160+ Winston Churchill Quotes to Inspire Leadership, Courage, and the Power of Words

Updated 2024/12/06

November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965
British
Politician, army officer, writer
As British Prime Minister during World War II, he led the Allied powers to victory

“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
“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.”
“Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.”
“This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.”
“The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.”
“The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy’s aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.”
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I never worry about action, but only inaction.”
“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.”
“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.”
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
“He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
“We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.”
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”
“A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.”
“I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.”
“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”
“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.”
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
“My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.”
“Politics is 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.”
“We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.”
“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.”
“When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.”
“Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.”
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
“Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”
“I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
“Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.”
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.”
“No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.”
“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.”
“It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.”
“We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
“I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.”
“Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.”
“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.”
“Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.”
“I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.”
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
“In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.”
“Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.”
“For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.”
“If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.”
“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”
“It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.”
“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.”
“The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all.”
“I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.”
“We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.”
“We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.”
“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”
“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.”
“It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.”
“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.”
“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”
“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?”
“Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.”
“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
“Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.”
“Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
“It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”
“A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.”
“Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better.”
“In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.”
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
“Eating words has never given me indigestion.”
“Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.”
“War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.”
“My wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.”
“We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.”
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.”
“True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.”
“Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.”
“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.”
“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
“One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.”
“History will be kind to me for I intend to write 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.”
“There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.”
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”
“Great and good are seldom the same man.”
“I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.”
“I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.”
“There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.”
“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.”
“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.”
“When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.”
“Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.”
“Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.”
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.”
“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.”
“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.”
“We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.”
“To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.”
“I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.”
“I am easily satisfied with the very best.”
“Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.”
“I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.”
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
“‘No comment’ is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.”
“Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.”
“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!”
“I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”
“Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about.”
“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.”
“My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.”
“I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.”
“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.”
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
“If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.”
“The first quality that is needed is audacity.”
“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.”
“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”
“Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.”
“War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.”
“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.”
“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”
“History is written by the victors.”
“India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.”
“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”
“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.”
“The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.”
“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.”
“It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.”
“Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.”
“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.”
“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”
“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.”
“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”
“Never, never, never give up.”
“If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.”
“No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.”
“I like a man who grins when he fights.”
“The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.”
“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”
“If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.”
“In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.”
“No crime is so great as daring to excel.”
“Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.”
“No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.”
“Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.”
“When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.”
“These are not dark days: these are great days – the greatest days our country has ever lived.”
“We are asking the nations of Europe between whom rivers of blood have flowed to forget the feuds of a thousand years.”
“Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”
“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”