churchill quotations

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

Lady Astor to Churchill: "Winston, if I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee."
Winston: "Nancy, if I were your husband I'd drink it."

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

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

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.

Bessie Braddock "Winston, you're drunk"
Churchill "Bessie, you're ugly. But tomorrow I will be sober".

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

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

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

When asked to name the chief qualification a politician should have.

"It's the ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year --- and to explain afterward why it didn't happen."

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

If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

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

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.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

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

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

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

Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.

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

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

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

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

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

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma

The water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add whiskey. By diligent effort, I learned to like it.

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

When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.

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.

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

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

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

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

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it.

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

Where does the family start ? It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl - no superior alternative has yet been found.

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

Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.

Do not criticize your government when out of the country. Never cease to do so when at home.

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.

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

My taste is simple; I am eisily satisfied with the best.

All men are equal and all distinctions between them are unhealthy and undemocratic.

It is a very fine thing to refuse an invitation, but it is a good thing to wait until you get it first.

Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library.

If one has to submit, it is wasteful not to do so with the best grace possible.

Things do not get better by being left alone. Unless they are adjusted, they explode with a shattering detonation.

Golf is like chasing a quinine pill around a pasture.

The fear of God produces bigotry and superstition.

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

The United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there's no limit to the power it can generate.

(On being told that his fly was open) A dead bird does not leave its nest.

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

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

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

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

The price of greatness is responsibility.

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

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

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

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

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

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.