Winston Churchill Quotes

Canada is the linchpin of the English-speakin g world

I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas... I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes... It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gases: gases can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected.

Some civil servants are neither servants nor civil.

And you, madam, are ugly. But I shall be sober in the morning.

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.

The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Your greatest fears are created by your imagination. Don't give in to them.

In handing over the Government of India to these so-called political classes, we are handing over to men of straw, of whom, in a few years, no trace will remain.

The worst mistake that a statesman can make is to promise victory and to see it dashed, the hopes dashed.

Success always demands a greater effort.

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

We are shaping the world faster than we can change ourselves, and we are applying to the present the habits of the past.

I was happy as a child with my toys in my nursery. I been happier every year since I became a man. But this interlude of school makes a somber grey patch upon the chart of my journey. It was a unending spell of worries that did not then seem petty, and of toil uncheered by fruition; a time of discomfort, restriction and purposeless monotony.

Danger gathers upon our path. We cannot afford - we have no right - to look back. We must look forward... The stronger the advocate of monarchical principle a man may be, the more zealously he must now endeavor to fortify the Throne and to give to His Majesty's successor that strength which can only come from the love of a united nation and Empire.

There are no people in the world who are so slow to develop hostile feelings against a foreign country as the Americans, and no people who, once estranged, are more difficult to win back.

If you want a good argument against democracy, spend five minutes with a voter.

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.

Golf. Trying to knock a tiny ball into an even smaller hole with implements ill suited to the purpose.

The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-Boat peril...It did not take the form of flaring battles and glittering achievements, it manifested itself through statistics, diagrams, and curves unknown to the nation, incomprehensible to the public.

Writing a book is an adventure.

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.

Politics is like waking up in the morning. You never know whose head you'll find on the pillow.

It saves a lot of trouble if, instead of having to earn money and save it, you can just go and borrow it.

Men will forgive a man anything except bad prose.

Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.

My education was interrupted only by my schooling.

It is of no account; after all, the old bird does not fly far from his nest.

Luckily ... there were Zulus and Afghans, also the Dervishes in the Soudan. Some of these might, if they were well-disposed, 'put up a show' some day.

Personal initiative, competitive selection, the profit motive, corrected by failure and the infinite process of good housekeeping and the personal ingenuity-here constitute the life of a free society.

We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

Immense deposits of kimmeridge clay, containing the oil-bearing bands or seams, stretch across England from Dorsetshire to Lincolnshire. [An early political recognition of the native resource. The Geological Survey had identified the inflammable oil shale in reports since at least 1888.]

You do your worst, and we'll do our best.

I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

Those good at war aren't good at peace, and those good at peace aren't good at war.

I'd rather be right than consistent.

Lobbyists are the touts of protected industries.

Never pass up the chance to sit down or go to the bathroom.

There is required for the composition of a great commander not only massive common sense and reasoning power, not only imagination, but also an element of legerdemain, an original and sinister touch, which leaves the enemy puzzled as well as beaten.

A man who gets the reputation of rising at dawn can sleep to noon.

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

Make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Let the children have their night of fun and laughter... resolved that by our daring, these same children shall not be denied their right to live in a free and decent world.

Good and great are seldom in the same man.

One would have thought that if there was one cause in the world which the Conservative party would have hastened to defend, it would be the cause of the British Empire in India ... Our fight is hard. It will also be long ... But win or lose, we must do our duty. If the British people are to lose their Indian Empire, they shall do so with their eyes open.

There is no working middle course in wartime.

There is no better exercise than to study and devour a picture, and then, without looking at it again, to attempt the next day to reproduce it.

I am not invested with dictatorial powers. If I were, I should be quite ready to dictate.

Saving is a fine thing. Especially when your parents have done it for you.