Winston Churchill Quotes on Man (38 Quotes)


    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

    Any man under 30 who is not a liberal has no heart, and any man over 30 who is not a conservative has no brains.

    I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.




    The power of the executive to cast a man into prison, ... without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious, and the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.

    If you must kill a man, it costs you nothing to be polite about it.

    It would not have been possible for any man in public life to get through what I have gone through without the devoted assistance of what we in England call one's better half.

    History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days. What is the worth of all this The only guide to a man is his conscience the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations but with this shield, however the fate may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.

    Democracy is the worst system devised by the wit of man, except for all the others.

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

    A cat will look down to a man. A dog will look up to a man. But a pig will look you straight in the eye and see his equal.

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

    Always remember, a cat looks down on man, a dog looks up to man, but a pig will look man right in the eye and see his equal.

    The Battle of Britain.... The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the was.... 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, man will say, 'This was their finest hour.'

    There is no limit to the ingenuity of man if it is properly and vigorously applied under conditions of peace and justice.

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

    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. The effects are apparent in many countries. 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. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.


    Advertising mourishes 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.


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

    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.

    Too often the strong, silent man is silent because he does not know what to say.

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

    History's villains are more easily recognized in retrospect. In an article published in 1935 and reprinted in 1937, Winston Churchill expressed a curious ambivalence towards the German chancellor prior to the outbreak of war We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let loose upon the world another war in which civilization will irretrievably succumb, or whether he will go down in history as the man who restored honour and peace of mind to the great Germanic nation....

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

    Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.

    A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.

    This is no time to speak of the hopes of the future, or the broader world which lies beyond our struggles and our victory. We have to win that world for our children. We have to win it by our sacrifices. We have not won it yet. The crisis is upon us.... In this strange, terrible world war 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. The mine, the factory, the dockyard, the salt sea waves, the fields to till, the home, the hospital, the chair of the scientist, the pulpit of the preacher from the highest to the humblest tasks, all are of equal honor all have their part to play.

    Laws just or unjust may govern men's actions. Tyrannies may restrain or regulate their words. The machinery of propaganda may pack their minds with falsehood and deny them truth for many generations of time. But the soul of man thus held in trance or frozen in a long night can be awakened by a spark coming from God knows where and in a moment the whole structure of lies and oppression is on trial for its life.

    The only guide to a man is his conscience the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield. . .

    This wicked man Hitler, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred, this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame.


    There was a man who sold a hyena skin while the beast still lived and who was killed in hunting it.

    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'.

    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.



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