Sir Winston Churchill

It helps to write down half a dozen things which are worrying me. Two of them, say, disappear; about two, nothing can be done, so it’s no use worrying, and two perhaps can be settled.

Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill- designed for the purpose.

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

It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.

Success is never final.

Statistics are like a drunk with a lampost: used more for support than illumination.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age.... 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 say, This was their finest hour.

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.

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

A woman once drove me to drink, and I never had the decency to thank her.

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong-these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep them in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.

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

Where there is a great deal of free speech there is always a certain amount of foolish speech.

If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is much better policy to prophesy after the event has taken place.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

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

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

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

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

I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

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

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

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.

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

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.

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward.

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.

We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

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

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.

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

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

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

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

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

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.

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

To be conservative at 20 is heartless and to be a liberal at 60 is plain idiocy.

We shall not flag or fail. 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.

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have been wrecked.

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

MacDonald has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thoughts.

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

.... You ask, What is our policy? I will 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 with one word: 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.

[He] looks at foreign affairs through the wrong end of a municipal drainpipe.

Who will relieve me of this Wuthering Height

If heaven is going to be full of people like Hardie, well, the Almighty can have them to himself.

There but for the grace of God goes God.

It might be said that Lord Rosebery outlived his future by ten years and his past by more than twenty.

[On recognizing China] But if you recognize anyone it does not mean you like them. For instance, we all recognize the right honourable gentleman the member for Ebbw Vale.

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.

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

Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt... We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

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

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.

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 all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.

Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few.

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

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

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

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

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.

Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness. A sincere love of peace is no excuse for muddling hundreds of millions of humble folk into total war. The cheers of the weak, well-meaning assemblies soon cease to count. Doom marches on.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

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

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.

There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.

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.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

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

The price of greatness is responsibility.

When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.

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

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

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.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

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

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.

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