Churchill Wisdom Quotes

Never, never, never give in!

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." [On British Labour politician Stafford Cripps.]

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

The POSITIVE THINKER sees the INVISIBLE, feels the INTANGIBLE, and achieves the IMPOSSIBLE.

It is better to have a world united than a world divided; but it is also better to have a world divided than a world destroyed.

He spoke with more eloquence than wisdom.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

If I were asked the difference between Socialism and Communism, I could only reply that the Socialist tries to lead us to disaster by foolish words and the Communist could try to drive us there by violent deeds.

No Socialist system can be established without a political police.

All the nut eaters and food faddists I have ever known, died early after a long period of senile decay - Winston Churchill

And as we do, may we never forget the wisdom of Churchill, who warned us: ‘The price of greatness…is responsibility.’ 

If there is anything we can take away from them, it is the wisdom of employing this two-step process, especially in times of mind-bending crisis: Work diligently to discern the facts of the matter, and then use your principles to respond.

We owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization.

We owe to the Jews,’ wrote Winston Churchill in 1920, ‘a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all wisdom and learning put together.

The vice of capitalism is that it stands for the unequal sharing of blessings; whereas the virtue of socialism is that it stands for the equal sharing of misery.

The Almighty in His infinite wisdom did not see fit to create Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen.

The U.N. was set up not to get us to Heaven but only to save us from Hell.

There are two non-God religions, Nazism and Communism – two peas … Tweedledum and Tweedledee. You leave out God and you substitute the Devil. You leave out love and you substitute hate.

Sir Winston Churchill rightly said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” How we work has changed forever. How we make medicines for patients is changing, and for the better. We are pushing barriers, testing conventional wisdom and the “way things have always been done.” We are adopting digital technologies and sharing data in ways never imagined to this crisis. We are finding new ways to innovate, with increased speed and efficiency.

In 1945, Churchill admitted privately, ‘The biggest blunder of my life was the return to the Gold Standard.’131 The almost total unanimity of the financial experts in favour of it, when set alongside the views of the admirals about the convoy system, and those of the generals about how to fight both the Boer War and Great War, led Churchill seriously to doubt the wisdom of experts. His willingness to attack the views of the entire Establishment over appeasement might not have been so complete had he not seen its experts proved wrong time and again, and had he not, in the case of the Gold Standard, been forced to take ultimate responsibility.

Well before the end of the 20th century however print had lost its former dominance. This resulted in, among other things, a different kind of person getting elected as leader. One who can present himself and his programs in a polished way, as Lee Quan Yu you observed in 2000, adding, “Satellite television has allowed me to follow the American presidential campaign. I am amazed at the way media professionals can give a candidate a new image and transform him, at least superficially, into a different personality. Winning an election becomes, in large measure, a contest in packaging and advertising. Just as the benefits of the printed era were inextricable from its costs, so it is with the visual age. With screens in every home entertainment is omnipresent and boredom a rarity. More substantively, injustice visualized is more visceral than injustice described. Television played a crucial role in the American Civil rights movement, yet the costs of television are substantial, privileging emotional display over self-command, changing the kinds of people and arguments that are taken seriously in public life. The shift from print to visual culture continues with the contemporary entrenchment of the Internet and social media, which bring with them four biases that make it more difficult for leaders to develop their capabilities than in the age of print. These are immediacy, intensity, polarity, and conformity. Although the Internet makes news and data more immediately accessible than ever, this surfeit of information has hardly made us individually more knowledgeable, let alone wiser, as the cost of accessing information becomes negligible, as with the Internet, the incentives to remember it seem to weaken. While forgetting anyone fact may not matter, the systematic failure to internalize information brings about a change in perception, and a weakening of analytical ability. Facts are rarely self-explanatory; their significance and interpretation depend on context and relevance. For information to be transmuted into something approaching wisdom it must be placed within a broader context of history and experience. As a general rule, images speak at a more emotional register of intensity than do words. Television and social media rely on images that inflamed the passions, threatening to overwhelm leadership with the combination of personal and mass emotion. Social media, in particular, have encouraged users to become image conscious spin doctors. All this engenders a more populist politics that celebrates utterances perceived to be authentic over the polished sound bites of the television era, not to mention the more analytical output of print. The architects of the Internet thought of their invention as an ingenious means of connecting the world. In reality, it has also yielded a new way to divide humanity into warring tribes. Polarity and conformity rely upon, and reinforce, each other. One is shunted into a group, and then the group polices once thinking. Small wonder that on many contemporary social media platforms, users are divided into followers and influencers. There are no leaders. What are the consequences for leadership? In our present circumstances, Lee's gloomy assessment of visual media's effects is relevant. From such a process, I doubt if a Churchill or Roosevelt or a de Gaulle can emerge. It is not that changes in communications technology have made inspired leadership and deep thinking about world order impossible, but that in an age dominated by television and the Internet, thoughtful leaders must struggle against the tide.

may we never forget the wisdom of Churchill, who warned us: ‘The price of greatness…is responsibility.’ 

Never give up. Never, never give up. Never, never, never give up. the entire speech Winston Churchill gave at a school prize–giving

Throughout history, famous nappers have included Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Eleanor Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and John F. Kennedy.

Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.

Several months after the war, as Winston was reminiscing wistfully, he offered Sarah a word of wisdom. “Out of a life of long and varied experience,” he said, “the most valuable piece of experience I can hand on to you is to know how to command the moment to remain.

By...handing children the fruit of the tree of knowledge unmediated by adult wisdom, we have abandoned our young to powers and influences which we cannot control, and whose strength we do not know. To leave a child unsupervised in front of a television set is no less dangerous than giving it neat gin, or putting it within reach of narcotics.

The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” -Winston Churchill

If you destroy a free market, you create a black market.

A nation that forgets its past has no future.

Nourish your hopes but do not overlook realities.

When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said … that he had a lot of issues in his life, most of which never happened.

The difference between our outlook and the Socialist outlook is the difference between the ladder and the queue. We are for the ladder. Let all try their best to climb. They are for the queue.

It is bad for a nation when it is without faith.

There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most domineering virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained.

A nation without a conscience is a nation without a soul. A nation without a soul is a nation that cannot live.

A great event is taking place here, a great event in the world’s destiny. It is taking place without injury or injustice to anyone; it is transforming waste places into fertile; it is planting trees and developing agriculture in desert lands; it is making for an increase in wealth and of cultivation; it is making two blades of grass from where one grew before.

They are the most disagreeable of people. … Their insincerity? Can you not feel a sense of disgust at the arrogant presumption of superiority of these people? Superiority of intellect! Then, when it comes to practice, down they fall with a wallop not only to the level of ordinary human beings but to a level which is even far below the average.

Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library.

The whole theme of motherhood and family life, with those sweet affections which illuminate it, must be the fountain spring of present happiness and future survival.

Some Socialists see private enterprise as a tiger—a predatory animal to be shot. Others see it as an old cow to be milked. But we Conservatives see it as the sturdy horse that pulls along our economy.

Whenever socialism has been tried, it has failed.

The Socialist dream is no longer Utopia but Queue-topia.

Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” ― Winston Churchill ―

You know what Stanley Baldwin said about Churchill?” Baldwin, a Conservative, had been prime minister before Chamberlain. “When Winston was born, lots of fairies swooped down on his cradle with gifts—imagination, eloquence, industry, ability—and then came a fairy who said: ‘No person has a right to so many gifts,’ picked him up, and gave him such a shake and a twist that he was denied judgment and wisdom.

As we move into an undefined tomorrow,” Edmond said, “we will transform ourselves into something greater than we can yet imagine, with powers beyond our wildest dreams. And as we do, may we never forget the wisdom of Churchill, who warned us: ‘The price of greatness…is responsibility.’