Did Churchill ever make a three word speech, “Never Give Up,” and then just sit down? —A.S., Riga, Latvia

That story is all over the web, constantly repeated. But it is entirely wrong. I think it springs from the many inaccurate “wit and wisdom” quote books.

A: “In” not “up,” and more than three words

The three words (“in” not “up”) were part of Churchill’s 20-minute speech to the boys at Harrow, his old school, when he attended their annual songfest (“Songs”) on 29 October 1941. The full speech is in Robert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches (New York: Bowker, 1974) and in Churchill’s speech volume The Unrelenting Struggle (London: Cassell, Boston: Little Brown, 1942).

The salient portion, from Churchill by Himself, is as follows:

This is the lesson: never give in, never give in…in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy…. Do  not  let  us speak of darker days; let us rather speak of sterner days. These  are  not  dark  days:  these  are  great days—the greatest days our country  has  ever  lived; and  we  must  all  thank God that we have been allowed,  each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.

(And, for the umpteenth time, when he said “race” he meant “people.”)

Misreported at Columbia

In 2017 it was incorrectly reported that a three-word speech “never give in” was made at Columbia University, New York in 1946, a fortnight after his famous “Iron Curtain” address at Fulton, Missouri. His speech at Columbia was brief but poignant. It began with words we might well direct at Columbia today:

In my heart there is no abiding hatred for any great race on the surface of the globe. I earnestly hope that there will be no pariah nations after the guilty are fully punished. We have to look forward to a broader, fairer world….

Thus walking forward together, with no aim of subjugation or material profit or sordid interest, marching forward together we may render at this juncture a service to humanity which no countries before have ever had the honour to do.

Q: Did WSC define a “fanatic”?

Can you verify whether or not Churchill said: “A fanatic is someone who won’t change his mind and won’t change the subject”?  —T.M., Ontario, Canada

A: Not Churchill

The maxim may well be true (and often applicable), but it is not Churchill’s. From Churchill by Himself, the “Red Herrings” appendix (unattributed quotes):

“Often attributed to Churchill or President Truman. Ralph Keyes, editor, The Quote Verifier, writes: ‘It’s a quotation I see often, but without a source. I doubt that it’s Truman, or, if he ever said it, that the quotation originated with him.’”

More on false Churchill quotes

“All the Quotes Churchill Never Said,” in four parts beginning here, 2018.

“Fake Churchill Calumny: Subsidiary Emissions from the Odd Crater,” 2020.

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

“Fake Quotes: Lady Astor and Other Women Nemeses,” 2021.

“A-Z Quotes: A Cornucopia of Things Churchill Never Said,” 2018.

Carlos Marin, “‘Surely Churchill Said That?’ The Expanding Lexicon of the False Quote,” 2021.

That one lies with Cordell Hull

It was Franklin Roosevelt‘s Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, not Churchill. I have a slight variation of it in the “Red Herrings” appendix of  Churchill by Himself, page 576: “A lie will gallop halfway round the world before the truth has time to pull its breeches on.”  Although commonly ascribed to Churchill (who would have said “trousers,” not “breeches”), this is definitely down to Hull. See Memoirs of Cordell Hull. 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1948), I, 220.

From Wikipedia: Cordell Hull (1871-1955) was an American politician from Tennessee. He is best known as the longest-serving Secretary of State, holding the position for eleven years (1933–1944) in the administration of President Roosevelt during much of World War II. Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations, and was referred to by Roosevelt as the “Father of the UN.”

Hull resigned as Secretary of State in November 1944 because of failing health. Roosevelt described Hull, upon his departure, as “the one person in all the world who has done his most to make this great plan for peace (the United Nations) an effective fact.” He died on 23 July 1955 at age 83, at his home in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea in the Washington National Cathedral.

Winston Churchill on Lies and Lying

As a practicing politician Winston Churchill had a passing acquaintance with lies. It seems he had more affection for them than Cordell Hull. “In wartime,” he famously told Stalin at Teheran in 1943, “Truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” Stalin, who relied on lies regularly, found this uproariously funny.

Less known but more along Hull’s line is a 1906 Churchill crack—but he didn’t originate it. “There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world. And the worst of it is that half of them are true.” (Sounds like Yogi Berra!) That also made my “Red Herrings” appendix. While Churchill used the words, he quickly credited them to a “witty Irishman.”

One original we safely ascribe to Churchill ran in the Daily Telegraph in 1994, from Vice-Admiral Sir William Crawford (1907-2003). It is a line all politicians should subscribe to, but few ever admit they do. On a visit to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow in 1941, Churchill boarded HMS Rodney. Its officers lined up on the deck to receive him. One asked: “Prime Minister, is everything you tell us true?”

“Young man,” said Churchill, “I have told many lies for the good of my country. I will tell many more.”