Winston churchill quotes

If you cannot read all your books...fondle them---peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them, at any rate, be your acquaintances.

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

The gin and tonic has saved more Englishmen's lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire.

The Russian Bolsheviks have discovered that truth does not matter so long as there is reiteration. They have no difficulty whatever in countering a fact by a lie which, if repeated often enough and loudly enough, becomes accepted by the people.

Churchill: "Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?" Socialite: "My goodness, Mr. Churchill... Well, I suppose... we would have to discuss terms, of course... " Churchill: "Would you sleep with me for five pounds?" Socialite: "Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!" Churchill: "Madam, we've already established that. Now we are haggling about the price

There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away. The British people can face peril or misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, but they bitterly resent being deceived or finding that those responsible for their affairs are themselves dwelling in a fool's paradise.

If we are together nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.

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

Success comes from continuing to strive, fail and learn without losing enthusiasm.

"Mr. Churchill you're drunk!" Mr. Churchill: "And you, Lady Astor, are ugly. As for my condition, it will pass by the morning. You, however, will still be ugly.

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

Whenever I feel the need to take some exercise I lie down until the feeling goes away.

The POSITIVE THINKER sees the INVISIBLE, feels the INTANGIBLE, and achieves the IMPOSSIBLE.

He who fails to plan is planning to fail.

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

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been

You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer.

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

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may be even a worse fate, you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

When you're 20 you care what everyone thinks, when you're 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you're 60 you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place. You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Money is like manure, its only good if you spread it around.

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

If you're going through hell, keep going.

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

Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about.

When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.

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

If you make 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.

Courage is the ability to go from failure to failure with enthusiasm.

The flags of the Confederate States of America were very important and a matter of great pride to those citizens living in the Confederacy. They are also a matter of great pride for their descendants as part of their heritage and history.

If you destroy a free market you create a black market.

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

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

Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.

Socialism is an attack on the right to breathe freely. No socialist system can be established without a political police.

A good speech should be like a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Keep calm and carry on.

A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.

All dogs look up to you. All cats look down on you. Only the pig looks at you as an equal

A nation that fails to honor its heroes, soon will have no heroes to honor.

If the past sits in judgment on the present, the future will be lost.

I began my education at a very early age; in fact, right after I left college.

If you want to discover new oceans, you must first have the courage to leave shore.

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

One man with conviction will overwhelm a hundred who have only opinions.

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

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

You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.

You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.

You can measure a man's character by the choices he makes under pressure.

Criticism is easy; achievement is difficult.

Socialism is like a dream. Sooner or later you wake up to reality.

The arts are essen­tial to any com­plete national life. The State owes it to itself to sus­tain and encour­age them. [...] Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the rev­er­ence and delight which are their due.

If Britain must choose between Europe and the open sea, she must always choose the open sea.

What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?

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.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.

Schools have not necessarily much to do with education...they are mainly institutions of control where certain basic habits must be inculcated in the young. Education is quite different and has little place in school.

You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.

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

We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.

Never abandon life. There is a way out of everything except death.

If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

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.

The main vice of capitalism is the uneven distribution of prosperity. The main vice of socialism is the even distribution of misery.

After a time, civil servants tend to become no longer servants and no longer civil.

We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.

Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has appeared in the world.

If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.

If the present tries to sit in judgment of the past, it will lose the future.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

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

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

When we judge or criticize another person, it says nothing about that person; it merely says something about our own need to be critical.

A nation which has forgotten its past can have no future.

I get my exercise being a pallbearer for those of my friends who believed in regular running and calisthenics.

Never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.

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

Americans always do the right thing, once they have exhausted all other possibilities.

Sometimes our best is simply not enough.... We have to do what is required.

Do not trust any statistics you did not fake yourself.

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

Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object worship of the state.

The man who can master his time can master nearly anything.

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

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

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

I'd rather argue against a hundred idiots, than have one agree with me.

A nation that forgets its past has no future.

Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.

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

Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party

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

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.

Socialism needs to pull down wealth; liberalism seeks to raise up poverty. Socialism would destroy private interests, Liberalism would preserve [them] ... by reconciling them with public right. Socialism would kill enterprise; Liberalism would rescue enterprise from the trammels of privilege and preference. Socialism assails the preeminence of the individual; Liberalism seeks ... to build up a minimum standard for the mass. Socialism exalts the rule; Liberalism exalts the man. Socialism attacks capitalism; Liberalism attacks monopoly.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die: but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

It's Never Over 'till it's over! Never Give Up! Never.

There comes a special moment in everyone's life, a moment for which that person was born. That special opportunity, when he seizes it, will fulfill his mission - a mission for which he is uniquely qualified. In that moment, he will find greatness. It is his finest hour.

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. Never run away from anything. Never!

When they told me that by the year 2100 women would rule the world, my reply was 'Still?'

To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.

A gentleman is a man who is only rude when he intends to be.

In war it does not matter who is right, but who is left.

Success is the ability to continue to move through total disaster.

I no longer listen to what people say, I just watch what they do. Behavior never lies.

Life can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted, it must be changed. If it cannot be changed, then it must be accepted.

Remember the story of the Spanish prisoner. For many years he was confined in a dungeon... One day it occurred to him to push the door of his cell. It was open; and it had never been locked.

We shall go forward together. The road upwards is stony. There are upon our journey dark and dangerous valleys through which we have to make and fight our way. But it is sure and certain that if we persevere - and we shall persevere - we shall come through these dark and dangerous valleys into a sunlight broader and more genial and more lasting than mankind has ever known.

Great success always comes at the risk of enormous failure.

The cemetery is full of indispensable people.

Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.

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.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free, and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fall, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds.

If you don't take change by the hand, it will take you by the throat.

Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities.

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

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.