Famous quotes by »

Winston Churchill

Winston Spencer-Churchill, generally known as Winston Churchill, was a British Conservative Party politician and a grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, who was also his namesake.

Update this biography »
Complete biography of Winston Churchill »

FAVORITE (13 fans)

Sort by:Popularity A - Z

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never -- in nothing, great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

The price of greatness is responsibility.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Lady Astor: Sir, if you were my husband I would put arsenic in your tea! Churchill: If I were your husband I would drink it!

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill- designed for the purpose.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

For myself I am an optimist--it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Mr Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Never, never, never give up.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

The substance of the eminent Socialist gentleman's speech is that making a profit is a sin, but it is my belief that the real sin is taking a loss.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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 hillswe shall never surrender.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, 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.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

It is no use saying We are doing our best. You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Immature love says, I love you because I need you, mature love says, I need you because I love you.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

We shall not fail or falter we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Fanatic. One who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

When you're going through hell, keep going.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

The maxim of the British people is 'Business as Usual.'

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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 other forms that have been tried from time to time.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

You will make all kinds of mistakes but as long as you are generous and true and fierce you cannot hurt the world, or even seriously distress her.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Never trust a man who doesn't drink.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Success is never final.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

The heights of great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upwards in the night.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

If you are not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at forty, you have no brain.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

So they the Government go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

This was their finest hour

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

We shape our buildings and they shape us.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

In my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you also understand the most amusing.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Never, never, never give in.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

When you get a thing the way you want it, leave it alone.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice. I consider the real vice is making losses.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

A cat will look down to a man. A dog will look up to a man. But a pig will look you straight in the eye and see his equal.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

The eagle has ceased to scream, but the parrots will now begin to chatter. The war of the giants is over and the pigmies will now start to squabble.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

Rate it:

This report, by its very length, defends itself against being read.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

When you get to the end of your rope tie a knot and hang on.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt... 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

Rate it:

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I have not become the Kings First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

I'd form a alliance with the devil himself if helped defeat Hitler.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Kites rise highest against the wind---not with it.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Commonwealth and the Empire last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have been wrecked.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

We will have no truce or parlay with you Hitler, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst -- and we will do our best.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Why you may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman, and th most audacious soldier, put them at a table together-and what do you get? The sum of their fears.

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

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

– Winston Churchill

Rate it:

Quotes from the news wire:

We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets.

– Winston Churchill

Found on FOX News 3 years ago Politics

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary, it fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

– Winston Churchill

Found on CNN 3 years ago Top News