Did Winston Churchill say "You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give"?

Q: Did Winston Churchill say "You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give"?

No. The International Churchill Society lists it among quotes falsely attributed to him, noting that a search of its database of some 2.5 million words of Churchill's returns nothing. The name usually offered instead — Norman MacEwan — is no better established: it circulates only through quotation aggregators, with no book, date or page ever cited. We can tell you confidently who did not say it. We cannot yet tell you who did.

Who really said it

You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give

Not Churchill — and the real author is genuinely unknown Unknown Unattributed · no verified source located

Disputed Rights unconfirmed

The International Churchill Society lists it among quotes falsely attributed to him, noting that a search of its database of some 2.5 million words of Churchill’s returns nothing. The name usually offered instead — Norman MacEwan — is no better established: it circulates only through quotation aggregators, with no book, date or page ever cited. We can tell you confidently who did not say it. We cannot yet tell you who did.

Last verified 20 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give” Author unknown. Not Winston Churchill; the Norman MacEwan attribution is unverified.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Winston Churchill. 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.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Winston Churchill — British statesman, historian and Nobel laureate in Literature. Theme: "You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give". 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 "You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give". 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

The source

Churchill source: None — listed as falsely attributed
Usual alternative: Norman MacEwan — uncorroborated
Earliest appearance: Not established
Amplifier: A 2005 television advertisement

Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Attributed to Norman MacEwan — unverified

The fuller form in which the saying usually appears when it is not credited to Churchill. Treat this text as an attributed variant, not a sourced quotation — we have not seen it in any book, and neither has anyone else who has looked.

International Churchill Society — Quotes Falsely Attributed

How we traced it

The negative is solid. The International Churchill Society — which maintains the largest searchable body of his words in existence — puts it plainly on its falsely-attributed page: a nice quote, but definitely not Churchill ICS ↗.
The positive is not. Air Vice-Marshal Sir Norman MacEwan (1881–1953) is routinely named as the author of the longer version above, but we could find no primary source: no title, no year, no page. Quote Investigator has no entry. We publish the name only as a lead the aggregator claim ↗.
We could not date any pre-internet printing of the saying in either form — an unusual and honest blank. Its modern reach owes a good deal to a 2005 television advertisement that used it, which is an amplifier rather than an origin.

Rights are indeterminate, because authorship has never been fixed. It is not Churchill’s, so his estate’s term to 2035 does not apply. If Norman MacEwan really wrote it, he died in 1953 and the text would have entered the public domain in the UK in 2024 — but that attribution is unverified, so the conclusion cannot be relied on. A short quotation with attribution is low-risk; systematic or commercial reuse cannot be cleared until someone establishes who actually wrote it. This is not legal advice.

Fact-check

The attribution problem

This is the honest shape of many attribution questions: the debunk is firm and the replacement is not. We would rather say ‘unknown’ than hand you a second unsourced name to repeat.

Not Winston Churchill searched and absent

Absent from a searchable database of roughly 2.5 million words of his writing and speech, and listed by the International Churchill Society among the falsely attributed ICS ↗.

Norman MacEwan — unverified no primary source

Widely repeated, never cited. No book, no year, no page has ever been produced. We name him only so you know where the claim comes from, not because it is established.

Arthur Ashe also uncited

Circulates in the form ‘From what we get, we can make a living…’ and is likewise offered without any source.

A 2005 advertisement amplifier, not origin

A corporate television advertisement used the line in 2005, which put it in front of a very large audience. Advertising is a superb distribution channel for a quotation and a terrible one for a citation.

Not Churchill — that much is settled. The real author is unknown, and the Norman MacEwan attribution usually offered in his place has never been traced to a source the ICS list ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

It is built on a single clean antithesis — get against give, living against life — and that symmetry is what makes it so easy to remember and so hard to source. Sayings shaped like proverbs tend to lose their authors early.

It is also exactly the kind of sentiment that benefits from a famous name. Said by nobody in particular it is a pleasant thought; said by a wartime prime minister it acquires gravity it never earned.

The debunk is firm. The replacement is not — so we say unknown.

What we could and could not establish

Established: it is not Churchill’s, on the authority of the largest searchable archive of his words.

Not established: any first printing, in any decade, in either wording.

Not established: the Norman MacEwan attribution — no book, date or page has ever been cited.

Known: a 2005 television advertisement gave the line an enormous audience.

Consequence: because authorship is unfixed, so are the rights — nobody can clear it for commercial reuse.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Kindness Purpose

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quotes Falsely Attributed to Winston Churchillwinstonchurchill.org

The International Churchill Society’s own list, including this quote and the note about its 2.5-million-word database.

The Norman MacEwan attributionquotes.net

A representative instance of the alternative credit — shown here precisely because it carries no citation.

Popularly credited author

Why it gets pinned on Churchill

Winston Churchill

1874–1965 · British statesman, historian and Nobel laureate in Literature

Sir Winston Churchill is the English language’s default author for any sentence that sounds both weighty and quotable, which is why the International Churchill Society runs a standing page of things he never said. This one is a poor fit even on style: the balanced, uplifting cadence belongs to the inspirational-poster tradition, not to a writer whose actual manner was concrete, combative and considerably drier.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

No verified source. Not Winston Churchill (per the International Churchill Society). Commonly but uncorroboratedly attributed to Norman MacEwan (1881–1953).

MLA (9th ed.)

“You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.” Unattributed; commonly credited to Norman MacEwan without citation.

APA (7th ed.)

You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give. [Unattributed saying; commonly credited to N. MacEwan without citation].

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You make a living by what you get, you make a life by what you give’?” Last verified 20 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-make-a-living-by-what-you-get-you-make-a-life-by