Winston Churchill Quotes

Peace will not be preserved by pious sentiments.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

Listing your personal milestones is like storing a pocketful of sunshine for a rainy day. Sometimes our best is simply not enough.... We have to do what is required.

A nation that forgets its past has no future.

...the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race... This world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation... this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.

With integrity, nothing else counts. Without integrity, nothing else counts.

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

The maxim, "Nothing prevails but perfection," may be spelled PARALYSIS.

Appeasement is feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last.

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.

Most of the significant contributions that have been made to society have been made by people who were tired.

We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general.

The cat does more for the war effort than you do. He acts as a hot-water bottle and saves fuel and power.

There is a hush over all Europe, nay, over all the world. Alas! it is the hush of suspense, and in many lands it is the hush of fear. Listen! No, listen carefully, I think I hear somethingyes, there it was quite clear. Dont you hear it? It is the tramp of armies crunching the gravel of the paradegrounds, splashing through rain-soaked fields, the tramp of two million German soldiers and more than a million Italiansgoing on maneuversyes, only on maneuvers!

Unteachable from infancy to tomb — There is the first & main characteristic of mankind.

How often in life must one be content with what one can get!

The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgement of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.

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

Air power can either paralyze the enemy's military action or compel him to devote to the defense of his bases and communications a share of his straitened resources far greater that what we need in the attack.

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.

A love of tradition has never weakened a nation.

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.

His name is Rufus II-but the II is silent.

The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

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.

Twice in my lifetime the long arm of destiny has reached across the oceans and involved the entire life and manhood of the United States in a deadly struggle.There was no use in saying We don't want it; we won

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

Mr. Chamberlain loves the working man, he loves to see him work.

There are men in the world who derive an exaltation from the proximity of disaster and ruin, as other from success.

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.

...the high roads of the future will be clear, not only for us but for all, not only for our time but for a century to come.

Talking death seriously is one of the tragedies of youth

At the beginning of this War megalomania was the only form of sanity.

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.

The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes there has never been peace in the world; and long before history began murderous strife was universal and unending.

I myself find waiting more tiring than action.

When I find a ladybug I ask the butler to take it outside instead of killing it.

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

In defeat, unbeatable; in victor, unbearable

Christopher Columbus was the first socialist: he didn't know where he was going, he didn?t know where he was? and he did it all at taxpayers expense.

England has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame and will get war.

There is no doubt the charge was an awful gamble and that no normal precautions were possible. The issue as far as I was concerned had to be left to Fortune or to God - or to whatever may decide these things. I am content and shall not complain.

If, however, there is to be a war of nerves let us make sure our nerves are strong and are fortified by the deepest convictions of our hearts.

To improve is to change.

And wherever men are fighting against barbarism, tyranny, and massacre, for freedom, law, and honour, let them remember that the fame of their deeds, even though they themselves be exterminated, may perhaps be celebrated as long as the world rolls round.

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

Great success always comes at the risk of enormous failure.

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.