail, 7 May 1932), reprinted in the Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill (1975), vol.  IV, 105:

Excursions into bizarre impressionism may be accepted from those who have proved their credentials. But slap-dash and short cuts to fame or notoriety are evidently, and rightly, discouraged.

See also:

Manfred Weidhorn, “On Reputation: ‘If Churchill Had Not Been Ousted in 1942,” Hillsdale College Churchill Project, 2023.

“War and Shame”

There are two quotations. The first was Churchill in a letter to Lloyd George on 13 August 1938, just before the Munich Conference, which led to World War II a year later.

I think we shall have to choose in the next few weeks between war and shame, and I have very little doubt what the decision will be.

Reference is Churchill by Himself, page 256, quoting Martin Gilbert, ed., The Churchill Documents, vol. 13, The Coming of War 1936-1939 (Hillsdale College Press, 2009), page 1117.

“We shall choose Shame, and then have War thrown in”

A month later, Churchill wrote to his friend Lord Moyne, explaining why a proposed visit to Moyne in Antigua might be problematic. From Churchill by Himself, page 257, Gilbert page 1155:

We seem to be very near the bleak choice between War and Shame. My feeling is that we shall choose Shame, and then have War thrown in a little later on even more adverse terms than at present.

Coincidentally, the date on WSC’s letter to Lord Moyne was was September 11th.

Misquotes

It is often believed that Churchill addressed a similar remark to Neville Chamberlain directly after Munich. The venue usually cited is the House of Commons. But Churchill never so addressed anyone, in or out of Parliament.  William Manchester’s The Last Lion, vol. 2, which quotes the Moyne remark on page 334, goes on to state (364):

In almost any gathering [after Munich] it would have been indiscreet to remark… “Churchill says the government had to choose between war and shame. They chose shame. They will get war too.”

To end with a red herring, Churchill is sometimes credited in this context with: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” This is tracked to Benjamin Franklin. According to Bartlett’s, it was a common statement before the American Revolution, made as early as 1755. If Churchill ever used it (I cannot track that he did), he was quoting Franklin.

University of Miami, 26 February 1946:

I am surprised that in my later life I should have become so experienced in taking degrees, when, as a school-boy I was so bad at passing examinations. In fact one might almost say that no one ever passed so few examinations and received so many degrees. From this a superficial thinker might argue that the way to get the most degrees is to fail in the most examinations.

This would however, Ladies and Gentlemen, be a conclusion unedifying in the academic atmosphere in which I now preen myself, and I therefore hasten to draw another moral with which I am sure we shall all be in accord: namely, that no boy or girl should ever be disheartened by lack of success in their youth but should diligently and faithfully continue to persevere and make up for lost time. There at least is a sentiment which I am sure the Faculty and the Public, the scholars and the dunces, will all be cordially united upon. —WSC

Churchill on success – guaranteed genuine

Churchill said much about success in life and politics, but he is frequently misquoted. But genuine expressions also exist. Here are some of the things that he actually said, confirmed in Churchill By Himself –in chronological order, with citations:

“You must put your head into the lion’s mouth if the performance is to be a success.” –19 February 1900, South Africa, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria, 1900.

“…do not be carried away by success into demanding more than is right or prudent.” —House of Commons, 3 March 1919

”Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her…. She has lived and thrived only by repeated subjugations.” –My Early Life, 1930

“Of course we realise that success cannot be guaranteed. There are no safe battles.” —The Second World War, IV, 277.  WSC to General Auchinleck, 20 May 1942. He was urging “a trial of strength in Cyrenaica…the survival of Malta is involved.”

”…no boy or girl should ever be disheartened by lack or success in their youth but should diligently and faithfully continue to persevere and make up for lost time.” –Speech, University of Miami (Fla.), 26 February 1946

“Success always demands a greater effort.” –13 December 1940 to Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, Their Finest Hour, 1949

“…no one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.” —Their Finest Hour, 1949

What he never said…

The following are all over the web and included in a number of Churchill quotation books. These are not his words:

• Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. (Broadly attributed to Churchill, but found nowhere in his canon. An almost equal number of sources credit this to Abraham Lincoln; but none provides attribution to either Lincoln or WSC.)

• Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. (No attribution.)

Question: Referring to your posts of quotations Churchill never said, do you know who actually did say “A pes­simist sees the dif­fi­culty in every oppor­tu­nity; an opti­mist sees the oppor­tu­nity in every difficulty”? I find no attribution other than to Churchill.

Pessimist: Not Churchill’s Quip

Answer: Sorry. I can’t track it; nor can my colleague Ralph Keyes, editor of The Quote Verifier.

Like many “red herrings,” the optimist/pessimist quote is all over the web ascribed to Churchill–and not one of those appearances offers a source (speech, book or whatever). If he said it, no one has produced the source.

Churchill did say some amusing and thoughtful things about optimists and pessimists:

We remember the sardonic war-time joke about the optimist and the pessimist. The optimist was the man who did not mind what happened so long as it did not happen to him. The pessimist was the man who lived with the optimist. (1 December, 1938, “How Stand Britain and France Since Munich?” Daily Telegraph; reprinted in Step by Step, first edition, page 293.)

For myself I am an optimist—it does not seem to be much use being anything else…. (9 November 1954, Lord Mayor’s Banquet, Guildhall, London; The Unwritten Alliance, page 195.)

** Optimist: Nice lines about Europe?

In reporting this misquote in The Guardian, 19 June 2017, Mr. David Henley kindly links to this post, while adding:

The great man did, however, come up with a few nice lines about Europe. The “sovereign remedy” to the tragedy of postwar Europe, he said in 1946, was to “re-create the European family … and provide it with a structure under which it can dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. We must build a kind of United States of Europe.” (Zurich University, 19 September 1946)

A little more digging would produce another Churchill reference, from a time when Europe had begun indeed to unite: “We are not members of the European Defence Community, nor do we intend to be merged in a federal European system. We feel we have a special relationship to both.” (House of Commons, 11 May, 1953)

What Churchill really thought about European union is developed herein. See “Zurich +70” and “Britannia Waives the Rules.” Not likely to make The Guardian, I fear.

Quotations are from…

Churchill By Himself (USA) and Churchill in His Own Words (new edition, UK).

“If a man is coming across the sea to kill you, you do everything in your power to make sure he dies before finishing his journey. That may be difficult, it may be painful, but at least it is simple. We are [today] entering a world of imponderables, and at every stage occasions for self-questioning arise. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”  —Winston S. Churchill, 18 February 1945

It was recently asserted that Churchill doesn’t have much to say to us today, and that the only people who use Churchill as a guide nowadays are “over-testosteroned American neocons.” Let me say this about that.

I don’t particularly care what “American neocons” think. Given the money raised and spent, the successes attained, and the enthusiastic reception of Churchill seminars, symposia and teacher institutes over the last forty years on what we can learn from Churchill—by Hillsdale College, the Churchill Centre, Ashland University, the College of William and Mary, George Washington University and the Churchill Museums in London and Fulton, to name a few—such a declaration seems incomprehensible.

The Soames Commandment

Churchill’s daughter’s famous commandment, “Thou shalt not say what my papa would do today,” is broadly misunderstood. She was referring to doctrinaire pronouncements about specific policies: because Churchill did W about X in 1935, he would do Y about Z today. Such a pronouncement is alike futile and foolish.

In a broader sense, however, Lady Soames agreed that his precepts, his principles, can be applied today. For example, her father talked about the primacy of conscience in his eulogy of Neville Chamberlain. He would follow that primacy if he were alive now.

Learning is so essential

Every turn of events has its unique features. Understanding them, and applying principles to them today, is still the challenge. The study of history depends upon finding truths that persist and are understandable across time.

The challenge for leaders today is to judge whether discretion should take priority over boldness, whether diplomacy is a feasible option, and when and where to deploy a bluff. In these areas, Churchill’s experience is an invaluable guide, because human nature is unchanging.

Was Churchill right that the Second World War was preventable? The answer, I think, is yes—at one juncture in particular—but with great difficulty.

Was he right that it is foolish to put off unpleasant reality “until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong”? Undoubtedly. There is nothing that dates that advice.

The sad story of Churchill’s failed attempt to prevent the greatest of wars reminds us once again of a maxim by someone other than he: The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

________

Excerpted from the preface to my book, Churchill and the Avoidable War, an examination of his stance on the issues in the run-up to the Second World War from 1930 to 1939.

Further reading

“Conant, Churchill, and the Harvard of 1943,” 2023.

On the eve of the British General Election, Metro UK declares: “Winston Churchill said the best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

This is alas a reappearance of an ever-popular red-herring quote that Churchill never said.

Churchill had thoughtful critiques of democracy. See in particular his essay on “Mass Effects in Modern Life” in his book, Thoughts and Adventures. But he also had more respect for the average voter than this non-quote suggests. In the House of Commons on 31 October 1944 he said:

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man, walking into the little booth, with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper [we still vote that way in New Hampshire]—no amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.

Churchill’s faith in the people to elect sensible candidates is the cause of some debate on both sides of the Atlantic these days. And yet the fabled “Little Man” has always been able to vote-in the right candidate at the right time, occasionally in last-ditch situations. Of course Churchill assumed the little man would be carrying some valid form of voter ID….

—From remarks at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar, “Churchill’s True Greatness: Lessons for Today,” Denver, April 21st.