DeSantis' fake Churchill quote: Did he quote a Budweiser ad when he dropped out of the race?

Gov. Ron DeSantis ended his presidential campaign the way he started it: with an embarrassing Twitter post.

His campaign launch in May, broadcast live with billionaire Elon Musk on Musk's social media site Twitter (now called X), was beset with crashes and technical problems that delayed the beginning for over 20 minutes and received mocking scorn from former president and current frontrunner Donald Trump, the rest of Twitter, and President Joe Biden.

When he announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the presidential race with "no clear path to victory," he did so with grave dignity and hope for the future, and with a quote from Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, that the great orator never actually said.

What was the quote DeSantis attributed to Churchill?

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,” is the quote DeSantis used in his post to X announcing his withdrawal from the race.

Community notes added to the post quickly pointed out that Churchill, famed for his pithy sayings, never said this one.

The quote often has been attributed falsely to Churchill, as have many other false quotations, but the International Churchill Society (ICS) debunked it in 2013 when the Atlanta Journal Constitution issued a correction about a quote they first attributed to Max Cleland's father, "Defeat is never fatal. Victory is never final. It’s courage that counts.”

Not only was it not a Churchill quote, the ICS pointed out, it wasn't even the usual misquote.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Smith, we regret to advise that this is a double misquote," the ICS said, "Not only did Churchill never say those words — he never said the similar words more usually attributed to him, which are: 'Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.' We base this on careful research in the canon of fifty million words by and about Churchill, including all of his books, articles, speeches and papers.

The president of the ICS is Randolph Leonard Spencer Churchill, Churchill's great-grandson, so they may be expected to have some authority on the matter.

The ICS pointed out elsewhere that a quote similar to this one has an almost equal number of sources attributing it to Abraham Lincoln, but the organization could find no evidence that the former president said it, either.

Wait, who said that? Your favorite quote probably isn't from the person you think

What is 'Churchillian drift'?

Misquotes, particularly Churchill quotes, are so common they even have their own name.

British writer and quote researcher Nigel Rees coined the term "Churchillian Drift" to describe the "process whereby the actual originator of a quotation is often elbowed to one side and replaced by someone more famous." It's a version of his First Law of Quotations, "When in doubt, ascribe all quotations to George Bernard Shaw."

"The Drift is almost indistinguishable from the First Law, but there is a subtle difference," he said. "Whereas quotations with an apothegmatic feel are normally ascribed to Shaw, those with a more grandiose or belligerent tone are, as if by osmosis, credited to Churchill." Humorous quotes by a woman clearly were all by Dorothy Parker, he said, and any quotes in translation were probably Goethe.

Rees also noted the amazing number of quotes falsely attributed to Oscar Wilde, Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain.

Where did DeSantis' Churchill quote actually come from?

There isn't a single source, as far as anyone has determined. The quote seems to have metastasized over time from a variety of places.

Historian and editor of “Churchill by Himself" Richard M. Langworth included it in a 2009 list of things Churchill never said and added, "These quotations are all over the Internet, none of them attributed, and just seem to multiply and get passed on, like the common cold."

In 2013, quoteinvestigator.com discovered an assortment of citations for similar statements, and through their list one can track its growth and development.

• 1905, “The Principles and Progress of English Poetry” by Charles M. Gayley and Clement C. Young: "Comedy amuses, corrects, and heartens. It shows that the vanities of life are not final, and the failures not always fatal." At this time Churchill had just defected to the Liberal Party in England.

• 1920, "Think; Side Lights, What Others Say, Clinical Cases, Etc." by George Starr White, M.D.: "Success is never final."

• 1921, "Finality" by George Matthew Adams: "So that if you are wise, you will not worry. Your success is not final — nor is your failure. You may always begin again. There is no finality!" This was reprinted in a 1921 encyclopedia, spreading it further.

• 1938, 1939, Budweiser advertisement: "Men with the spirit of youth pioneered our America … men with vision and sturdy confidence. They found contentment in the thrill of action, knowing that success was never final and failure never fatal. It was courage that counted."

• 1948, "Thoughts on the Business of Life" in Forbes Magazine, attributed to George F. Tilton: "Success is never final and Failure never fatal. It’s courage that counts."

• 1961, tribute to Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn: "He held to the belief that success is never final • • • and failure never fatal."

• 1968, speech by college football coach Joe Paterno: "Success is never final; failure is never fatal; the only thing that counts is courage.” The phrase was already being attributed to Churchill by that time. Many other coaches used it, also attributing Churchill.

• 1990, “637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said” by Robert Byrne, crediting football coach Mike Ditka: "Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal."

The latest version of the quote, the one Desantis used, can be found, falsely attributed, in countless quotation websites across the internet.

What other quotes have been falsely attributed to Winston Churchill?

Other quotes often attributed to Churchill that he never said include:

• “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

• "If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain."

• "With integrity, nothing else counts. Without integrity, nothing else counts.”

• "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

• "You have enemies? Good. It means that you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life."

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: DeSantis drops out of race: Was fake Churchill quote from beer ad?