Churchill Winston Quotes & Sayings

It was evident however that the lawyers would have to have their say ... This also opened up a vista both lengthy and obscure. — Winston Churchill

It is hard, if not impossible, to snub a beautiful woman - they remain beautiful and the snub recoils. — Winston Churchill

Criticism is easy; achievement is difficult. — Winston Churchill

I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. — Winston Churchill

Not an hour is lost that is spent in the saddle. — Winston S. Churchill

Cold steel and discipline and the slight capital surplus necessary to move and organise armies constituted the sole defences. — Winston S. Churchill

The love of a foster mother for her charge appears absolutely irrational. — Winston S. Churchill

You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was meant to be wooed and won by youth. — Winston S. Churchill

Short words are best, and old words when short are best of all. — Winston S. Churchill

The War Department in Washington briefly weighed more ambitious schemes to relieve the Americans on a large scale before it was too late. But by Christmas of 1941, Washington had already come to regard Bataan as a lost cause. President Roosevelt had decided to concentrate American resources primarily in the European theater rather than attempt to fight an all-out war on two distant fronts. At odds with the emerging master strategy for winning the war, the remote outpost of Bataan lay doomed. By late December, President Roosevelt and War Secretary Henry Stimson had confided to Winston Churchill that they had regrettably written off the Philippines. In a particularly chilly phrase that was later to become famous, Stimson had remarked, 'There are times when men have to die. — Hampton Sides

It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace. — Winston Churchill

No crime is so great as daring to excel. — Winston Churchill

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. — Winston S. Churchill

Talking death seriously is one of the tragedies of youth — Winston Churchill

I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism. — Winston Churchill

Now, forty years after his passing, Winston Churchill is still quoted, read, revered, and referred to as much, if not more, than when he was alive. — Mac Thornberry

Have the stresses of war been as bad to you personally as carrying through the policy of Collective Farms? — Winston Churchill

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

That religion, which above all others was founded and propagated by the sword - the tenets and principles of which are instinct with incentives to slaughter and which in three continents has produced fighting breeds of men - stimulates a wild and merciless fanaticism. The love of plunder, always a characteristic of hill tribes, is fostered by the spectacle of opulence and luxury which, to their eyes, the cities and plains of the south display. A code of honour not less punctilious than that of old Spain is supported by vendettas as implacable as those of Corsica. — Winston S. Churchill

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. — Winston S. Churchill

When I meet a historian who cannot think that there have been great men, great men moreover in politics, I feel myself in the presence of a bad historian, and there are times when I incline to judge all historians by their opinion of Winston Churchill
whether they can see that, no matter how much better the details, often damaging, of man and career become known, he still remains quite simply, a great man. — Geoffrey Elton

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room. — Winston S. Churchill

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. — Winston S. Churchill

Resposibility is the price of greatness. — Winston S. Churchill

Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea.
Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it. — Winston S. Churchill

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

It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses. — 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. — Winston S. Churchill

Canada is the linchpin of the English-speakin g world — Winston Churchill

They [the Labour Party] are not fit to manage a whelk stall. — Winston Churchill

There is a kind of intolerant spirit now abroad which arises out of the growing power of party and other machinery - a spirit which resents individual opinion, which clamours for uniformity and political Test Acts. — Winston S. Churchill

After a burglary of all her most valued and treasured possessions, Winston Churchill's aging mother wrote: "That burglar relieved me of an obsession. For years, I've had to take houses big enough to hold all these bibelots. I am almost grateful to him." — Anne Sebba

I suppose the Party machinery will carry everything before it, and, as heretofore, the Extremists on both sides, whether progressive or reactionary, will set the tune and collar the organization, and all we wretched, unorganized middle thinkers will either be destroyed between the contending forces, or compelled to serve in support of one disproportionate cause or the other. — Winston S. Churchill

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. — Winston S. Churchill

When danger is far off we may think of our weakness; when it is near we must not forget our strength. — Winston Churchill

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. — Winston S. Churchill

There is nothing like oratory, it is a skill that can turn a commoner into a king. — Winston Churchill

George Patton and Winston Churchill are simpatico. — Bill O'Reilly

We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium. — Winston Churchill

My education was interrupted only by my schooling. — Winston S. Churchill

I believe that our world needs an instrument of global action as never before in history. I believe that the United Nations is the instrument for securing peace and for giving people everywhere, in poorer countries as in richer, a real stake in that peace by promoting development and encouraging cooperation. But the United Nations is only an instrument, an actor in need of props and cues from its directors, And so I will paraphrase Winston Churchill: Give us the tools-the trust, the authority and the means-and we will do the job. — Kofi Annan

I'm so bored with it all. — Winston Churchill

Let me see a complete reorganization of the North Atlantic fleet's defensive strategy against Nazi U-boats. And if it won't go on one side of one sheet of paper, it hasn't been properly thought out - Winston Churchill. — Patrick Robinson

Great and good are seldom the same man. — Winston Churchill

To meet Roosevelt with all his buoyant sparkle, his iridescence, was like opening a bottle of champagne. — Winston Churchill

I always avoid prophesying beforehand because it is much better to prophesy after the event has already taken place. — Winston S. Churchill

You never can tell whether bad luck may not after all turn out to be good luck. — Winston Churchill

The foundation of the Germanic system was blood and kin. — Winston S. Churchill

Democracy means that if the doorbell rings in the early hours, it is likely to be the milkman. — Winston Churchill

The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars Englandhe should have said Britain, of coursealways wins one battlethe last. — Winston Churchill

The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the feeble-minded and insane classes, coupled as it is with steady restriction among all the thrifty, energetic and superior stocks constitutes a national and race danger which is impossible to exaggerate. I feel that the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed before another year has passed. — Winston Churchill

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law. — Winston S. Churchill

It is better to do something than to do nothing while waiting to do everything. — Winston Churchill

It is better to do the wrong thing that to do nothing. — Winston Churchill

We are all worms. However, I like to think I'm a glow worm — Winston Churchill

A nation that forgets its past has no future — Sir Winston Churchill

Don't interrupt me while I'm interrupting. — Winston S. Churchill

When you feel you cannot continue in your position for another minute, and all that is in human power has been done, that is the moment when the enemy is most exhausted, and when one step forward will give you the fruits of the struggle you have borne — Winston Churchill

I let the argument rip healthily between the departments. This is a very good way to finding out the truth. — Winston Churchill

I do not see any other way of realizing our hopes about World Organization in five or six days. Even the Almighty took seven. — Winston Churchill

The United States stands at the pinnacle of world power. This is a solemn moment for the American democracy. For with primacy in power is joined an awe-inspiring accountability for the future. — Winston Churchill

The maxim "Nothing avails but perfection" may be spelt p-a-r-a-l-y-s-i-s — Winston S. 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. — Winston S. Churchill

It is remarkable that Lord Esher should be so much astray ... We must conclude that an uncontrollable fondness for fiction forbade him to forsake it for fact. Such constancy is a defect in an historian. — Winston Churchill

Here is a law which is above the King and which even he must not break. This reaffirmation of a supreme law and its expression in a general charter is the great work of Magna Carta; and this alone justifies the respect in which men have held it — Winston Churchill

Good and great are seldom in the same man. — Winston S. Churchill

All babies look like me.
But then, I look like all babies. — Winston Churchill

Perfect solutions of our difficulties are not to be looked for in an imperfect world. — Winston Churchill

Everybody stumbles across a golden opportunity at least once in a lifetime. Unfortunately most people just pick themselves up, dust themselves down, and walk away from it. — Winston Churchill

Aryans?" I asked, thinking I must have heard the word incorrectly.
Christian and Allie nodded.
"Aryans as in white supremacist, those sorts of Aryans?"
"Yes," Christian said.
"Neo-Nazis?" My mind was having a hard time grasping the idea of a power-hungry vampire leading an army of Hitler's Youth. "Skinheads and their ilk?"
"Hasi, what is it you find so unbelievable?" Adrian asked, a smile in his voice.
"Oh, I don't know. I guess I just expected that any army Saer raised would be ... you know ... the evil undead." Everyone just looked at me. "Oh, yeah, I guess you're right. Neo-Nazis are more or less the evil undead. Right. So we have Saer about to attack at any moment with a bunch of goose-stepping Nazis. Great. Anyone here do a really good Winston Churchill impression? — Katie MacAlister

Had [Winston Churchill] been a stable and equable man, he could never have inspired the nation. In 1940, when all the odds were against Britain, a leader of sober judgment might well have concluded that we were finished. — Anthony Storr

This truth may be unfashionable, unpalatable, no doubt unpopular, but, if it is the truth, the story of mankind shows that war was universal and unceasing for millions of years before armaments were invented or armies organized. Indeed, the lucid intervals of peace and order only occurred in human history after armaments in the hands of strong governments have come into being, and civilization in every age has been nursed only in cradles guarded by superior weapons and superior discipline. — Winston Churchill

India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator. — Winston Churchill

All babies look like Alfred Hitchcock. Or Winston Churchill. — Suzanne Brockmann

Without ships, we cannot live. — Winston Churchill

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

Ah, horrible war, amazing medley of the glorious and the squalid, the pitiful and the sublime, if modern men of light and leading saw your face closer, simple folk would see it hardly ever. — Winston S. Churchill

The stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean something, to consult together. Let me, then, speak in truth and earnestness while time remains. — Winston Churchill

His name is Rufus II-but the II is silent. — Winston Churchill

If I was your wife Sir, I'd poison you! Madam, if you were my wife, I'd let you! — Winston Churchill

One evening at Chequers the film was Oliver Twist. Rufus, as usual, had the best seat in the house, on his master's lap. At the point when Bill Sikes was about to drown his dog to put the police off his track, Churchill covered Rufus's eyes with his hand. He said, "Don't look now, dear. I'll tell you about it afterwards." — Winston Churchill

Give me the facts, and I will twist them the way I want, to suit my argument. — Winston Churchill

There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right and not to fear to do or say what you believe to be right. That is the only way to deserve and to win the confidence of our great people in these days of trouble. — Winston Churchill

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. — Winston Churchill

Free speech carries with it the evil of all foolish, unpleasant venomous things that are said but, on the whole, we would rather lump them than do away with them. — Winston Churchill

Success and happiness spring from facing failure after failure with enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill

How I hated schools, and what a life of anxiety I lived there. I counted the hours to the end of every term, when I should return home. — Winston Churchill

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose ... only then will you learn the game. — Winston Churchill

In one respect a cavalry charge is very like ordinary life. So long as you are all right, firmly in your saddle, your horse in hand, and well armed, lots of enemies will give you a wide berth. But as soon as you have lost a stirrup, have a rein cut, have dropped your weapon, are wounded, or your horse is wounded, then is the moment when from all quarters enemies rush upon you. Such — Winston S. Churchill

The Almighty in His infinite wisdom did not see fit to create Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen. — Winston Churchill

Nations that went down fighting rose again, but those who surrendered tamely were finished. — Winston S. Churchill

The strategic aspect of General Joffre's policy was not less stultified than the administrative. The easterly and north-easterly attacks into which his four Armies of the Right and Centre were impetuously launched, were immediately stopped and hurled back with a slaughter so frightful that it has never yet been comprehended by the world. His — Winston S. Churchill

If we don't end war, war will end us. — Winston S. Churchill

You know, in war, you don't have to be nice. You only have to be right. — Winston Churchill

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure. — Winston Churchill

But no parties could live under such labels as Petitioners and Abhorrers. Instead of naming themselves they named each other. The term "Whig" had described a sour, bigoted, canting, money-grubbing Scots Presbyterian. Irish Papist bandits ravaging estates and manor-houses had been called "Tories." Neither — Winston S. Churchill

Like most people, I have several pet subjects - that may or may not be interesting to other people. Don't get me started on happiness, or habits, or children's literature, or Winston Churchill, unless you really want to talk about it. — Gretchen Rubin

Curse ruthless time! Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is the allotted span for all we must cram into it! — Winston Churchill

I always like to learn, but I don't always like to be taught. — Winston Churchill

Champagne is the wine of civilization and the oil of government. — Winston Churchill