Top 100 Winston Churchill Quotes

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

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

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.

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

One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.

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

Great and good are seldom the same man.

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

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

These are not dark days: these are great days – the greatest days our country has ever lived.

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.

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.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

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

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

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

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

History is written by the victors.

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.

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.

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

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.

I like a man who grins when he fights.

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

Never, never, never give up.

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

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

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.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

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.

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

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.

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

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.

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

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

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

India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.

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

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

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

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

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.

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.

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.

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

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.

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

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

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.

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?

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

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.

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

When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.

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

It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

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

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

Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.

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

The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose 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 hills; we shall never surrender.

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

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

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

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

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