Author A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Keyword A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Proverbs A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Caroline Nichols Churchill 1833 - 1926,
If men had to do their vile work without the assistance of
woman and the stimulant of strong drink they would be obliged
to be more divine and less brutal.
Caryl Churchill 1938-, British playwright
There's ugly greedy and sexy greedy, you dope. At the moment you're ugly which is no hope. If you stay ugly, god knows what your fate is. But sexy greedy is the late eighties.
Zac: The IMF is not a charity. /It has to insist on absolute austerity. / Nigel; Absolutely. It can't be namby pamby./ These countries must accept restricted diets. / The governments must explain, if there are food riots, / That paying the western banks is the priority.
Charles Churchill 1731-64, English Poet
A joke's a very serious thing.
And adepts in the speaking trade / Keep a cough by them ready made.
Apt Alliteration's artful aid.
Be England what she will, / With all her faults she is my country still
But, spite of all the criticizing elves, / Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.
England - a happy land we know, / Where follies naturally grow.
Genius is independent of situation
Genius is of no country.
Grave without thought, and without feeling gay. (on pretentious poets)
Half-starved spiders prey'd on half-starved flies.
Happy, thrice happy now the savage race, / Since Europe took their gold, and gave them grace! / Pastors she sends to help them in their need, / Some who can't write, with others who can't read.
He mouths a sentence as curs mouth a bone.
. . . He for subscribers baits his hook, / And takes your cash; but where's the book? / No matter where; wise fear, you know, / Forbids the robbing of a foe; / But what, to serve our private ends, / Forbids the cheating of our friends? (satirizing Samuel Johnson)
He sickened at all triumphs but his own. (of Thomas Franklin, Professor of Greek at Cambridge University)
It can't be Nature, for it is not sense.
Just to the windward of the law.
Keep up appearances; there lies the test; / The world will give thee credit for the rest. / Outward be fair, however foul within; / Sin if thou wilt, but then in secret sin.
Learned without sense, and venerably dull.
Little do such men know the toil, the pains, the daily, nightly racking of the brains, to range the thoughts, the matter to digest, to cull fit phrases, and reject the rest.
Ne'er blushed unless, in spreading Vice's snares, / She blundered on some virtue unawares.
No merit but mere knack of rhyme, / Short gleams of sense, and satire out of time.
Old-age, a second child, by Nature cursed / With more and greater evils than the first, / Weak, sickly, full of pains; in ev'ry breath / Railing at life, and yet afraid of death.
Our vices, with more zeal than holy prayers, / She teaches them, and in return takes theirs.
Prudent dullness marked him for a mayor.
Stay out all night, but take especial care / That Prudence bring thee back to early prayer / As one with watching and with study faint, / Reel in a drunkard, and reel out a saint.
The best things carried to excess are wrong.
The danger chiefly lies in acting well; / No crime's so great as daring to excel.
Those who would make us feel, must feel themselves.
Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, / They damn those authors whom they never read.
To copy beauty forfeits all pretense to fame; to copy faults is want of sense.
To mischief trained, e'en from his mother's womb, / Grown old in fraud, tho' yet in manhood's bloom. / Adopting arts, by which gay villains rise, / And reach the heights, which honest men despise; / Mute at the bar, and in the senate loud, / Dull 'mongst the dullest, proudest of the proud; / A pert, prim prater of the northern race, / Guilt in his heart, and famine in his face. (of Alexander Wedderburn, later Lord Loughborough)
Where he falls short, 'tis Nature's fault alone; / Where the succeeds, the merit's all his own.
Frank E. Churchill 1901-42, US composer
Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? [song]
Jennie Jerome Churchill 1854-1921, Mother of British Prime Minster Winston Churchill
Life is not always what one wants it to be, but to make the best of it as it is, is the only way of being happy.
There is no such thing as a moral dress. It's people who are moral or immoral.
Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light.
We owe something to extravagance, for thrift and adventure seldom go hand in hand.
You may be a princess or the richest woman in the world, but you cannot be more than a lady.
Jill Churchill
The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one. [O Magazine, May 2003]
Randolph Henry Spencer, Lord Randolph Churchill 1849-94, British political leader
All great men make mistakes. Napoleon forgot Blucher, I forgot Goshchen.
An old man in a hurry. (on Gladstone)
I decided some time ago that if the G. O. M. [William Ewart Gladstone, the "Grand Old Man"] went for Home Rule, the Orange card would be the one to play. Please God it may turn out the ace of trumps and not the two.
I never could make out what those damned dots [decimal points] meant.
The forest laments in order that Mr Gladstone may perspire. (on Gladstone's hobby of felling trees)
Ulster will fight; Ulster will be right.
Ward Churchill American Educator
If U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned.
They were targeting those people I referred to as 'little Eichmanns.' These were legitimate targets.
When you kill 500,000 children in order to impose your will on other countries, then you shouldn't be surprised when somebody responds in kind.
Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British Prime Minister [Winston Churchill ]
A communist is like a crocodile: when it opens its mouth you cannot tell whether it is trying to smile or preparing to eat you up.
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
A joke is a very serious thing.
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
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.
A medal glitters, but it also casts a shadow. (a reference to the envy caused by the award of honours)
A modest man who has a good deal to be modest about. [Of Clement Attlee]
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
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.
A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
A remarkable example of modern art. It certainly combines force with candour. (on the notorious 80th birthday portrait by Graham Sutherland, later destroyed by Lady Churchill)
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. . . . From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
A sheep in sheep's clothing. [Said to refer to Clement Attlee.]
Advertising nourishes the consuming power of men. It sets up before a man the goal of a better home, better clothing, better food for himself and his family. It spurs individual exertion and greater production.
Air power can either paralyze the enemy's military action or compel him to devote to the defense of his bases and communications a share of his straitened resources far greater that what we need in the attack.
All his usual formalities of perfidy were observed with scrupulous technique. [Of Hitler's invasion of Russia]
All is over. Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken, Czechoslovakia recedes into darkness. . . . We have sustained a defeat without a war. [On the German annexation of the Sudetenland, in Czechoslovakia]
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Although present on the occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
An empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing Street, and when the door was opened Atlee got out.
And if I were your husband I would drink it. [Replying to Nancy Astor's saying "If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee!"]
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.
Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat. [Referring to his own rejoining of the Conservative party, having earlier left it to join the Liberals.]
As far as I can see you have used every cliche except "God is Love" and "Please adjust your dress before leaving." [To Anthony Eden about a long report from the latter]
At every crisis the Kaiser crumpled. In defeat he fled; in revolution he abdicated; in exile he remarried.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.
Better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.
Business carried on as usual during alterations on the map of Europe. (on the self-adopted 'motto' of the British people) [at the start of the First World War]
By being so long in the lowest form [at Harrow] I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. . . . I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence - which is a noble thing.
By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.
Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Creativity is the ability to move from one failure to another with no loss of Enthusiasm.
Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Dead birds don't fall out of nests. [Response to a colleague who told him his flies were open]
Death came very easily to her. She had lived such an innocent and loving life of service to others and held such a simple faith, that she had no fears at all and did not seem to mind very much.
Decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent. [Of Stanley Baldwin's Government]
Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.
Do not let us speak of darker days; let us rather speak of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race. [October 1941]
Dogs look up to you. Cats look down on you. Give me a pig. He just looks you in the eye and treats you like an equal.
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.
Eating words has never given me indigestion.
Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
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.
Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.
For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.
For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.
For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent
Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.
Grandson: "Grandpapa, is it true that you are the greatest man in the world?" Churchill: "Yes. Now bugger off."
Happy are the painters for they shall not be bored.
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
He is a modest little man who has a good deal to be modest about.
He is a sheep in sheep's clothing.
He is one of those orators of whom it was well said, 'Before they get up, they do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, they do not know what they are saying; and when they have sat down, they do not know what they have said.' (of Lord Charles Beresford)
Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime Ministers have never yet been invested.
Heckler: "Mr. Churchill, if I were your wife, I would poison your coffee! "Churchill : "Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it."
Heckler: "Mr. Churchill, you're drunk!"
Churchill: "Yes, I am; and you are ugly. But tomorrow, I shall be sober."
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.
History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
I also hope that I sometimes suggested to the lion the right place to use his claws.
I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.
I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.
I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.
I am always willing to learn. I do not, however, always enjoy being taught
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
I am bored with it all.
I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.
I am easily satisfied with the very best.
I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
I am ready to meet my maker, but whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
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.'
I began my education at a very early age - in fact, right after I left college.
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 interests.
I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the fire. [Responding to criticism that he edited the British Gazette in a biased manner during the General Strike.]
I did not suffer from any desire to be relieved of my responsibilities. All I wanted was compliance with my wishes after reasonable discussion.
I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and this trial. Eleven years in the political wilderness had freed me from ordinary Party antagonisms. My warnings over the last six years had been so numerous, so detailed, and were now so terribly vindicated, that no one could gainsay me. I could not be reproached either for making the war or with want of preparation for it. I thought I knew a good deal about it all, and I was sure I should not fail. Therefore, although impatient for the morning, I slept soundly and had no need for cheering dreams. Facts are better than dreams.
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.
I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence-which is a noble thing.
I have always considered that the substitution of the internal combustion engine for the horse marked a very gloomy milestone in the progress of mankind.
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.
I have never accepted what many people have kindly said - namely, that I inspired the nation. . . . 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 also hope that I sometimes suggested to the lion the right place to use his claws.
I have never accepted what many people have kindly said-namely that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless, and as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it
I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.
I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. [May 1940]
I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
I like a man who grins when he fights.
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
I look as if I was having a difficult stool. [On his portrait, painted by Graham Sutherland]
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
I never worry about action, but only inaction.
I pass with relief from the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of Result an Fact.
I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum's circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit on the programme which I most desired to see was the one described as 'The Boneless Wonder'. My parents judged that that spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes, and I have waited 50 years to see the boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench. [Of Ramsey MacDonald]
I still have the ideas, Walter, but I can't find the words to clothe them. (to Walter Monckton)
I think "No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again. I got it from Sumner Welles.
I told my doctor I got all the exercise I needed being a pallbearer for all my friends who run and do exercises!
I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.
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."
I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.
If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
(Nancy Astor::) If I were your wife I would put poison in your coffee! / (Churchill:) And if I were your husband I would drink it.
If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.
If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.
If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find we have lost the future.
If you are going through hell, keep going.
If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time; a tremendous whack.
If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
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 small 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 to live as slaves.
In defeat unbeatable: in victory unbearable. [Of Bernard Montgomery]
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.
In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.
In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
India is an abstraction. . . . India is no more a political personality than Europe. India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator. [March 1931]
It cannot in the opinion of His Majesty's Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some risk of terminological inexactitude.
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.
It is a gaping wound, whenever one touches it and removes the bandages and plasters of daily life.
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studies 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.
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace, while he is still orgainsing and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King Emperor. [Referring to Gandhi's release from prison in India]
It is all right to rat, but you can't re-rat.
It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.
It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.
It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.
It is my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you understand the most amusing.
It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
It is not easy to see how things could be worsened by a parley at the summit, if such a thing were possible.
It may almost be said, 'Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.'
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.
Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon.
Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
Life is a test and this world a place of trial. Always the problems—or it may be the same problem—will be presented to every generation in different forms.
Life is too short to drink bad wine.
Like a powerful graceful cat walking delicately and unsoiled across a rather muddy street. (of Balfour's moving from Asqith's Cabinet to that of Lloyd George)
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.
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.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.
Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars--yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.
Most people stumble over the truth, now and then, but they usually manage to pick themselves up and go on, anyway.
Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. But then he has much to be modest about.
Mr Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.
Mrs. Churchill: "Your election defeat may be a blessing in disguise."
Winston: "At the moment, my dear, it's certainly very well disguised."
My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
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.
My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have been wrecked.
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.
National compulsory insurance for all classes for all purposes from the cradle to the grave.
Naval tradition? Monstrous. Nothing but rum, sodomy, prayers, and the lush.
Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States.
Never does a man portray his character more vividly than his proclaiming the character of another.
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. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. [Referring to the pilots who repulsed the German Luftwaffe]
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.
Never, never, never, never give up.
"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.
No crime is so great as daring to excel.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.
No lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt.
No matter how enmeshed a commander becomes in the elaboration of his own thoughts, it is sometimes necessary to take the enemy into account.
No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.
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.
No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.
Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.
Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.
Nothing will bring American sympathy along with us so much as American blood shed in the field.
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. (on the Battle of Egypt)
Of course, we are all worms - but I like to think, at least, that I am a glowworm.
On the night of May 10, 1941, with one of the last bombs of the last serious raid our House of Commons was destroyed by the violence of the enemy, and we have now to consider whether we should build it up again, and how, and when. We shape out buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.
On the night of the tenth of May [1940], at the outset of this mighty battle, I acquired the chief power in the State, which henceforth I wielded in ever-growing measure for five years and three months of world war, at the end of which time, all our enemies having surrendered unconditionally or being about to do so, I was immediately dismissed by the British electorate from all further conduct of their affairs.
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'.
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!
Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.
Perfect solutions of our difficulties are not to be looked for in an imperfect world.
Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.
Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.
Politics is 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.
Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.
Remember, we are confronted with a foe who would without the slightest scruple extirpate us, man, woman and child, by any method open to him if he had the opportunity. We are fighting a foe who would not hesitate one moment to obliterate every single soul in his great country this afternoon if it could be done by pressing a button. We are fighting a foe who would think as little of that as a gardener would think of smoking out a wasps' nest. [5 June 1915]
Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Say what you have to say and the first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending-sit down.
Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.
So they 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.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
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.
Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is - the strong horse that pulls the whole cart.
Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves.
Take away that pudding - it has no theme.
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. [Describing the qualification s desirable in a prospective politician.]
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
The best things carried to excess are wrong.
The Bomb brought peace but man alone can keep that peace.
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.
The candle in that great turnip has gone out. (in reply to the comment 'One never hears of Baldwin nowadays - he might as well be dead')
The difference between him and Arthur is that Arthur is wicked and moral, Asquith is good and immoral. (comparing H. H. Asquith with Arthur Balfour)
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
The English never draw a line without blurring it.
The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
The first quality that is needed is audacity.
[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.
The government of the world must be entrusted to satisfied nations, who wished nothing more for themselves than what they had. . . . Our power placed us above the rest. We were like rich men dwelling at peace within their habitations.
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy's aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
The human story does not always unfold like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes in life they make five or minus three; and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
The latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age.
The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.
The loyalties which center upon number one are enormous. If he trips, he must be sustained. If he make mistakes, they must be covered. If he sleeps, he must not be wantonly disturbed. If he is no good, he must be pole-axed. But this last extreme process cannot be carried out every day; and certainly not in the days just after he has been chosen.
The maxim 'nothing avails but perfection' may be spelled PARALYSIS.
The maxim of the British people is "Business as usual."
The monarchy is so extraordinarily useful. When Britain wins a battle she shouts, "God save the Queen"; when she loses, she votes down the prime minister.
The morning had been golden; the noontide was bronze; and the evening lead. But all were solid, and each was polished till it shone after its fashion (of the career of Lord Curzon)
The only recorded instance in history of a rat swimming towards a sinking ship. (of a former Conservative who proposed to stand as a Liberal)
The optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity.
The people of London with one voice would say to Hitler: "You have committed every crime under the sun. . . . We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst - and we will do our best."
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.
The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.
The price of greatness is responsibility.
The Prime Minister has nothing to hide from the President of the United States (on stepping from his bath in the presence of a startled President Roosevelt)
The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
The proud German army by its sudden collapse, sudden crumbling and breaking up, has once again proved the truth of the saying "The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet."
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.
The Russians will try all the rooms in a house, enter those that are not locked, and when they come to one that cannot be broken into, they will withdraw and invite you to dine genially that same evening.
The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
The utmost he [Neville Chamberlain] has been able to gain for Czechoslovakia and in the matters which were in dispute has been that the German dictator, instead of snatching his victuals from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course.
The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories, and a portent of the fate awaiting the Nazi tyranny.
The War was decided in the first twenty days of fighting, and all that happened afterwards consisted in battles which however formidable and devastating, were but desperate and vain appeals against the decision of Fate. [Of First World War]
The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.
The whole map of Europe has been changed . . . but as the deluge subsides and he waters fall short we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again.
Their sweat, their tears, their blood bedewed the endless plain.
There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.
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.
There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
There is no such thing as a good tax.
There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right.
They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.
This is not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning.
This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. [Of the Battle of Egypt]
This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.
This is the kind of pedantic nonsense up with which I will not put!
This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.
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.
Thus, then, on the night of the tenth of May, at the outset of this might battle, I acquired the chief power in the State, which henceforth I wielded in ever-growing measure for five years and three months of world war, at the end of which time, all our enemies having surrendered unconditionally or being about to do so, I was immediately dismissed by the British electorate from all further conduct of their affairs.
To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
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.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the end; there it is.
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.
War is a catalouge of blunders.
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.
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.
We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes.
We get to make a living; we give to make a life.
We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.
We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English
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.
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
We make this wide encircling movement in the Mediterranean, having for its primary object the recovery of the command of that vital sea, but also having for its object the exposure of the underbelly of the Axis, especially Italy, to heavy attack.
We mean to hold our own. I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
We must beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic.
We must not be too ambitious. We cannot aspire to masterpieces. We may content ourselves with a joy ride in a paint box. And, for this, Audacity is the ticket.
We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
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.
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
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, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and 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.
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.
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 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.
We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
We shape our buildings: thereafter they shape us.
We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
We should not abandon our special relationship with the United States and Canada about the atomic bomb.
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.
What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin.
What is Europe? A rubble heap, a charnel house, a breeding ground for pestilence and hate.
What is our aim? Victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
What is our policy? . . . to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.
When I am abroad, I always make it a rule to never criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
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.
When I warned them [the French Government] 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!
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.
When we consider the resources of the United States and the British Empire
compared to those of Japan, when we remember those of China, which has so long
and valiantly withstood invasion and when also we observe the Russian
menace which hangs over Japan, it becomes still more difficult to reconcile
Japanese action with prudence or even with sanity. What kind of a people do they
think we are? [December 1941. Britain and the USA had declared war on Japan 8
December 1941, following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.]
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
Where does the family start? It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl--no superior alternative has yet been found.
Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.
Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.
Working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation.
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.
You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in on word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
You ask, What is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our our policy. You ask, What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
You may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman, or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together - what do you get? The sum of their fears. [On the Chiefs of Staff system]
(Mrs. Churchill:) Your election defeat may be a blessing in disguise. / (Winston:) At the moment, my dear, it's certainly very well disguised.