Winston Churchill

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

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

“When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.”

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”

“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.”

“I never worry about action, but only inaction.”

“Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”

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

“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.”

“No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.”

“I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.”

“True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.”

“Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.”

“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. Never run away from anything. Never!”

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

“War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.”

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

“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.”

“'No comment' is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.”

“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.”

“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.”

“We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.”

“Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.”

“There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.”

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

“Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.”

“Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.”

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

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

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

“Eating words has never given me indigestion.”

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

“India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.”

“Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.”

“In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.”

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

“Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.”

“The first quality that is needed is audacity.”

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

“My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.”

“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”

“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.”

“Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.”

“Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.”

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

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

“Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.”

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

“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.”

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”

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

“The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.”

“Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.”

“There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.”

“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.”

“In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.”

“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 are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.”

“Great and good are seldom the same man.”

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

“Great and good are seldom the same man.”

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

“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.”

“I am easily satisfied with the very best.”

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

“I like a man who grins when he fights.”

“We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.”

“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.”

“It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.”

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”

“Politics is 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.”

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

“Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.”

“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.”

“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.”

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

“Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.”

“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.”

“Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.”

“I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.”

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

“It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.”

“When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.”

“It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.”

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

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

“Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.”

“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.”

“My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.”

“In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.”

“No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.”

“I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.”

“We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.”

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

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

“When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.”

“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.”

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”

“A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.”

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

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

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

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

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

“One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.”

“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.”

“The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy's aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.”

“War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.”

“These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.”

“It is a fine game to play - the game of politics - and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.”

“Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.”

“No crime is so great as daring to excel.”

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

“I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.”

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

“No crime is so great as daring to excel.”

“This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.”

“We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.”

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

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

“No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.”

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”

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

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”

“When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.”

“Never, never, never give up.”

“If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.”

“In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.”

“We are asking the nations of Europe between whom rivers of blood have flowed to forget the feuds of a thousand years.”

“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.”

“If it weren't for painting, I wouldn't live; I couldn't bear the extra strain of things.”

“Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.”

“The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.”

“Great and good are seldom the same man.”

“If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.”

“I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.”

“We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”

“I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.”

“Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.”

“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.”

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

“For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.”

“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.”

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

“...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.”

“These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.”

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

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

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

“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.”

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

“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.”

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

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

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

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

“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.”

“I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.”

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

“Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.”

“My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.”

“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.”

“We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.”

“Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.”

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

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

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

“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.”

“No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.”

“This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.”

“What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?”

“A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.”

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

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

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”

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

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

“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.”

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

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

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

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

“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.”

“Never, never, never give up.”

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

“The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.”

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

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

“Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.”

“I am easily satisfied with the very best.”

“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.”

“I'm bored with it all.”

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

“This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.”

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

“Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.”

“Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about.”

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

“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.”

“My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.”

“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”

“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”

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

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

“History is written by the victors.”

“To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.”

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

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

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

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

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

“History is written by the victors.”

“When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.”

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

“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.”

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

“Never, never, never give up.”

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

“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.”

“The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.”

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