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.

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.

Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.

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.

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

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

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.

A joke is a very serious thing.

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.

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]

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.

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.