Quotes by Winston Churchill

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The difference between mere management and leadership is communication.

There is no working middle course in wartime.

We shall never surrender.

Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend.

Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.

Kites rise highest against the wind -- not with it.

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

Great and good are seldom the same man.

War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Never, never, never give up.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

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

Truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but, in the end, there it is.

They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

Where my reason, imagination, or interest were not engaged, I would not or could not learn.

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

My dear, you are ugly; but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

Danger, if met head on, can be nearly halved.

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

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.

We The British have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy.

The chief aim of wisdom is to enable one to bear with the stupidity of the ignorant.

When I was younger I made it a rule never to take a strong drink before lunch. Now it is my rule never to do so before breakfast.

Strategy is all very well, but it pays to give thought from time to time to the results.

This is the lesson: Never give in ... never, never, never, never... in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in except to convictions of honor or good taste.

The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.

Experts should be on tap but never on top.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick himself up and carry on.

I neither want it Brandy nor need it, but I should think it pretty hazardous to interfere with the ineradicable habit of a lifetime.

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

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.

There's something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.

Smoking cigars is like falling in love; first you are attracted to its shape; you stay with it for its flavour; and you must always remember never, never let the flame go out.

A baboon in a forest is a matter of legitimate speculation; a baboon in a zoo is an object of public curiosity; but a baboon in your wife's bed is a cause of the gravest concern.

We would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved.

We make our buildings and afterwards they make us. They regulate the course of our lives.

The United States is like giant boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it, there is no limit to the power it can generate.

Politics is not a game, but a serious business.

To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often.

Politics is more dangerous than war, for in war you are only killed once.

Never was so much owed by so many to so few.

The press is easier to strangle than to look in the eyes.

The only guide to man is his conscience.

Hatred plays the same part in government as acid in chemistry.

Writing ... it begins as an amusement, then it becomes a mistress, then a master, and finally a tyrant.

What is adequacy? Adequacy is no standard at all.

Much as war attracts me and fascinates my mind with its tremendous situations, I feel more deeply every year ... what vile and wicked folly and barbarism it all is.

Never pass up the chance to sit down or go to the bathroom.

This beginning with Audacity, or being thrown into the middle of it, is already a very great part of the art of painting.

For the first time I heard shots fired in anger, heard bullets strike flesh or whistle through the air.

Do you know why the nose of the bull dog is sloped backwards? So it can keep on breathing without ever letting go.

The maxim of the British people is 'business as usual.'

I have not become the Kings First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.

Christopher Columbus was the first socialist: he didn't know where he was going, he didn't know where he was? and he did it all at taxpayers expense.

In war, truth is often the first casualty.

A world united is better than a world divided, but a world divided is better than a world destroyed.

The only way a man can remain consistent amid changing circumstances is to change with them while preserving the same dominating purpose.

Never stand when you can sit, and never sit when you can lie down.

We build dwellings and thereafter they build us.

Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths without giving offense.

He spoke with more eloquence than wisdom.

I never slept as soundly as the night following Pearl Harbor. For I knew that The American Race would now be entering the war and it would never be the same.

Americans are a wonderful people: They will always do the right thing -- after exhausting every other possible alternative.

In Franklin Roosevelt there died the greatest American friend we have ever known -- and the greatest champion of freedom who has ever brought help and comfort from the New World to the Old.

Where there is a great deal of free speech there is always a certain amount of foolish speech.

Say what you have to say and the first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending -- sit down.

Even the most eminent persons are subject to the laws of gravity.

In Great Britain, governments often change their policies without changing their men. In France, they usually change their men without changing their policy.

Watch your actions, they become your habits.

I would tell myself that I was about to address the largest mass assembly of idiots ever gathered in the history of mankind.

Don't deliver an essay with so many points. No one can absorb it. Just say one thing... Of course, you can say the point in many different ways over and over again with different illustrations.

When eagles are silent, parrots begin to chatter.

An iron curtain has descended over Europe.

We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonalty. But we have our own dreams 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.

Perfecting and selling your writing is a lifelong task. If you are a persistent writer, you can expect your abilities to improve with time. Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.

It is no use dealing with illusions and make-believes. We must look at the facts. The world ... is too dangerous for anyone to be able to afford to nurse illusions. We must look at realities.

Curse ruthless time! Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is the allotted span for all we must cram into it!

War, which used to be cruel and magnificent has now become cruel and squalid.

A medal glitters, but it also casts a shadow.

Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory. He who enjoys it wields a power more durable than that of a great king. He is an independent force in the world.

I have had to eat my own words many times, and I have found it a very nourishing diet.

It is one thing to see the forward path and another to be able to take it. But it is better to have an ambitious plan than none at all.

If, however, there is to be a war of nerves let us make sure our nerves are strong and are fortified by the deepest convictions of our hearts.

We were not made by Nature to work, or even to play, from eight o'clock in the morning till midnight. We ought to break our days and our marches into two.

A heightened sense of the observation of nature is one of the chief delights that have come to me through trying to paint.

At one side of the palette there is white, at the other black; and neither is ever used neat.

The monarchy is so extraordinarily useful. When Britain wins a battle she shouts, God save the Queen; when she loses, she votes down the prime minister.

It is easier to give directions than advice, and more agreeable to have the right to act, even in a limited sphere, than the privilege to talk at large.

There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring.

The most frightful of all spectacles is the strength of the civilization without its mercy.

Our free trade plan is quite simple. We say that every citizen shall have the right to buy whatever he wants, wherever he wants, at his own good pleasure, without restriction or discouragement from the state.

I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British instead of the other way around, I might have gotten here on my own.

My education was interrupted only by my schooling.

They said it was only a ground shark; but I was not wholly reassured. It is as bad to be eaten by a ground shark as by any other.

Most of the significant contributions that have been made to society have been made by people who were tired.

I play for high stakes and given an audience -- there is no act too daring or too noble.

Socialism is an attack on the right to breathe freely. No socialist system can be established without a political police.

It always looks so easy to solve problems by taking the line of least resistance.

The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.

Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object worship of the state.

I myself find waiting more tiring than action.

A love of tradition has never weakened a nation.

Without courage all other virtues lose their meaning.

If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

I am a sporting man. I always like to give trains and aeroplanes a fair chance of getting away.

I am weary of a task which is done and I hope I shall not shrink when the aftermath ends. My only wish is to live peacefully out the remaining years -- if years they be.

There is a good saying to the effect that when a new book appears one should read an old one. As as author I would not recommend too strict an adherence to this saying.

An aphorism is not an aphorism unless you know what it means.

The is always much to be said for not attempting more than you can do and for making a certainty of what you try. But this principle, like others in life and war, has it exceptions.

Censure is often useful, praise is often deceitful.

The Russians will try all the rooms in a house, enter those that are not locked, and when they come to one that cannot be broken into, they will withdraw and invite you to dine genially that same evening.

An American diplomat is sometimes like a bull who carries his own china shop around with him.

I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.

The person of truth must be covered with bodyguards of lies.

A small lie needs a bodyguard of bigger lies to protect it.

Everything trends towards catastrophe and collapse. I am interested, geared up and happy. Is it not horrible to be built like that?

I propose that 100,000 degenerate Britons should be forcibly sterilized and others put in labour camps to halt the decline of the British race.

The British people are good all through. You can test them as you would put a bucket into the sea and always find it salt.

I began my education at a very early age; in fact, right after I left college.

There is no sphere of human thought in which it is easier to show superficial cleverness and the appearance of superior wisdom than in discussing questions of currency and exchange.

Science bestowed immense new powers on man, and at the same time, created conditions which were largely beyond his comprehension.

Socialism would gather all power to the supreme party and party leaders, rising like stately pinnacles above their vast bureaucracies of civil servants no longer servants, no longer civil.

Civilisation 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 stand in awe.

The shortest road to ruin is to emulate the methods of your adversary.

I do not resent criticism, even when for the sake of emphasis; it parts for the time with reality.

If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.

You may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman, or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together- what do you get? The sum of their fears.

Where there is great power, there is great responsibility.

Opening amenities are often opening inanities.

I think it would be so much better for me to learn something which would be useful to me in the army, as well as affording me exercise and amusement.

When I look round to see how we can win the war, I see that there is only one sure path ... and that is absolutely devastating, exterminating attack by very heavy bombers from this country upon the Nazi homeland.

The influence exercised over the human mind by apt analogies is and has always been immense. Whether they translate an established truth into simple language or whether they adventurously aspire to reveal the unknown, they are among the most formidable weapons of the rhetorician.

The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it. The fighters are our salvation, but the bombers alone provide the means of victory.

Today I may way before an awestruck world; I am still master of my fate. I am still captain of my soul.

The game of life does not proceed like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes they make five, or minus four, and sometimes the blackboard topples over in the middle of the sum and the pedagogue is left with a black eye.

It is not open to the cool bystander ... to set himself up as an impartial judge of events which would never have occurred had he outstretched a helping hand in time.

I get my exercise being a pallbearer for those of my friends who believed in regular running and calisthenics.

I could not help reflecting that the bullet which had struck the chestnut horse had certainly passed within a foot of my head. So at any rate I had been 'under fire.' That was something.

One cannot leap a chasm in two jumps.

The flame of Christian ethics is still our highest guide.

Woe betide the leaders now perched on their dizzy pinnacles of triumph if they cast away at the conference table what the soldiers had won on a hundred bloodsoaked battlefields.

In battles two things are usually required of the Commander-in-Chief: to make a good plan for his army and, secondly, to keep a strong reserve.

There is not much collective security in a flock of sheep on the way to the butcher.

It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.

The substance of the eminent Socialist gentlemen's speech is that making a profit is a sin. It is my belief that the real sin is taking a loss!

Elderly people and those in authority cannot always be relied upon to take enlightened and comprehending views of what they call the indiscretions of youth.

Fancy cutting down all those beautiful trees...to make pulp for those bloody newspapers, and calling it civilisation.

When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.

And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred.

We must not lose our faculty to dare, particularly in dark days.

The one who cannot see that on Earth a big endeavor is taking place, an important plan, on which realization we are allowed to collaborate as faithful servants, certainly has to be blind.

Let the children have their night of fun and laughter, let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures.

I let the argument rip healthily between the departments. This is a very good way to finding out the truth.

Saving is a fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you.

Success is never final.

The love of a foster mother for her charge appears absolutely irrational.

We are all functioning at a small fraction of our capacity.

Advertising nourishes the consuming power of men. It sets up before a man the goal of a better home, better clothing, better food for himself and his family. It spurs individual exertion and greater production.

It has not fallen to your lot to command great armies. You had to create them, organize them and inspire them.

The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen's lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.

I look like a down-and-out drunk who has been picked out of the gutter in the Strand.

Have no fear of the future. Let us go forward into its mysteries, tear away the veils which hide it from our eyes, and move onwards with confidence and courage.

Time and the Ocean and some guiding star and High Cabal have made us what we are.

There is a place for everyone, man and woman, old and young, hale and halt; service in a thousand forms is open. There is no room now for the dilettante, the weakling, for the shirker, or the sluggard. From the highest to the humblest tasks, all are of equal honor; all have their part to play.

The high roads of the future will be clear, not only for us but for all, not only for our time but for a century to come.

I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.

One must regard the hyphen as a blemish to be avoided wherever possible.

Appeasement is feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last.

The jury system has come to stand for all we mean by English justice. The scrutiny of 12 honest jurors provides defendants and plaintiffs alike a safeguard from arbitrary perversion of the law.

Little did we guess that what has been called the century of the common man would witness as its outstanding feature more common men killing each other with greater facilities than any other five centuries together in the history of the world.

He is like a female llama surprised in her bath.

Please put the ladybug outside without harming her.

The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

Expert knowledge is limited knowledge.

Armed with a paint-box, one cannot be bored, one cannot be left at a loose end, one cannot have several days on one's hands.

No one ever finds life worth living -- one has to make it worth living.