Winston Churchill

World War II

• "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 (October 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 still 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 during the .

• "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)

• "If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons"
  • Speech in the House of Commons (after German invasion of the USSR)

• "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 at the 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)

After World War II

Attributed

Historical

• "A modest man, who has much to be modest about"
  • Referring to:

• "A sheep in sheep's clothing"
  • Referring to:

• "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."

• "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)

• 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]

• "In time of war, when truth is so precious, it must be attended by a bodyguard of lies". Alternatively: "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

• "The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative."

• "The further back I look the further forward I can see."

Wit

Aphorisms

• "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."

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

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

• "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."

• "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 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."

• "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 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."

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

• "The reason for having diplomatic relations is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a convenience."

• "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter."