Quotes by Winston Churchill

“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“If it weren't for painting, I wouldn't live; I couldn't bear the extra strain of things.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“It is a fine game to play - the game of politics - and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.”

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”

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

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

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

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

“No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.”

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

“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.”

“One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.”

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

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

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

“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 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.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

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

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