Not many of us can hear the name Winston Churchill and draw a complete blank. He is a well known historian and made a great impact in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. He served as the Prime Minister of the UK from 1940-1945 and 1951-1955. Prior to that he was an officer in the British Army, a non-academic historian, a writer and an artist. because of his many accomplishments he has gone down in history for saying many things and covering several topics. The following collection is just some of the many quotes he left us with.
The Best of Winston Churchill Quotes
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
These are not dark days: these are great days – the greatest days our country has ever lived.
No crime is so great as daring to excel.
The great defense against the air menace is to attack the enemy’s aircraft as near as possible to their point of departure.
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.
I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
It is no use saying ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
I am easily satisfied with the very best.
The short words are best and the old words are the best of all.
Broadly speaking the short words are the best and the old words best of all.
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.
Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.
All the great things are simple and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom justice honor duty mercy hope.
My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
A joke is a very serious thing.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something sometime in your life.
There is no such thing as a good tax.
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
Great and good are seldom the same man.
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.
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.
Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.
Solitary trees if they grow at all grow strong.
Winston Churchill Quotes on War, Politics and Power
Winston Churchill War Quotes
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.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.
A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails and then asks you not to kill him.
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
Winston Churchill Politics Quote
If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.
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.
Politics is almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once but in politics many times.
In war you can only be killed once but in politics many times.
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.
Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.
Winston Churchill Power Quote
It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.
The power of man has grown in every sphere except over himself.
The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.
Winston Churchill Quotes on History, Time, Future, and Change
Winston Churchill History Quote
Study history study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.
History is written by the victors.
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.
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill Time Quote
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.
This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.
One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.
No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.
Winston Churchill Future Quote
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
If we open a quarrel between past and present we shall find that we have lost the future.
Winston Churchill Change Quote
To improve is to change to be perfect is to change often.
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Winston Churchill Quotes on Truth, Courage, Failure, and Business
Winston Churchill Truth Quote
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it ignorance may deride it but in the end there it is.
In wartime truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
Winston Churchill Courage Quote
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
Success is not final failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
Winston Churchill Failure Quote
Socialism is a philosophy of failure the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill Business Quote
I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact if anything I am the prod.
Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.