Winston Churchill

Every line we carry

Each one links to its source, what it means, and the shirt in any of our looks.

1. Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to failure.

   Churchill, at fifty-five, wrote this as a direct appeal to young readers. A first no is usually just the opening position. Keep coming back until the answer changes.

   My Early Life (1930), ch. 4, Original English (My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth, 1930)

2. Make all kinds of mistakes. Stay generous, true, and fierce.

   Churchill tells the young they will get plenty wrong, and that this is fine. What matters is the spirit: generous, honest and fierce. With those three, your mistakes do little lasting harm.

   My Early Life (1930), ch. 4, Original English (My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth, 1930)

3. In life's steeplechase, always jump the fences when they come.

   Churchill was nervous when first asked to give a public speech, and took it anyway. Chances arrive on their own schedule, not yours. Jump when the fence is in front of you.

   My Early Life (1930), Original English (My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth, 1930)

4. When misfortunes come, they may be saving you from something much worse.

   Churchill wonders whether an injured shoulder that kept him from using a sword at Omdurman saved his life. Bad luck sometimes turns out to be cover. Wait before deciding what a setback means.

   My Early Life (1930), Original English (My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth, 1930)

5. No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.

   Churchill loved riding as a young cavalry officer and told parents to give their sons horses rather than money. Time outdoors on a horse, a board or a bike is never wasted. Get in the saddle.

   My Early Life (1930), ch. 4, Original English (My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth, 1930)

6. You have not an hour to lose. Take your place in life's fighting line.

   Writing after the First World War, Churchill tells young people the world needs them now. Youth is not a waiting room. Step into the line.

   My Early Life (1930), ch. 4, Original English (My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth, 1930)

7. Don't be content with things as they are.

   Churchill follows this with 'The earth is yours and the fulness thereof.' Accepting the world as given is a choice, not a duty. Improve something.

   My Early Life (1930), ch. 4, Original English (My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth, 1930)

8. It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

   Churchill skipped university and educated himself in India with books, including Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Good lines plant good thoughts and send you looking for the authors. Start with a quote, then read the book.

   My Early Life (1930), ch. 9, Original English (My Early Life: A Roving Commission, Thornton Butterworth, 1930)

9. Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

   Churchill wrote this at twenty-three about cavalry returning from a skirmish. Surviving real danger leaves a rush nothing else gives. The line is half joke and all true: the near miss makes you feel alive.

   The Story of the Malakand Field Force (1898), ch. 10, Original English (The Story of the Malakand Field Force, 1898)