Famous quotes from these speeches and other memorable moments in his life are still used today.EnglishStatesman, born November 30, 1874; died January 24, 1965 – https://www.churchillcentral.com/quotes
Sir Winston Churchill is perhaps best remembered for his powerful speeches, particularly those he gave during the Second World War. Famous quotes from these speeches and other memorable moments in his life are still used today.
Discover more about the history behind Churchill’s speeches, his role as a screenwriter and his Nobel Prize for mastery of the written and spoken word in The Man of Words.
QUOTES –
Do not let us speak of darker days; let us rather speak of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.Churchill, 29 October 1941, Harrow Sch
War Hope History Second World War
The more that is given the more there will be needed.– Churchill, June 1926 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
I could not live without Champagne. In victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it. Churchill to Odette Pol-Roger, 1946, reported by Christian Pol-Roger to Richard M. cited in Langworth: Churchill: In His Own Words)
For defeat there is only one answer … victory.
Churchill, 10 June 1941 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words) Failure Victory Second World War
First things first. Get the champagne. Churchill, 1931, New York (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
I do not think we are likely to learn much from the liquor legislation of the United States.Churchill, 11 April 1927 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
There is nothing wrong in change, if it is in the right direction. To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often. Churchill, 23 June 1925 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
More Quotes –
I never ‘worry’ about action, but only about inaction.Churchill, 1940s (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Dogs look up to you, cats look down on you.
Give me a pig! He looks you in the eye and treats you as an equal. Churchill, c 1952, as relayed by Sir Anthony Montague Browne to Richard (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
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In Defense of Churchill’s Use of alcohol as Prime Minister –
Research is saying – ‘Excess drinking is toxic – but moderate use of alcohol is beneficial to mind & Body. Consuming in moderation alcohol ALLEVIATES STRESS, enhances Mood, and makes us more social – It provides a much needed ‘vacation’ from the burdens of consciousness . Covid pandemic liquor sales have been classified services almost everywhere-
But in moderation -but in moderation it brings other kinds of positive benefits. Google’s Whiskey room – provide ‘whisky rooms’ where frustrated coders can re.ass & expand their minds-when presented with a difficulty Challenging problem-Excess alcohol is terrible for the human body & Mind’
Winston Churchill – ‘Moderation in all things’ KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
https://wordpress.com/post/facebookcomdeehinkle2.com/4752
A Case for Low Alcohol and High Hops Beer-USE of Alcohol-NOT ABUSE-Winston Churchill!
https://wordpress.com/post/facebookcomdeehinkle2.com/3267
Western Medicine – the vehicle of Destruction-NOT UNLIKE-Nazi Germany-
THE NEW NORMAL-MEDICARE- Are we – Lambs to the Slaughter?
Foods-THE GREATEST PUBLIC HEALTH THREAT OF OUR Food-Poor Thought Transmission?
an GMO – FACTORY FARMS COLLAPSE!
Ezekiel 38:21; Zechariah 12:4-‘Confusion in Last Battle’
You will never get to the end of the journey if you stop to shy a stone at every dog that barks.
Churchill, 3 December 1923, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Bolshevism is not a policy; it is a disease. It is not a creed; it is a pestilence.
Churchill, 29 May 1919
[Photographer: “I hope, sir, that I will shoot your picture on your hundredth birthday.”]
I don’t see why not, young man. You look reasonably fit and healthy.
Churchill, 30 November 1949, Hyde Park Gate, London (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Keep cool, men! This will be interesting for my paper!
Churchill, 15 November 1899 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Books, in all their variety, offer the human intellect the means whereby civilization may be carried triumphantly forward.
Churchill, 8 November 1937, Statement for the National Book Fair (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Those who serve supreme causes must not consider what they can get but what they can give.
Churchill, 11 August 1950, Council of Europe, Strasbourg (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
I expect you will find that change is the best kind of rest.
Churchill, 17 December 1939 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
How much easier it is to join bad companions than to shake them off!
Churchill, 31 August 1943 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Hess or no Hess, I’m going to watch the Marx Brothers.
Churchill, during an air raid, 11 May 1941, Ditchley Park
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Churchill, 20 August 1940
History Second World War Speeches Responsibility
In politics when you are in doubt what to do, do nothing … when you are in doubt what to say, say what you really think.
Churchill, 26 July 1905, North-West Manchester (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast.
Churchill, 31 January 1952: Ismay (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
[Bessie Braddock MP: “Winston, you are drunk, and what’s more you are disgustingly drunk.”] Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.
Churchill, 1946 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
The facilities for advanced education must be evened out and multiplied. No one who can take advantage of a higher education should be denied this chance. You cannot conduct a modern community except with an adequate supply of persons upon whose education, whether humane, technical, or scientific, much time and money have been spent.
Churchill, 21 March 1943
In the twinkling of an eye, I found myself without an office, without a seat, without a party, and without an appendix.
Churchill, 1931, ‘Election Memories’, Strand Magazine
If the British Empire is fated to pass from life into history, we must hope it will not be by the slow process of dispersion and decay, but in some supreme exertion for freedom, for right and for truth.
Churchill, 20 April 1939, Canada Club, London
Empire History Second World War
Evils can be created much quicker than they can be cured.
Churchill, 2 October 1951, Liverpool (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
You must look at facts, because they look at you.
Churchill, 7 May 1925 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
[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.
Churchill, 1902 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
One always measures friendships by how they show up in bad weather.
Churchill, 10 July 1948, Woodford, Essex (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
The future is unknowable, but the past should give us hope.
Churchill, 1958 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Churchill, speaking at Harvard University, 6 September 1943
I trust and believe that this College, this seed that we have sown, will grow to shelter and nurture generations who may add most notably to the strength and happiness of our people, and to the knowledge and peaceful progress of the world. ‘The mighty oak from an acorn towers; A tiny seed can fill a field with flowers.’
Churchill, 17 October 1959
It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth a good hand – before really plunging.
Churchill, in a letter to his mother, 16 August 1895
One of the most remarkable features of the British army for a great number of years had been its number of generals.
Churchill, 24 February 1903 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Soldiers Leadership/statesmanship
… the best generals are those who arrive at the results of planning without being tied to plans.
Churchill, 1930 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Politics Leadership/statesmanship
It will be better to engage Germany on new frontiers … Naval command of the Baltic must be secured.
Memo by Churchill, 31 December 1914
[My ideal of a good dinner] is to discuss good food, and, after this good food has been discussed, to discuss a good topic – with myself the chief conversationalist.
Churchill, 1925, “Ephesian” [Roberts C. Bechhofer] in Winston Churchill (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
Churchill, 29 September 1959, Woodford, Essex (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real.
Churchill, ‘Hobbies’, Pall Mall Gazette, Dec 1925 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Happy are the painters for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day.
Churchill, Hobbies, written in 1925 and perhaps reflecting the solace painting had provided him since the death of his daughter Marigold.
Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities.
Churchill, 31 May 1935 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong; and a boy deprived of a father’s care often develops, if he escape the perils of youth, an independence and vigour of thought which may restore in after life the heavy loss of early days.
Churchill, 1902 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
It is a very fine thing to refuse an invitation, but it is a good thing to wait till you get it first.
Churchill, 22 February 1911 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Justice moves slowly and remorselessly upon its path, but it reaches its goal eventually.
Churchill, 23 July 1929 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
…I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.…
Churchill, 4 November, 1952 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library.
Churchill, December 1921 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
A lie will gallop halfway round the world before the truth has time to pull its breeches on.
Churchill, 1940s (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.
Churchill, 22 February 1906 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Here life itself, life at its best and healthiest, awaits the caprice of the bullet. Let us see the development of the day. All else may stand over, perhaps for ever. Existence is never so sweet as when it is at hazard.
Churchill, 4 February 1900 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
It always looks so easy to solve problems by taking the line of least resistance.
Churchill, 24 May 1946 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
You never can tell whether bad luck may not after all turn out to be good luck.
Churchill, 1930 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
Unteachable from infancy to tomb — There is the first and main characteristic of mankind.
Churchill, 21 May 1928 (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
[Nancy Astor: “If I were married to you, I’d put poison in your coffee.”] If I were married to you, I’d drink it.
Churchill to Nancy Astor c.1912, Blenheim Palace (cited in Langworth, Churchill: In His Own Words)
There is no doubt the charge was an awful gamble and that no normal precautions were possible. The issue as far as I was concerned had to be left to Fortune or to God – or to whatever may decide these things. I am content and shall not complain.
Churchill, in a letter to his mother, 17 September 1898
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Quotations from Churchill’s writings and speeches appear here by kind permission of Curtis Brown on behalf of the Estate of Winston S. Churchill. For more information or for permission to use any of these quotations, please contact http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/winston-churchill or send an email to churchillpermissions@curtisbrown.co.uk.
(With thanks to Richard M. Langworth, editor of Churchill: In His Own Words, the most accurate and complete collection of Churchill’s quotes, upon which some of the content below draws.)
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