When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.
— Winston Churchill
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.
It is a fine game to play - the game of politics - and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.
We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
History is written by the victors.
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
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.
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.
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.
The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.
It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.
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.
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.
We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
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?
We are asking the nations of Europe between whom rivers of blood have flowed to forget the feuds of a thousand years.
Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.
We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
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.
Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.
No crime is so great as daring to excel.
Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
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.
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 never worry about action, but only inaction.
A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.
Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.
India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.
Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about.
Great and good are seldom the same man.
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
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.
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.
I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.
Eating words has never given me indigestion.
I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.
Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
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.
I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.
