Winston Churchill Quotes (492 Quotes)


    Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.

    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.

    Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour'.

    Half my lifetime I have earned my living by selling words, and I hope thoughts.

    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.


    It may be that we shall, by a process of sublime irony, have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation.

    There is scarcely anything more important in the government of men than the exact I will ever say pedantic observance of the regular forms by which the guilt or innocence of accused persons is determined.

    They are clearly very much in love. It must be the end of a series of nightmare years for Camilla, every day reading in the papers about being the mistress this and that. They are entitled to have their own happiness the same as everyone else.

    At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man walking into the little booth with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper.

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

    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.

    Never give up. Never, never give up. We shall go on to the end.

    It wouldnt make much sense to increase the penalty for bigamy. A bigamist has two mothers-in-law, and thats punishment enough.



    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.

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

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

    It is hard, if not impossible, to snub a beautiful womanthey remain beautiful and the rebuke recoils.


    I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.'

    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.

    For myself I am an optimist -- it does not seem to be 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.

    Nothing is so exhilarating in life as to be shot at with no result.

    So they told me how Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.

    There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if, when it comes, it is far worse or much harder to win.

    Decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent. Of Stanley Baldwins policies.

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


    A communist is like a crocodile when it opens its mouth you cannot tell whether it is trying to smile or preparing to eat you up.

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


    The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars England he should have said Britain, of course always wins one battle the last. Eleutherios Venizelos, 1864-1936, Greek statesman.

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


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

    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.

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

    Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon.

    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.

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


    Related Authors


    Yitzhak Shamir - Vincente Fox - Tony Blair - Rajiv Gandhi - Mikhail Gorbachev - Jacques Chirac - Hugo Chavez - Hu Jintao - Hosni Mubarak - Augusto Pinochet


Page 10 of 10 1 9 10

Authors (by First Name)

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M
N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

Other Inspiring Sections