Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Quotes

• Why you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman, and th most audacious soldier, put them at a table together-and what do you get? The sum of their fears.

• Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.

• Lady Astor: Mr. Churchill, You're drunk!
  Winston Churchill: Yes, and you Madam, are ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober.

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

• We shape our buildings and they shape us.

• 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.

• Are you insinuating that I am a purveyor of terminological inexactitudes?

• Immature love says, I love you because I need you, mature love says, I need you because I love you.

• When you get to the end of your rope tie a knot and hang on.

• What kind of people do they think we are, do they think we will be bowed by their tryanny?

• You will make all kinds of mistakes but as long as you are generous and true and fierce you cannot hurt the world, or even seriously distress her.

• This report, by its very length, defends itself against being read.

• The creation of a line of forts opposite to the French frontier will enable the German troops to be economized on that line and will enable the main forces to swing round through Belgium and Holland.

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

• We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the 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.

• Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.

• Yes Madame, I am drunk but you are ugly and tomorrow I'll be sober.

• It drives on with a courage which is stronger than the storm. It drives on with a mercy which does not quail in the presence of death. It drives on as proof, a symbol, a testimony that man is created in the image of God and that valour and virtue have not perished in the British race.

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

• Too often the strong silent man is silent because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.