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It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read
books of quotations" - Winston Churchill: My Early Life (1930) ch. 9. "Never in the face of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." - Winston Churchill "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." - Prime Minister Winston Churchill (about the Royal Air Force) (both quotations are correct, but said at different occasions) "In Critical and baffling situations, it is always best to return to first principle and simple action" - Sir Winston S. Churchill “it so often happens that, when men are convinced that they have to die, a desire to bear themselves well and to leave life’s stage with dignity conquers all other sensations.” - Sir Winston S. Churchill "I have never accepted what many people have kindly said, namely that I inspired the Nation. It was the nation and the race dwelling around the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar" - Sir Winston Churchill, Speech Nov. 1954. "There is at least one thing worse than fighting with allies – And that is to fight without them" - Sir Winston S. Churchill "The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it." - Winston Churchill "Democracy is the best form of the worst type of government" - Winston Churchill "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. " - Winston Churchill "Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees all others" - Sir Winston S. Churchill "A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him." - Sir Winston S. Churchill, 1952. (The Observer) No matter how enmeshed a commander becomes in the elaboration of his own thoughts, it is sometimes necessary to take the enemy into account. - Winston Churchill "The Americans will always do the right thing... After they've exhausted all the alternatives." - Winston Churchill "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valor, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar." - Prime Minister Winston Churchill "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." - Sir 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. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. -Winston Churchill "We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the 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, will carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old." - Prime Minister Winston Churchill (after the fall of France) "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Prime Minister Winston Churchill "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrors. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival." - Prime Minister Winston Churchill "To have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. Now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all!...Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder." - Prime Minister Winston Churchill (after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) "You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war." Churchill's remark after Chamberlain returned from signing the Munich pact with Hitler and "Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonor. They chose dishonor." - Prime Minister Winston Churchill "Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us." - Winston Churchill "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 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." - 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 Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed. - Winston Churchill It's no use saying, ''We are doing our best.'' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary. - Winston Churchill My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me. - Winston Churchill I never worry about action, but only inaction. - Winston Churchill We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage. - Winston Churchill No two on earth in all things can agree. All have some daring singularity. - Winston Churchill I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me. - Winston Churchill I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk. - Winston Churchill Always remember, a cat looks down on man, a dog looks up to man, but a pig will look man right in the eye and see his equal. - Winston Churchill We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often. - Winston Churchill Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse. - Winston Churchill 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. - Winston Churchill To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. - Winston Churchill 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. - Winston Churchill It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive. - Winston Churchill I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns. - Winston Churchill Socialism is like a dream. Sooner or later you wake up to reality. - Winston Churchill Socialists think profits are a vice; I consider losses the real vice. - Winston Churchill There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right. - Winston Churchill Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. - Winston Churchill This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure. - Winston Churchill Nothing is so exhilarating in life as to be shot at with no result. - Winston Churchill I am ready to meet my maker, but whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter. - Winston Churchill No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it. - Winston Churchill I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar. - Winston Churchill "There is nothing so pleasing as to be shot at by one’s enemy without result." - Winston Churchill "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job" - Churchill, in a broadcast addressed to Roosevelt in 1941 "It has not fallen to your lot to command great armies. You had to create them, organize them and inspire them." - Churchill to General George Marshall 1945 "We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us, and, may I say across the havoc of war, a great general." - Churchill about Rommel You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves. -Winston Churchill In War: Resolution In Defeat: Defiance In Victory: Magnanimity In Peace: Good Will -Winston Churchill quotes If, however, there is to be a war of nerves let us make sure our nerves are strong and are fortified by the deepest convictions of our hearts. -Winston Churchill quotes Little did we guess that what has been called the century of the common man would witness as its outstanding feature more common men killing each other with greater facilities than any other five centuries together in the history of the world. -Winston Churchill quotes "It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied 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." Roving Commission: My Early Life (1930) Chapter 9 "So they [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." Speech in the House of Commons (November 12, 1936) "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 interest." Radio speech (Octopber 1, 1939) "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. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can 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 policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one 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." Speech in the House of Commons upon taking office as prime minister (May 13, 1940) This has often been misquoted with the statement: "I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears." "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, 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." Speech to the House of Commons (June 4, 1940) "Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us now. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, This was their finest hour. Speech in the House of Commons (June 18, 1940) "We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it." Speech in the House of Commons (July 14, 1940) "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many, to so few". Speech in the House of Commons (August 20, 1940) complimenting the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain. "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." BBC radio broadcast (Feb 9, 1941) "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." Speech in the House of Commons (June 10, 1941) "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. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." Speech at Harrow School (October 29, 1941) "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Speech after the British defeat of the German Afrika Korps in Egypt (November 10, 1942) "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind." Speech at Harvard University (September 6, 1943) "The power of the executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist." Telegram by Churchill from Cairo, Egypt to Home Secratary Herbert Morrison (November 21, 1943) "The object of presenting medals, stars, and ribbons is to give pride and pleasure to those who have deserved them." Speech in the House of Commons (March 22, 1944) "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." Speech in the House of Commons (November 29, 1944) "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent." Speech (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/...cfm?pageid=429) at Fulton, Missouri (March 5, 1946) "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." Speech in the House of Commons (November 11, 1947) "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'." The Second World War Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948) "Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse." Speech to Royal Academy of Art (1953); quoted in Time (May 11, 1954) "For myself, I am an optimist— it does not seem to be much use being anything else." Speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet, London (November 9, 1954) "The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair." The ending of Churchill's last major speech to the House of Commons (March 1, 1955) "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.'"� Quoted in Rudolf Flesch, ed., The New Book of Unusual Quotations (NY: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 311� [edit] Attributed: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." "A modest man, who has much to be modest about" Referring to: Clement Atlee "A sheep in sheep's clothing" Referring to: Clement Atlee "Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed." America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn't entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the Spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all these isms wouldn't today be sweeping the continent of Europe and breaking down parliamentary government— and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American, and other lives. [purportedly, interview in New York Enquirer 1936] And you, madam, are ugly. But in the morning I shall be sober. to a lady who accused him of being drunk "Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all." "Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash." (According to the Falsely Attributed Quotations (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/...cfm?pageid=112) page at the Churchill Centre (http://www.winstonchurchill.org), Churchill denied having said this, but expressed the wish that he had.) "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." "This is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put." (Purportedly upon being accused of ending his sentances with prepositions. Had he said "This is the sort of pedantry I will not put up with.", he would have committed the same offense he was accused of.) "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." "I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."� (on the eve of his 75th birthday�) "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gasses: gasses can be used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected." "I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns." "I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes. The moral effects should be good, and it would spread a lively terror." "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 have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents." "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals." (But WC's black cat, Nelson, is reputed to have had a chair at Cabinet.) "It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time." "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." "Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room." "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." "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." "Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught." "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute talk with the average voter." "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery." "The price of greatness is responsibility." "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 water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add whiskey. By diligent effort, I learned to like it." "There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true." "To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often." "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give." "When all was over, torture and cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and these were of doubtful utility." (Observations on World War I) "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." "When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber." "When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite." Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea. Winston Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it. "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." |
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