“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
Walt Disney
quolira
quolira.com
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
864 / 1028
About this quote
Meaning
Churchill is dismantling two comfortable myths at once: that success is a permanent safe harbor, and that failure is a permanent ending. Neither outcome, he argues, is the true measure of a person or an endeavor. What actually matters is the determination to keep moving forward regardless of where one currently stands, because persistence is the only quality that transforms circumstances over time.
Context
This quote is frequently attributed to Winston Churchill and is entirely consistent with the themes he returned to throughout his wartime speeches and writings. However, researchers and historians have noted that the precise wording has not been reliably traced to a specific verified source in his documented work. It is possible the line evolved over time through quotation and paraphrase. Whether or not it appears word for word in his original texts, the sentiment captures the spirit Churchill projected publicly during some of the most difficult periods in modern British history, when he consistently urged people not to treat setbacks as conclusions.
About the author
Winston Churchill served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War and again in the early 1950s. He was also a prolific writer and historian who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. His wartime speeches are studied as examples of rhetorical leadership, credited by many historians with helping to sustain public resolve during a period of profound national crisis. Churchill was a complex figure whose long political career included both celebrated achievements and significant controversies. He died in 1965.
Up next
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
Steve Jobs · Stanford University commencement, 2005
“You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
Zig Ziglar
“Do not grieve over what has passed, and do not be overjoyed by what has come to you.”
Luqman · Attributed in classical Arabic wisdom literature
“Silence is wisdom, yet few practice it.”
Luqman · Widely attributed in classical Arabic wisdom literature
“We commanded man to be good to his parents. His mother carried him with increasing weakness, and his weaning takes 2 years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:14
“Be modest in your bearing and lower your voice, for the ugliest of all voices is the braying of asses.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:19
“Do not turn your nose up at people, nor walk about the place arrogantly, for God does not love arrogant or boastful people.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:18
“O my son, keep up the prayer, command what is right, forbid what is wrong, and bear with patience whatever befalls you. These are matters of great determination.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:17
“O my son, even if a deed were the weight of a mustard seed and hidden inside a rock or anywhere in the heavens or earth, God would bring it forth. God is all-subtle, all-aware.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:16
“O my son, do not associate anything with God. Associating others with Him is a tremendous wrong.”
Luqman · Quran, Surah Luqman 31:13
“Alone protects me.”
Sherlock Holmes · BBC Sherlock, Series 2, Episode 1: A Scandal in Belgravia, 2012
