Many posts have discussed fake quotations from Lincoln, Jefferson, Tocqueville, and others.
Rebecca Falconer at Axios:“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 21, 2024
- Winston Churchill pic.twitter.com/ECoR8YeiMm
The big picture: However, there's no evidence the World War II leader ever said: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."That's according to the International Churchill Society, researcher Garson O'Toole's online Quote Investigator and Churchill historian Richard Langworth — all of whom have extensively examined the quote misattributed to the British leader.
Of note: DeSantis' post to X crediting Churchill is the latest example of someone citing him with the apparently fake "courage" quote."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," wrote Langworth in 2011, noting the "courage" quote had also been misattributed to the late President Abraham Lincoln.
Between the lines: Churchill, Lincoln, Albert Einstein and Mark Twain are among the famous people who've often been misquoted in speeches and online posts, scholar and quote researcher Gerald Krieghofer told DW in an article discussing his finding over 500 false quotes misattributed to personalities and his efforts to verify their origins.
