I love quotes. I think about them as a form of condensed wisdom: short, inspiring and timeless. That’s why they are so popular. Here are a few of my favorite from Sir Winston Churchill.
Churchill was known for his great speech, as an oratory genius and as a master of the arts of repartee. Everywhere he went he captured everyone’s attention. But few know how many long hours of sweat and tears he spent preparing even the simplest joke.
Take him as an example. One is not born a great man… It’s a matter of practice and a whole lot of effort!
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.
My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 9 (Education At Bangalore)
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. (…) Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.
My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 18 (With Buller To The Cape), p. 246
The world looks with some awe upon a man who appears unconcernedly indifferent to home, money, comfort, rank, or even power and fame. The world feels not without a certain apprehension, that here is someone outside its jurisdiction; someone before whom its allurements may be spread in vain; someone strangely enfranchised, untamed, untrammeled by convention, moving independent of the ordinary currents of human action.
At an unveiling of a memorial to T. E. Lawrence at the Oxford High School for Boys (1936-10-03); as quoted in Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E. Lawrence (1989) by Jeremy M Wilson
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, ‘it is the quality which guarantees all others.’
In Great Contemporaries, “Alfonso XIII” (1937)
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.
BBC broadcast, London, 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, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940)
Every morn brought forth a noble chance, and every chance brought forth a noble knight.
Speech in the House of Commons, June 4, 1940; passage praising the airmen of the Royal Air Force and their efforts during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
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 in the House of Commons (4 June 1940); It has been noted that the most famous passage, beginning “We shall fight on the beaches…” and ending “…we shall never surrender,” consists entirely of words derived from Old English (Anglo-Saxon), except for the word “surrender” — which is derived from Old French.
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 (1940-06-18)
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Speech in the House of Commons, complimenting the pilots in the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain (1940-08-20)
These cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of London are, of course, a part of Hitler’s invasion plans. He hopes, by killing large numbers of civilians, and women and children, that he will terrorize and cow the people of this mighty imperial city … Little does he know the spirit of the British nation, or the tough fibre of the Londoners.
Radio broadcast during the London Blitz, September 11, 1940
If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
To his personal secretary John Colville the evening before the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
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 given at Harrow School, Harrow, England, 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.
Referring to the British victory over the German Afrika Korps at the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt.
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)
Meeting Roosevelt was like uncorking your first bottle of champagne.
Winston Churchill’s visit to FDR’s grave site at Hyde Park, NY.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
“Sinews of Peace” address[11] of March 5, 1946, at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, origin of the famous “Iron Curtain” concept.
All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Freedom; Justice; Honour; Duty; Mercy; Hope.
United Europe Meeting, Albert Hall, London (May 14, 1947).
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 (1947-11-11)
Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.
Speech (May 28, 1948) at the Scottish Unionist Conference, Perth, Scotland.
I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.
On his appointment as Prime Minister in May of 1940.
In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.
The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948) Moral of the Work
Broadly speaking, short words are best, and the old words, when short, are best of all.
Speech on receiving the London Times Literary Award November 2, 1949
Some people did not like this ceremonious style. But after all when you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.
Churchill ended his December 8, 1941 letter to the Japanese Ambassador, declaring that a state of war now existed between the United Kingdom and Japan, with the courtly flourish “I have the honour to be, with high consideration, Sir, Your obedient servant”.
I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
On his 75th birthday, in reply to a question on whether he was afraid of death.
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Churchill’s black cat, Nelson, is reputed to have had a chair at Cabinet.
About his wife:
“Always remember Clemmie, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”
“My most brilliant achievement was to persuade my wife to marry me.”
Dialogs:
Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if I were your wife, I’d poison your tea.
Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I’d drink it.
Bessie Braddock: Sir, you are drunk.
Churchill: And you, madam, are ugly. But in the morning, I shall be sober. You, however, will still be ugly.
Churchill: Madam, would you sleep with me for five million pounds?
Socialite: My goodness, Mr. Churchill… Well, I suppose… we would have to discuss terms, of course…
Churchill: Would you sleep with me for five pounds?
Socialite: Mr. Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!
Churchill: Madam, we’ve already established that. Now we are haggling about the price.
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Buenos Aires, Argentina.