Winston Churchill Quotes

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.

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!

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

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

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.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

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.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

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 easily satisfied with the very best.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

The first quality that is needed is audacity.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

I like a man who grins when he fights.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

‚No comment‘ is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong – these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.

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.

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

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.