Winston Churchill Quotes

War is horrible, but slavery is worse.

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.

Here Churchill repeats with approval a statement he had first made in January, 1930 "at a meeting at the Cannon Street Hotel." "Sooner or later you will have to crush Gandhi and the Indian Congress and all they stand for."

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.

I drink and smoke and I am two hundred percent fit.

There is nothing government can give you that it hasn't taken from you in the first place.

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

We must be very careful not to assign this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations

I am too busy. I have not time for worry.

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

This beginning with Audacity, or being thrown into the middle of it, is already a very great part of the art of painting.

I was shown a picture by Cézanne of a blank wall of a house, which he had made instinct with the most delicate lights and colours.

Little did we guess that what has been called the century of the common man would witness as its outstanding feature more common men killing each other with greater facilities than any other five centuries together in the history of the world.

No matter. The dead bird does not leave the nest.

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.

Dead birds don't fall out of their nests.

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

The painter wanders and loiters contentedly from place to place, always on the lookout for some brilliant butterfly of a picture which can be caught and carried safely home.

I had a feeling once about mathematics - that I saw it all... but it was after dinner and I let it go.

There is the solution which I respectfully offer to you in this Address to which I have given the title "The Sinews of Peace."

In all the twelve years I was at school no one ever succeeded in making me write a Latin verse or learn any Greek except the alphabet.

If you find a job you love, you'll never work again.

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.

A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life.

It is not given to princes, statesmen and captains to pierce the mysteries of the future, and even the most penetrating gaze reaches only conclusions which, however seemingly vindicated at a given moment, are inexorably effaced by time.

Bessie Braddock: "Winston, you're drunk. Churchill: "Bessie, you're ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober.

No one can understand history without continually relating the long periods which are constantly mentioned to the experiences of our own short lives.

If you wanted nothing done at all, Balfour was the man for the job.

When someone says to me, Ugh, you smoke. I reply, Ugh, you're ugly. I can quit smoking.

There are two processes which we adopt consciously or unconsciously when we try to prophesy. We can seek a period in the past whose conditions resemble as closely as possible those of our day, and presume that the sequel to that period will, save for some minor alterations, be similar. Secondly, we can survey the general course of development in our immediate past, and endeavor to prolong it into the near future. The first is the method the historian; the second that of the scientist. Only the second is open to us now, and this only in a partial sphere.

I do not resent criticism, even when for the sake of emphasis; it parts for the time with reality.

Painting is a companion with whom one may walk a great part of life's journey.

Achievement is not last, disappointment is not deadly: It is the mettle to proceed with that matters.

Without victory there is no survival!

My conclusion on Freewill and predestination- they are identical.

If you don't have any enemies in life you have never stood up for anything.

In war, truth is often the first casualty.

The latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age.

There are bitter weeds in England.

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

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.

It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do.

I thought of a remark . . . that the United States is like a 'gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate.' Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful.

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.

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.

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.

An extra yawn one morning in the springtime, an extra snooze one night in the autumn is all that we ask in return for dazzling gifts. We borrow an hour one night in April; we pay it back with golden interest five months later.

I love to learn but I do not want to be taught