This is a proverb, and proverbs do not have authors. Quote Investigator ↗ finds the earliest exact English match in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine for September 1875, in a collection of Haitian sayings gathered by John Bigelow: “A stumble is not a fall; or, One error is not ruin.” The precise wording quoted today appears in a 1950 proverb collection, filed under Portuguese. QI says Malcolm X received credit only in the 2000s — “which is very late” — and finds nothing to support it.
“Stumbling is not falling” Not Malcolm X — a traditional proverb. Earliest exact English match: a Haitian saying in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, September 1875; this wording listed as Portuguese in Champion’s Racial Proverbs, 1950.
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Malcolm X. Use the credit shown above instead.
Can you use it?
? We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.
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In context
Evoking the themes of resilience and failure. Theme: "Stumbling is not falling". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Stumbling is not falling". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where the proverb actually comes from
Earliest exact match
Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, September 1875
Collected by
John Bigelow, in ‘The Wit and Wisdom of the Haytians’
Butté pas tombé. — A stumble is not a fall; or, One error is not ruin.
John Bigelow, 'The Wit and Wisdom of the Haytians', Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September 1875
The Creole and the English as Quote Investigator reproduces them from the 1875 magazine. The wording in circulation today — ‘Stumbling is not falling’ — is the form printed in Selwyn Gurney Champion’s Racial Proverbs in 1950, as item 169 of the Portuguese section. Two different collectors, two different languages, one very old idea.
The earliest exact English match Quote Investigator locates ↗ is in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine for September 1875, in a series called ‘The Wit and Wisdom of the Haytians’ by John Bigelow. The proverb is given in Creole as ‘Butté pas tombé’ and rendered “A stumble is not a fall; or, One error is not ruin.” Bigelow was an American diplomat and editor who had spent time in Haiti collecting sayings who he was ↗.
The exact modern wording turns up in 1950, in Racial Proverbs: A Selection of the World’s Proverbs Arranged Linguistically, edited by Selwyn Gurney Champion — where “Stumbling is not falling.” is item 169 of the Portuguese section. QI also concludes the adage grew out of precursors in the 1600s and 1700s, so neither the Haitian nor the Portuguese filing is a claim of ultimate origin QI’s chronology ↗.
Against all of that, the Malcolm X credit is recent and unsupported. QI states plainly that he “received credit in the 2000s which is very late”, pointing to a 2005 newspaper item, and finds no historical evidence for it. Wikiquote’s Malcolm X page ↗ does not carry the line anywhere — it has no Misattributed or Disputed section at all, only sourced quotations and quotations about him.
We assert no rights status. A traditional proverb has no author to hold a copyright, and the 1875 Bigelow material is old enough to be free of United States copyright in any case — but the exact English wording on this page is one we can only trace to a 1950 compilation, and we have not established the status of that edition. Where the wording’s first printing is uncertain, we would rather claim nothing. This is not legal advice.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
Often misattributed
The line is quoted as Malcolm X almost everywhere online. The credit is about forty years younger than he is.
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The popular creditMalcolm X first seen in the 2000s
Quote Investigator states that Malcolm X “received credit in the 2000s which is very late”, pointing to a 2005 newspaper item, and finds no historical evidence for the attribution. He died in 1965 QI on the attribution ↗.
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What the reference work saysWikiquote silence
Wikiquote’s Malcolm X page collects his sourced quotations and has no Misattributed or Disputed section at all. This line does not appear on it in any form the page ↗.
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The older trailA Haitian proverb, then a Portuguese one 1875 and 1950
Bigelow printed ‘Butté pas tombé’ — “A stumble is not a fall” — in Harper’s in September 1875, and Champion’s Racial Proverbs listed the exact modern wording among Portuguese sayings in 1950 the chronology ↗.
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Also creditedOprah Winfrey 2016, and not the same sentence
In a 2016 commencement address at Johnson C. Smith University she said “every stumble is not a fall, and every fall does not mean failure” — a variation on a proverb that was already in print long before QI on the 2016 speech ↗.
✓A proverb, not a quotation: in English print as a Haitian saying by 1875 and filed as Portuguese in 1950, decades before anyone attached Malcolm X’s name to it Quote Investigator ↗.
Context
Why proverbs get famous names
A proverb has no owner, which makes it oddly unstable in a world of quotation graphics. An unattributed line looks unfinished; adding a famous name makes it shareable. So proverbs drift upward toward whoever the audience already admires.
Malcolm X is a natural destination for this one. The sentiment — a setback is not a defeat — sits close enough to what he actually said about struggle that nobody thinks to check, and the sentence is short enough to sound like oratory rather than folklore.
An unattributed line looks unfinished. A famous name makes it shareable.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1925–1965 · American Muslim minister and human-rights activist
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; 1925–1965) was an American Muslim minister and one of the most forceful orators of the civil-rights era, the Nation of Islam’s national spokesman before his break with it in 1964 and his assassination the following year. He is a heavy magnet for unsourced aphorisms because he genuinely produced short, hard, quotable sentences — so a compact maxim about perseverance sounds like him even when it is a Haitian proverb collected a half-century before he was born.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest documented appearance
Earliest exact English match: John Bigelow, 'The Wit and Wisdom of the Haytians', Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, September 1875, rendering the Haitian proverb ‘Butté pas tombé’. This exact wording: Racial Proverbs: A Selection of the World’s Proverbs Arranged Linguistically, ed. Selwyn Gurney Champion, 2nd edn (1950), Portuguese section, item 169. Traced by Quote Investigator.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Stumbling is not falling’?” Last verified 4 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/stumbling-is-not-falling/