Winston Churchill? John Randall Dunn? J. Woodruff Smith? Douglas Bloch? Linda Crew? Mario Murillo? Brian Mulroney? Wally Amos? Ron Kenoly? Unknown
Dear Quote Investigator: Winston Churchill is often associated with quotations about steadfastness and tenacity. Consider the following saying:
If you’re going through hell, keep going.
I have never seen any solid citations of these words attributed to Prime Minister Churchill, but I have seen this statement several times in relation to him being famous in Britain.
Someone once asked a man how he was. He replied, “I’m going through hell!” Said his friend: “Well, keep on going. That is no place to stop!” If you seem to be going through the deep waters of physical anguish and cannot for the moment seem to gain the understanding which binds the strong man, keep on going—keep on clinging to Truth, and hear again the comforting, strengthening message, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” God, divine Love, is eternally sustaining His child, and will “bind the power of pain” as surely as the summer sun will melt the stubborn frost.
John Randall Dunn, a lecturer and editor in the field of Christian Science, penned the aforementioned passage, while an unidentified gentleman and his undisclosed companion were credited with the dialogue.
A man who was going through deep waters of fear called a Christian Science practitioner. In anguish he cried, “Oh, you don’t know what I’m going through. I’m just going through hell.” With vigor his helper replied, “That’s no place to stop. Keep going.” There was a short silence. Then a ripple of amusement followed by a wave of laughter as the mesmerism burst.
Here are extra chosen references in sequential arrangement.
When someone says, “I’m going through hell,” the best response is to tell them, “Don’t stop!” Bloch maintains. If we see that pain, grief and tough times are a process and that it will get better, we’re less likely to get stuck in the hell.
Additionally, in a 2014 citation below, Bloch denied taking credit for the phrase and attributed it to Winston Churchill.
He studied me for a moment. “You do seem to be under a lot of stress with this. Why don’t you consider just taking a breather? Even if you’re determined to go on, nothing says you have to do it right away.”
No, I had to be done with this one way or the other. You know what they say—when you’re going through hell, for Pete’s sake, don’t stop.
Life is just a test. This is only a test.—Kevin Gerald
When you’re going through hell, don’t stop.—Mario Murillo
Never, never, never, never quit.—Sir Winston Churchill
The evangelist was attributed as Murillo Mario saying. The remark adjacent to Churchill was credited with that note. Sometimes, reassignment and confusion have resulted in contiguous quotations, and if QI does not know, an error was introduced at this point.
Andreas closed the meeting by admitting he and the company had been through tough times lately. He said Mulroney asked him if the press had been giving him hell. When Andreas said such was the case, Mulroney quoted Sir Winston Churchill: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
“A friend of mine gave me a wonderful quote,” he said. “‘When you’re going through hell, don’t stop to take pictures.”‘
During his performance, Kenoly offered this message to audience members who were going through tough times in their lives: “If you catch hell don’t hold it. If you’re going through hell, don’t stop. Here’s what you do: You go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Don’t stop.”
“When you’re going through hell, keep on going.” — Winston Churchill
Hello my name is Douglas Bloch. I am an author and a depression survivor, and I’d like to share something to you that means a lot to both Noah and myself. It’s a phrase called “When going through hell, don’t stop”.
Now, I first heard this when I was on a radio show in 1989 in California with a minister talking about affirmations, and he used this phrase, and I thought it was very, very clever. So I asked him after the show “How did you come up with it?” He said it was actually his take on a phrase that Winston Churchill had used called “When going through hell, keep going”.
The second earliest citation in the periodical Science Christian in 1969 was also in the year. It was anonymously attributed but in the form of a dialogue in the same periodical Science Christian in the year 1943, with circulation saying the conclusion.
No substantive evidence has been found to support the claim that Winston Churchill died in 1965. There is no substantial evidence to suggest that Churchill used the expressions “keep going” or “don’t stop” in his speeches or writings. In the years following his death, attributions to him only started to appear.
Image Notes: Flames from PublicDomainPictures at Pixabay. The image has been edited by cropping and resizing.
Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude to Fabrizio Benedetti for informing me that Douglas Bloch had disclaimed credit for the phrase in a 2014 YouTube video. I would also like to thank Charles Doyle from the University of Georgia for providing assistance with citations from 1943 and 1969. Furthermore, I am grateful to Charles Doyle from the University of Georgia for helping with citations from 1943. Also, I would like to extend my appreciation to the librarians at the Bethel Seminary St. Paul, Minnesota, for their assistance in verifying citations from 1994. Lastly, I would like to thank George Mannes for guiding my exploration and helping me formulate this question through his query on QI.
Revision History: On January 29, 2016, the references from 1943, 1969, and 2014 were included, and the article underwent partial rewording.