Winston Churchill Quotes

(commenting on the Battle of Britain) Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

"We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender."

((speech, 30th March 1940)) Although the fate of Poland stares them in the face, there are thoughtless dilettanti or purblind wordlings who sometimes ask us, `What is it that Britain and France are fighting for?` To this I answer, `If we left off fighting you would soon find out!`

"Golf is a game whose aim it is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose."

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."

"I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught."

"When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite."

"Writing a book is an adventure: it begins as an amusement, then it becomes a mistress, then a master, and finally a tyrant."

"Already by 1900 I could boast I had written as many books as Moses."

"We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us."

Democracy is an awful way to run a country, but it`s the best system we have.

(on the Soviet Union) It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

(upon hearing of the love affair between Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend) What a delightful match. A lovely young royal lady married to a gallant young airman, safe from the perils and horrors of war.

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

(on his deathbed) I`m so bored with it all.

"It is impossible to obtain a conviction for sodomy from an English jury. Half of them don`t believe that it can physically be done, and the other half are doing it."

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

"Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is - the strong horse that pulls the whole cart."

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

"We have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed."

(his view on never finishing a sentence with a preposition) Up with this stupidity I will not put.

"Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party."

"Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times."

"Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm."

"A socialist policy is abhorrent to British ideas on freedom. A socialist state could not afford to suffer opposition - no socialist system can be established without a political police."

How I hated this school, and what a life of anxiety I lived there for more than two years. I made very little progress in my lessons, and none at all at games. I counted the days and the hours to the end of every term, when I should return home from this hateful servitude and range my soldiers in line of battle on the nursery floor. The greatest pleasure I had in those days was reading. When I was nine and a half my father gave me `Treasure Island`, and I remember the delight with which I devoured it. My teachers saw me at once backward and precocious, reading books beyond my years and yet at the bottom of the Form. They were offended. They had large resources of compulsion at their disposal, but I was stubborn. Where my reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or I could not learn.

(responding to an accusation that he was conceived out of wedlock) Although present on the occasion, I have no recollection of the events leading up to it.

"Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts."

"I like a man who grins when he fights."

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity."

(when told by Nancy Astor {aka Lady Astor) that if she were his wife she would poison his tea) If I were your husband, I would drink it.

The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy`s aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.

My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.

Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can`t smile, grin. If you can`t grin, keep out of the way till you can.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.

I`m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

There is no such thing as a good tax.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they`ve tried everything else.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn`t happen.

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.

You have enemies? Good. That means you`ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.

Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.

Never, never, never give up.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.

Most people stumble over the truth, now and then, but they usually manage to pick themselves up and go on, anyway.

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

If you`re going through hell, keep going.

A joke is a very serious thing.

I never worry about action, but only about inaction.

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.

If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.

History is written by the victors.

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.

We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations... The quotations, when engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.

I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

A fanatic is one who can`t change his mind and won`t change the subject.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.

Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.

The first quality that is needed is audacity.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion`s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.

I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.

I am bored with it all.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about.

If you have an important point to make, don`t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

One ought never to turn one`s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

We are asking the nations of Europe between whom rivers of blood have flowed to forget the feuds of a thousand years.

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

Personally I`m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn`t happen.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.

Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiam.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

It is no use saying, `We are doing our best.` You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle

The poor girl does not know how to have a conversation. Unfortunately, she does know how to speak.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it

Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

Soviet Union foreign policy is a puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma, and the key is Russian nationalism.

Civilization will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will

In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity

Censure is often useful, praise is often deceitful

I never worry about action, but only about inaction

The Almighty in His infinite wisdom did not see fit to create Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen.

Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

My education was interrupted only by my schooling

A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. The quotations, when engraved upon the memory, give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

A man is about as big as the things that make him angry

So they (the Government) go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

It is my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you understand the most amusing

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they`d make up their minds.

A joke is a very serious thing

Responsibility is the price of greatness.

It`s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what`s required.

There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the

There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.

All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.

Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us.