Winston Churchill

The British statesman, army officer, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II and is remembered for his leadership and oratory.

Winston Churchill

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Featured Quotes by Winston Churchill

All Quotes by Winston Churchill

"We shape our buildings thereafter they shape us."

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

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."

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

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

"I am easily satisfied with the very best."

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

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

"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."

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

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

"Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business."

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

"To improve is to change to be perfect is to change often."

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

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

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

"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."

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

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

"There is no such thing as a good tax."

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

"Great and good are seldom the same man."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"No crime is so great as daring to excel."

"Great and good are seldom the same man."

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

"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."

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

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

"History is written by the victors."

"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."

"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."

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

"A joke is a very serious thing."

"Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential."

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

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

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

"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 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."

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

"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."

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

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

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

"If you're going through hell, keep going."

"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong."

"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."

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

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

"Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have."