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Winston Churchill
510 quotes
“We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio broadcast to German occupied, Vichy, and Free France (21 October 1940)
“Hitler, in one of his recent discourses, declared that the fight was between those who have been through the Adolf Hitler Schools and those who have been at Eton. Hitler has forgotten Harrow.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Harrow School (18 December 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 949
“When this war is won by this nation, as it surely will be, it must be one of our aims to work to establish a state of society where the advantage and privileges which hitherto have been enjoyed only by the few shall be far more widely shared by the many and the youth of the nation as a whole.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Harrow School (18 December 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 950
“The hour has come; kill the Hun.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How Churchill said he would end his speech if Germany invaded Britain (John Colville's diary entry for January 25, 1941). In The Churchill War Papers : 1941 (1993), ed. Gilbert, W.W. Norton, pp. 132–133
“Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt: Put your confidence in us. ... 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.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BBC radio broadcast, February 9, 1941. In The Churchill War Papers : 1941 (1993), ed. Gilbert, W.W. Norton, pp. 199–200
“I must point out ... that 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, and like to be told that they are very likely to get much worse in the future and must prepare themselves for further reverses.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, June 10, 1941 "Defence of Crete", in The Churchill War Papers : 1941 (1993), Churchill/Gilbert, Norton, p. 785
“If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To his personal secretary John Colville the evening before Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. As quoted by Andrew Nagorski in The Greatest Battle (2007), Simon & Schuster, pp. 150–151
“I see advancing upon all this in hideous onslaught the Nazi war machine, with its clanking, heel-clicking, dandified Prussian officers, its crafty expert agents fresh from the cowing and tying down of a dozen countries. I see also the dull, drilled, docile, brutish masses of the Hun soldiery plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts. I see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, still smarting from many a British whipping, delighted to find what they believe is an easier and a safer prey.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1120 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Radio broadcast (22 June 1941) on the day Germany invaded the Soviet Union, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), pp. 1120-1121
“Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech given at Harrow School, Harrow, England, October 29, 1941. Quoted in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 23
“We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech before Joint Session of the Canadian Parliament, Ottawa (December 30, 1941)
“It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ending of the Speech to a joint session of the United States Congress, Washington, D.C. (26 December 1941); reported in Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963, ed. Robert Rhodes James (1974), vol. 6, p. …
“When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." Some chicken! Some neck!”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reference to the French government; speech before Joint Session of the Canadian Parliament, Ottawa (December 30, 1941)
“Let me have the best solution worked out. Don't argue the matter. The difficulties will argue for themselves.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Memo (May 30, 1942) to the Chief of Combined Operations on the design of floating piers (which later became Mulberry Harbours) for use on landing beaches; in The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952) Chap…
“If Gandhi tries to start a really hostile movement against us in this crisis, I am of the opinion that he should be arrested, and that both British and United States opinion would support such a step. If he likes to starve himself to death, we cannot help that.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Minute (14 June 1942) to the Secretary of State for India before Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (1986), p. 123
“I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In conversation to Leo Amery, Secretary of State for India. This quotation is widely cited as written in "a letter to Leo Amery" (e.g., in "Jolly Good Fellows and Their Nasty Ways" by Vinay Lal in Times of India (15 Jan…
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: speech at Lord Mayor's Luncheon, Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942 : (partial text)
“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1942 Debate on the address.
“I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: speech at Lord Mayor's Luncheon, Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942
“You might however consider whether you should not unfold as a background the great privilege of habeas corpus and trial by jury, which are the supreme protection invented by the English people for ordinary individuals against the state. The power of the Executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a telegram (November 21, 1942) by Churchill from Cairo, Egypt to Home Secretary Herbert Morrison; cited in In the Highest Degree Odious (1992), Simpson, Clarendon Press, p. 391
“The maxim Nothing avails but perfection may be spelt shorter: Paralysis.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Minute [brief note] to General Ismay, December 6, 1942, on proposed improvements to landing-craft.
“I am sure it would be sensible to restrict as much as possible the work of these gentlemen, who are capable of doing an immense amount of harm with what may very easily degenerate into charlatanry. The tightest hand should be kept over them, and they should not be allowed to quarter themselves in large numbers among Fighting Services at the public expense.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On psychiatrists, in a letter to John Anderson, Lord President of the Council (December 19, 1942)
“The best way to insure against unemployment is to have no unemployment. ... Idlers at the top make idlers at the bottom.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast (21 March 1943), quoted in The Times (22 March 1943), p. 6
“It is absolutely certain we shall have to grow a larger proportion of our food at home. ... I hope to see a vigorous revival of healthy village life on the basis of these higher wages and of improved housing.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast (21 March 1943), quoted in The Times (22 March 1943), p. 6
“We must establish on broad and solid foundations a National Health Service. Here let me say that there is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies. Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast (21 March 1943), quoted in The Times (22 March 1943), p. 6
“By its sudden collapse, ... the proud German army has once again proved the truth of the saying, 'The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet'.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech before a Joint Session of Congress (May 19, 1943), Washington, D.C., in Never Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill's Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. 352
“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943 (full text, audio).
“To achieve the extirpation of Nazi tyranny there are no lengths of violence to which we will not go.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to Parliament, September 21, 1943. Quoted in Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War (2008) by Patrick J Buchanan, p. 396.
“I have nothing to add to the reply which has already been sent.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to Dundee Council after refusing to expand on his reasons for not accepting the Freedom of the City Memo (October 27, 1943).
“I hate nobody except Hitler — and that is professional.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Churchill to John Colville during WWII, quoted by Colville in his book The Churchillians (1981)
“Everyone is in favour 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 says anything back, that is an outrage”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Coalmining Situation", Speech to the House of Commons (October 13, 1943)
“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the House of Commons (October 28, 1943), on plans for the rebuilding of the Chamber (destroyed by an enemy bomb May 10, 1941), in Never Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill's Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. …
“'In war-time,' I said, 'truth is so precious she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.'”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Discussion of Operation Overlord with Stalin at the Teheran Conference (November 30, 1943); in The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952), Chapter 21 (Teheran: The Crux), p. 338
“When I make a statement of facts within my knowledge I expect it to be accepted.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Joseph Stalin in 1944, on the fact that there had been no plot between Britain and Germany to invade the Soviet Union. The Grand Alliance, Winston S. Churchill.
“The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward. This is not a philosophical or political argument—any oculist will tell you this is true. The wider the span, the longer the continuity, the greater is the sense of duty in individual men and women, each contributing their brief life's work to the preservation and progress of the land in which they live, the society of which they are members, and the world of which they are the servants.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2 March 1944, Speech to the Royal College of Physicians, London. Quoted in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 25
“The Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 124, (circa 1944)
“The object of presenting medals, stars, and ribbons is to give pride and pleasure to those who have deserved them. At the same time a distinction is something which everybody does not possess. If all have it it is of less value ... A medal glitters, but it also casts a shadow.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, March 22, 1944 "War Decorations
“There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world, and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally civilised men in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of Europe. It is quite clear that all concerned in this crime who may fall into our hands, including the people who only obeyed orders by carrying out the butcheries, should be put to death after their association with the murders has been proved.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Anthony Eden on the Holocaust (11 July 1944)
“I have left the obvious, essential fact till this point, namely, that it is the Russian Armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the German army. In the air and on the oceans we could maintain our place, but there was no force in the world which could have been called into being, except after several more years, that would have been able to maul and break the German army unless it had been subjected to the terrible slaughter and manhandling that has fallen to it through the strength of the Russian Soviet Armies.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, August 2, 1944.
“I salute Marshal Stalin, the great champion, and I firmly believe that our 20 years' treaty with Russia will prove to be one of the most lasting and durable factors in preserving the peace and the good order and the progress of Europe.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, August 2, 1944.
“I don't like standing near the edge of a platform when an express train is passing through. I like to stand right back and if possible to get a pillar between me and the train. I don't like to stand by the side of a ship and look down into the water. A second's action would end everything. A few drops of desperation.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversation with Lord Moran, August 14, 1944.
“The Russians will sweep through your country and your people will be liquidated. You are on the verge of annihilation.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Stanisław Mikołajczyk in Moscow, October 14, 1944. Quoted in Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War (2008) by Patrick J Buchanan, p. 380.
“A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward ... Let us have no fear of the future.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, November 29, 1944 "Debate on the Address".
“I hope very much that the archway into the Chamber from the Inner Lobby—where the Bar used to be—which was smitten by the blast of the explosion, and has acquired an appearance of antiquity that might not have been achieved by the hand of time in centuries, will be preserved intact, as a monument of the ordeal which Westminster has passed through in the Great War, and as a reminder to those who will come centuries after us that they may look back from time to time upon their forbears who "kept the bridge In the brave days of old.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rebuilding the House of Commons, Speech to the House of Commons, 25 January 1945
“It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: After the devastation of Dresden by aerial bombing, and the resulting fire storm (February 1945). Quoted in Where the Right Went Wrong (2004) by Patrick J Buchanan, p. 119
“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons, February 27, 1945 "Crimea Conference"; in The Second World War, Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy (1954), Chapter XXIII – Yalta: Finale.
“There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Noted as a habitual remark of Churchill in Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke’s diary entry for 1 April 1945 (“As Churchill says...”), quoted in Arthur Bryant, Triumph in the West (1959), p. 339
“We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. The injury she has inflicted on Great Britain, the United States, and other countries, and her detestable cruelties, call for justice and retribution. We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad. Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1344 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast (8 May 1945) from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (1986), p. 1344
“God bless you all. This is your victory! [crowd: "No—it is yours."] It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land. In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this. Everyone, man or woman, has done their best. Everyone has tried. Neither the long years, nor the dangers, nor the fierce attack of the enemy, have in any way weakened the independent resolve of the British nation. God bless you all.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1347 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to the crowd from the balcony of the Ministry of Health in Whitehall, London (8 May 1945), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (1986), p. 1347
“Socialism is, in its essence, an attack not only upon British enterprise, but upon the right of the ordinary man or woman to breathe freely without having a harsh, clumsy, tyrannical hand clapped across their mouths and nostrils. A Free Parliament—look at that—a Free Parliament is odious to the Socialist doctrinaire.”
Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Broadcast for the 1945 general election (4 June 1945), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Never Despair': Winston S. Churchill, 1945–1965 (1988), p. 33