Essay on success is not final failure isn't fatal meaning
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The reason why Winston Churchill once said that, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal — it is the courage to continue that counts,” was because it does take true courage to keep pushing forward. Especially in the face of failure. ... Massive pain is a hallmark of failure.
There is no substantive evidence that Churchill made this remark. The saying is listed in the comprehensive quotation collection “Churchill by Himself” in a special appendix called “Red Herrings: False Attributions”. 1
Richard Langworth, the editor of “Churchill by Himself”, has a website with a webpage indicating that the saying above has been misattributed. Commenting more generally about expressions that are being improperly ascribed to Churchill he stated: 2
These quotations are all over the Internet, none of them attributed, and just seem to multiply and get passed on, like the common cold.
QI hypothesizes that the saying above evolved from simpler partial statements during a multi-year process. A version closely matching the full expression appeared in the 1930s in an advertising campaign for Budweiser beer, a product of the Anheuser-Busch company. Based on current evidence, a copywriter for Budweiser probably synthesized the saying. Details are given further below.
Here are selected citations in chronological order.
In 1905 a volume of literary criticism titled “The Principles and Progress of English Poetry” by Charles M. Gayley and Clement C. Young was published, and it included an interesting precursor of the saying. Boldface has been added to some excerpts: 3
Comedy amuses, corrects, and heartens. It shows that the vanities of life are not final, and the failures not always fatal.
In 1920 a medical doctor named George Starr White published a volume of thoughts that included a variety of sayings and adages. A fragment of the full expression was presented as a freestanding epigram: 4 5
Success is never final.
In 1921 a philosophical essay titled “Finality” by the popular syndicated columnist George Matthew Adams was published in multiple newspapers. A partial version of the saying was included in the essay.