Churchill reputedly said, “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never!” That was the whole speech, then he sat down! Or at least, that’s the legend, which I’d heard—and spread!—before learning the whole story. Turns out, Churchill did say those words, but they were tucked into a longer, 740-word speech.2 Where did the legend of a one-line speech come from? My guess is that “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never!” was the one line everyone remembered. And Churchill must have delivered it with “a tremendous whack” (as he advised others to do).
