Winston Churchill Quotes

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

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

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

If you are going through hell, keep going.

My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.

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

Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.

Never, never, never give in!

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

It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.

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

Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.

A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk', to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

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

Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

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

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

I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have one." — George Bernard Shaw, playwright (to Winston Churchill) "Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one." — Churchill's response

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

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Don't interrupt me while I'm interrupting.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

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

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.

A good speech should be like a woman's skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.

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

We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.

You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.

Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.

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

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

If you cannot read all your books...fondle them---peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them, at any rate, be your acquaintances.

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

I pass with relief from the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of Result and Fact.

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

An old battleax of a woman said to Winston Churchill, "If you were my husband I would put poison in your tea." Churchill's response, "Ma'am if you were my wife I would drink it.

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.

To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.

Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself, believe.

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

A joke is a very serious thing.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required.

I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend ... if you have one." — George Bernard Shaw, playwright (to Winston Churchill) "Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one." — Churchill's response

Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. —WINSTON CHURCHILL

Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.

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.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

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

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

In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity In Peace: Good Will.

When you get a thing the way you want it, leave it alone.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body; it calls attention to the development of an unhealthy state of things. If it is heeded in time, danger may be averted; if it is suppressed, a fatal distemper may develop." [New Statesman interview, 7 January 1939]

Millard! Who's the prime minister?" "Winston Churchill," he said. "Have you gone daft?" "What's the capital of Burma?" "Lord, I've no idea. Rangoon?" "Good! When's your birthday?" "Will you quit shouting and let me bleed in peace!

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

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.

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

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.

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

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

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

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

The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

There is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.

This paper, by its very length, defends itself from ever being read.

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.

One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.

You create your own universe as you go along.

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

The most important thing about education is appetite.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

Good and great are seldom in the same man.

This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.

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. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die 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.

...But the Mahommedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness. In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons, they become Ghazis—as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be treated as such. While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each case civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace.

You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, 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, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; In “Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat,” his first speech as Prime Minister to the House of Commons May 13, 1940 quoted by Jeffrey R. Holland in “However Long and Hard the Road” BYU Devotional 18 Jan 1983