Top 1291 Quotes & Sayings by Winston Churchill

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a British statesman Winston Churchill.
Last updated on December 3, 2024.
Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, was a British statesman, soldier and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Apart from two years between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led from 1940 to 1955. He was a member of the Liberal Party from 1904 to 1924.

If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
The price of greatness is responsibility.
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. — © Winston Churchill
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
History is written by the victors.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
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.
Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. — © Winston Churchill
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.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.
My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Never, never, never give up.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. — © Winston Churchill
I am 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.
It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
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 prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
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 make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
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!
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us. — © Winston Churchill
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.
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.
Kites rise highest against the wind - not with 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.
If you're going through hell, keep going.
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.
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