Winston Churchill Quotes

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

A joke is a very serious thing.
Winston Churchill

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

A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.
Winston Churchill

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

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.
Winston Churchill

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

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

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

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

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

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Winston Churchill

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

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

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

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

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.
Winston Churchill

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Winston Churchill

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

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.
Winston Churchill
The first quality that is needed is audacity.
Winston Churchill

The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy's aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.
Winston Churchill

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

The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.
Winston Churchill

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

The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.
Winston Churchill

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

The price of greatness is responsibility.
Winston Churchill

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

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

The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.
Winston Churchill

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
Winston Churchill

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

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.
Winston Churchill

There is no such thing as a good tax.
Winston Churchill

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
Winston Churchill

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
Winston Churchill

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

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

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

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to preserve against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?
Winston Churchill

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

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.
Winston Churchill

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

When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
Winston Churchill

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

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
Winston Churchill

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
Winston Churchill