Who Dares Wins

For other uses, see Who Dares Wins (disambiguation).

Who Dares Wins (Greek: Ο Τολμών Νικά, O tolmón niká; Latin: Qui audet adipiscitur ; French: Qui ose gagne; Italian: Chi osa vince; Portuguese: Quem ousa vence; German: Wer wagt, gewinnt; Dutch: Wie niet waagt, die niet wint; Hebrew: המעז מנצח) is a motto made popular in the English-speaking world by the British Special Air Service.^[1]

War Grave from L/Cpl Jimmy "Curly" Hall in Les Ormes (Yonne, France)

The German: Wer wagt, gewinnt is attested from at least the 18th century.^[2]

As the motto of the SAS, it is normally credited to its founder, Sir David Stirling.^[3] Among the SAS themselves, it is sometimes humorously corrupted to "Who cares [who] wins?".^[4]

The expression appears in a medieval Arabic book of fairy tales, translated and published in 2014.^[5]

The phrase is the motto of Baron Alvingham of Woodfold in the County Palatine of Lancaster, a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.^[6]

References

1. Tsouras, Peter G. (2005-10-24). The Book of Military Quotations. Zenith Imprint. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-7603-2340-3. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
2. Carl Friedrich Cramer (1777). Klopstock (In Fragmenten aus Briefen von Tellow an Elisa). Hamburg. p. 141.
3. Ferguson, Amanda (March 2003). SAS: British Special Air Service. The Rosen Publishing Group. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8239-3810-0. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
4. Thompson, Leroy (1994). SAS: Great Britain's Elite Special Air Service. Zenith. p. 9. ISBN 978-0879389406.
5. al-hikayat al-'ajiba wa'l-akhbar al-ghariba [Tales of the Marvellous and News of the Strange]. Translated by Malcolm C. Lyons. Penguin. 2014. p. 76. ISBN 9780141395036.
6. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 84. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.