Winston Churchill 1854-1965
We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the
tools and we will finish the job.
Sir Winston Churchill, BBC radio broadcast, Feb 9, 1941
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.
Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, June 10, 1941
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."
Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, May 13, 1940
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.
Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, November 11, 1947
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.
Sir Winston Churchill, Hansard, November 12, 1936
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
Sir Winston Churchill, My Early Life, 1930
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great
ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Sir Winston Churchill, on the eve of his 75th birthday
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.'
Sir Winston Churchill, quoted in Rudolf Flesch, ed., "The New Book of
Unusual Quotations" (NY: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 311
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.
Sir Winston Churchill, Radio speech, 1939
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.
Sir Winston Churchill, Radio speech, 1941
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.
Sir Winston Churchill, Roving Commission: My Early Life, 1930, Chapter 9
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'.
Sir Winston Churchill, Second World War (1948)
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Sir Winston Churchill, Speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943
For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being
anything else.
Sir Winston Churchill, speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet, London, November
9, 1954
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has
descended across the Continent.
Sir Winston Churchill, Speech in March 1946
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it
is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Sir Winston Churchill, Speech in November 1942
We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
Sir Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons, July 14, 1940
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.
Sir Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons, November 29, 1944
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.
Sir Winston Churchill, Speech, 1941, Harrow School
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
Sir Winston Churchill
A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has
strengthened nations in their hour of peril.
Sir Winston Churchill
All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Sir Winston Churchill
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Sir Winston Churchill
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of
all.
Sir Winston Churchill
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.
Sir Winston Churchill
From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with
which I will not put.
Sir Winston Churchill
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
Sir Winston Churchill
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Sir Winston Churchill
I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the
brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
Sir Winston Churchill
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he
excites among his opponents.
Sir Winston Churchill
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as
equals.
Sir Winston Churchill
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all
the others that have been tried.
Sir Winston Churchill
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only
be grasped one link at a time.
Sir Winston Churchill
It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's
required.
Sir Winston Churchill
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves
up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
Sir Winston Churchill
Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the
room.
Sir Winston Churchill
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.
Sir Winston Churchill
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.
Sir Winston Churchill
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being
taught.
Sir Winston Churchill
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of
enthusiasm.
Sir Winston Churchill
The price of greatness is responsibility.
Sir Winston Churchill
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.
Sir Winston Churchill
There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of
it is half of them are true.
Sir Winston Churchill
To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy
can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
Sir Winston Churchill
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Sir Winston Churchill
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.
Sir Winston Churchill
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
Sir Winston Churchill
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and
the lash.
Sir Winston Churchill (Attributed)
Winston Churchill
