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Winston Churchill

510 quotes

• “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Remarks at a White House luncheon (26 June 1954)

• “If I had been properly supported in 1919, I think we might have strangled Bolshevism in its cradle, but everybody turned up their hands and said, 'How shocking!'”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Remarks to the National Press Club, Washington (28 June 1954)

• “We have surmounted all the perils and endured all the agonies of the past. We shall provide against and thus prevail over the dangers and problems of the future, withhold no sacrifice, grudge no toil, seek no sordid gain, fear no foe. All will be well. We have, I believe, within us the life-strength and guiding light by which the tormented world around us may find the harbour of safety, after a storm-beaten voyage.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: At Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, Canada, November 9, 1954 ; as cited at The Churchill Centre.

• “For myself I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Lord Mayor's Banquet, Guildhall, London (9 November 1954) The Unwritten Alliance, page 195, Columbia University, NY (1966),page 195,

• “I have lived my life in the House of Commons, having served there for 52 out of the last 54 years of this tumultuous and convulsive century. I have indeed seen all the ups and downs of fate and fortune there, but I have never ceased to love and honour the Mother of Parliaments, the model of the legislative assemblies of so many lands.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Westminster Hall for his eightieth birthday (30 November 1954), quoted in The Times (1 December 1954), p. 11

• “I was very glad when Mr. Attlee described my speeches in the late war as expressing the will not only of Parliament but of the whole nation. I have never accepted what many people have kindly said—namely, that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless and it proved unconquerable. It fell to me to express it and if I found the right word you must remember that I have always earned my living by my pen, and by my tongue.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Westminster Hall (30 November 1954), quoted in The Times (1 December 1954), p. 11

• “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.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in Westminster Hall (30 November 1954), quoted in The Times (1 December 1954), p. 11

• “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping it will eat him last.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1954 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In Reader's Digest (December 1954).

• “Keep England White" is a good slogan.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On Commonwealth immigration, recorded in Harold Macmillan's diary entry (20 January 1955), quoted in Peter Catterall (ed.), The Macmillan Diaries: The Cabinet Years, 1950-57 (Macmillan, 2003), p. 382

• “I have worked very hard with Nehru. I told him he should be the light of Asia, to show all those mil­lions how they can shine out, instead of accept­ing the dark­ness of Com­mu­nism.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: 18 Feb­ru­ary 1955, WSC to Eden's pri­vate sec­re­tary Eve­lyn Shuckburgh.

• “I have a strong admiration for the Russian people—for their bravery, their many gifts, and their kindly nature. It is the Communist dictatorship and the declared ambition of the Communist Party and their proselytising activities that we are bound to resist, and that is what makes this great world cleavage.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (1 March 1955)

• “The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (1 March 1955)

• “I think it is the most important subject facing this country, but I cannot get any of my ministers to take any notice.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: To Sir Ian Gilmour on Commonwealth immigration to England in 1955, quoted in Ian Gilmour, Inside Right (Hutchinson, 1977), p. 134

• “It remains for me to wish my colleagues all good fortune in the difficult, but hopeful, situation which you have to face. I trust that you will be enabled to further the progress already made in rebuilding the domestic stability and economic strength of the United Kingdom and in weaving still more closely the threads which bind together the countries of the Commonwealth or, as I still prefer to call it, the Empire.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Speech to his last Cabinet (5 April 1955), quoted in Henry Pelling, Churchill's Peacetime Ministry, 1951–55 (1997), p. 175

• “No, no. I stop in Victoria's reign. I could not write about the woe and ruin of the terrible twentieth century. We answered all the tests. But it was useless.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: His answer to Lord Moran, who asked him whether he would write about the 20th century in his A History of the English Speaking Peoples (19 June 1956), quoted in Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, …

• “Among our Socialist opponents there is great confusion. Some of them regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is—the strong and willing horse that pulls the whole cart along.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Unwritten Alliance: Speeches 1953-1959, London: Cassell, (1961), p. 324, Woodford, Essex, (1959, 29 September)

• “We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glow-worm.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted by Violet Bonham-Carter in Winston Churchill as I Knew Him (1965), according to The Yale Book of Quotations (2006), Fred R. Shapiro, Yale University Press, p. 155

• “I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As cited in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007), Ed. Goodwin, Black Dog Publishing, p. 49,

• “It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As cited in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007), Ed. Goodwin, Black Dog Publishing, p. 168,

• “I am a sporting man. I always give them a fair chance to get away.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1963 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Asked why he missed so many trains and aeroplanes, as cited in My Darling Clementine (1963), Fishman, W.H. Allen : Star Books edition (1974), p. 218

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

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted in Words of Wisdom: Winston Churchill, Students' Academy, Lulu Press (2014), Section Three :

• “In the course of my life I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted by Lord Normanbrook in Action This Day: Working With Churchill. Memoirs by Lord Norman Brook (And Others) (1968)

• “Historians are apt to judge war ministers less by the victories achieved under their direction than by the political results which flowed from them. Judged by that standard, I am not sure that I shall be held to have done very well.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Quoted by Robert Boothby in Robert Boothy, Recollections of a Rebel (1978), pp. 183–84.

• “Take away that pudding – it has no theme.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As cited in Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Subject (2010), ed. Susan Ratcliffe, Oxford University Press, p. 193 : ; reported in The Way the Wind Blows (1976), Lord Home, Quadrangle, p. 217.

• “[Magna Carta provided] "a system of checks and balances which would accord the monarchy its necessary strength, but would prevent its perversion by a tyrant or a fool.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “This Treasury paper, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 50, ISBN 1586486389

• “I want no criticism of America at my table. The Americans criticize themselves more than enough.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As cited in Churchill By Himself (2008), Ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 128

• “My ability to persuade my wife to marry me [was] quite my most brilliant achievement ... Of course, it would have been impossible for any ordinary man to have got through what I had to go through in peace and war without the devoted aid of what we call, in England, one's better half.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 511,

• “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.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948) Moral of the Work, p. ix

• “Fascism was the shadow or ugly child of communism... As Fascism sprang from Communism, so Nazism developed from Fascism. Thus were set on foot those kindred movements which were destined soon to plunge the world into more hideous strife, which none can say has ended with their destruction.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume 1, The Gathering Storm, Mariner Books (1985), pp. 13-14. First published in 1948.

• “One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948).

• “Their horse cavalry, of which they had twelve brigades, charged valiantly against the swarming tanks and armoured cars but could not harm them with their swords and lances.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On the Polish defense against Germany, in The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948).

• “I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On his appointment as Prime Minister, May 10, 1940; The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948).

• “Still, if you will not fight for the 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 the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume I: The Gathering Storm (1948) Chapter 19 (Prague, Albania, and the Polish Guarantee).

• “Baldwin, Stanley ... confesses putting party before country, 169-70; ...”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1948 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Index entry, The Second World War, Volume I: The Gathering Storm (1948)

• “When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume II: Their Finest Hour (1949) Chapter 8 (September Tensions)

• “The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1949 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume II: Their Finest Hour (1949) Chapter XXX (Ocean Peril). p. 529

• “No American will think it wrong of me if I proclaim that to have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. I could not foretell the course of events. I do not pretend to have measured accurately the martial might of Japan, but now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all! ... Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume III: The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 32 (Pearl Harbor).

• “Some people did not like this ceremonious style. But after all when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Churchill ended his December 8, 1941 letter to the Japanese Ambassador, declaring that a state of war now existed between the United Kingdom and Japan, with the courtly flourish "I have the honour to be, with high consi…

• “Silly people, and there are many, not only in enemy countries, might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand bloodletting. Their democracy and system of recurrent elections would paralyse their war horizon to friend or foe. Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people. But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Grand Alliance: The Second World War, Volume 3, (1950) p. 540

• “War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On the Soviet Union's failure to form a united Balkan front against Hitler ; in The Second World War, Volume III: The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 20 (The Soviet Nemesis)

• “This was one of the heaviest blows I can recall during the war....It was a bitter moment. Defeat is one thing; disgrace is another.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1942 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Fall of Tobruk, 20 June 1942.

• “Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate (1951) Chapter 33 (The Battle of Alamein)

• “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.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Second World War, Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate (1951)

• “Of course, when you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952) Chapter 12 (Island Prizes Lost).

• “By noon it was clear that the Socialists would have a majority. At luncheon my wife said to me, 'It may well be a blessing in disguise.' I replied, 'At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised.'”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: On the (July 26, 1945) landslide electoral defeat that turned him out of office near the end of WWII, in The Second World War, Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy (1953), Chapter 40 (The End of My Account), p. 583.

• “Thus ended the great American Civil War, which upon the whole must be considered the noblest and least avoidable of all the great mass conflicts of which till then there was record.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “No one can understand history without continually relating the long periods which are constantly mentioned to the experiences of our own short lives. Five years is a lot. Twenty years is the horizon to most people. Fifty years is antiquity. To understand how the impact of destiny fell upon any generation of men one must first imagine their position and then apply the time-scale of our own lives.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “At this point the march of invention brought a new factor upon the scene. Iron was dug and forged. Men armed with iron entered Britain from the Continent and killed the men of bronze. At this point we can plainly recognise across the vanished millenniums a fellow-being. A biped capable of slaying another with iron is evidently to modern eyes a man and a brother.”

  Winston Churchill (1874–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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