Winston S. Churchill Quotes: 601 Quotes for Perseverance, Success, and Thought-Provoking Wisdom

“The aid which we can give to those Russian armies which are now engaged in fighting against the foul baboonery of Bolshevism can be given by arms, munitions, equipment, and by the technical services. It is a malicious statement against the interests of the British Empire to suggest that it is necessary for us to prolong the action of the Military Service Act because of enterprises which we have on foot in Russia.”

Winston S. Churchill

Mansion House speech (19 February 1919)
Early career years (1898–1929)
Source: Robert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches 1897-1963 vol. 3, 1914-1922, vol. 3 (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1974), 2671.
Source: Norman Rose: "Churchill: An Unruly Life", pg 146

Fight

“Roads are made, streets are made, services are improved, electric light turns night into day, water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains -- and all the while the landlord sits still. Every one of those improvements is effected by the labour and cost of other people and the taxpayers. To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist, as a land monopolist, contribute, and yet by every one of them the value of his land is enhanced. He renders no service to the community, he contributes nothing to the general welfare, he contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived.”

Winston S. Churchill

Speech to the Scottish Liberal Association, Edinburgh, 18 July 1909
Early career years (1898–1929)

Night , Light , Mountain , People

“I submit respectfully to the House as a general principle that our responsibility in this matter is directly proportionate to our power. Where there is great power there is great responsibility, where there is less power there is less responsibility, and where there is no power there can, I think, be no responsibility.”

Winston S. Churchill

In the House of Commons, February 28, 1906 speech South African native races http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1906/feb/28/south-african-native-races#S4V0152P0_19060228_HOC_307
Early career years (1898–1929)

Thinking , Housing

“They knew what to expect when their opponents returned to power a party of great vested interests—corruption at home, aggression to cover it up abroad, the trickery of tariff juggles, the tyranny of a well-fed party machine; sentiment by the bucketful, patriotism and Imperialism by the Imperial pint, the open hand at the public Exchequer, the open door at the publichouse, dear food for the million, cheap labour for the millionaire. That was the policy which the Tory party offered them, and that was the policy which he asked them to strike at with the battle-axe of Scotland.”

Winston S. Churchill

Speech in Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, Scotland (8 May 1908), quoted in The Times (9 May 1908), p. 14
Early career years (1898–1929)

Home , Food

“Over the years many variants that seem to have been based on informal anecdotes have arisen including: "This is the type of pedantry up with which I will not put."”

Winston S. Churchill

"This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put."
Disputed

“When I see the present Socialist Government denouncing capitalism in all its forms, mocking with derision and contempt the tremendous free enterprise capitalist system on which the mighty production of the United States is founded, I cannot help feeling that as a nation we are not acting honourably or even honestly.”

Winston S. Churchill

Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 124, (1948, 10 July) Woodford, Essex, Europe, 374)
Post-war years (1945–1955)

Feeling , Help

“Peace with Germany and Japan on our terms will not bring much rest to you and me (if I am still responsible). As I observed last time, when the war of the giants is over, the war of the pygmies will begin.”

Winston S. Churchill

Telegram to FDR, March 18, 1945 http://www.churchillarchiveforschools.com/themes/the-themes/anglo-american-relations/just-how-special-was-the-special-relationship-in-the-Second-World-War-Part-2-1942-44/the-sources/source-7
Post-war years (1945–1955)

War , Peace , Time

“I know that it is the Socialist idea that making profits is a vice, and that making large profits is something of which a man ought to be ashamed. I hold the other view. I consider that the real vice is making losses.”

Winston S. Churchill

House of Commons, 1 June 1937. Hansard, Vol 324, Col 883 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1937/jun/01/finance-bill.
The 1930s

Idea , Loss , Making love

“Fascism and Communism… Polar opposites—no, polar the same!”

Winston S. Churchill

Churchill's remark to his son, Randolph Churchill. Quoted in Churchill: The Prophetic Statesman, James C. Humes, Washington D.C., Regnery Publishing (2012), p. 137.
The 1930s

Communication

“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business, as if nothing happened.”

Winston S. Churchill

As quoted in, but without a documented source: Joseph Romanella (2012): Adam's Dream: Is Everything We Think, Believe, and Perceive Real—or Is It All Imaginary? https://books.google.de/books?id=vjQvJ1EITDkC&pg=PR30&lpg=PR30&dq=The+truth+is+incontrovertible.+Malice+may+attack+it,+ignorance+may+deride+it,+but+in+the+end,+there+it+is.+source&source=bl&ots=2z1rN6iBG6&sig=ACfU3U20jzEJtXfaAFYwx1K2zhzOOFzkog&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQuemItuLpAhUNxqYKHR_LDccQ6AEwAnoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=The%20truth%20is%20incontrovertible.%20Malice%20may%20attack%20it%2C%20ignorance%20may%20deride%20it%2C%20but%20in%20the%20end%2C%20there%20it%20is.%20source&f=false, page xxx. ISBN: 978-1-4525-0823-8 (sc). ISBN: 978-1-4525-0824-5 (e). Bloomington, Indiana, United States of America: Balboa Press, a division of Hay House.
Disputed

Business , Truth , People

“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.'”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will 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) This has often been misquoted in the form: "I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears ..."
The Official Report, House of Commons (5th Series), 13 May 1940, vol. 360, c. 1502. Audio records of the speech do spare out the "It is" before the in the beginning of the "Victory"-Part.
The Second World War (1939–1945)

Housing , Tear

“It may be said, therefore, that the military opinion of the world is opposed to those people who cry 'Democratize the army!'”

Winston S. Churchill

and it must be remembered that an army is not a field upon which persons with Utopian ideas may exercise their political theories, but a weapon for the defence of the State.
British Cavalry, The Anglo-Saxon Review, March 1901.
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol I, Churchill at War, Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 60. ISBN 0903988429
Early career years (1898–1929)

Cry , World , People

“I am finished.”

Winston S. Churchill

On losing his position at the Admiralty in 1915. Said to Lord Riddell, as cited in Maxims and Reflections, Chapter I (On Himself), Churchill, Houghton Mifflin Company (1947).
Early career years (1898–1929)

“The Dark Ages may return, the Stone Age may return on the gleaming wings of Science, and what might now shower immeasurable material blessings upon mankind, may even bring about its total destruction. Beware, I say; time may be short.”

Winston S. Churchill

Post-war years (1945–1955)
Source: The Sinews of Peace https://www.nato.int/docu/speech/1946/s460305a_e.htm speech, Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.

Age , Science , Time

“Taxes are an evil—a necessary evil, but still an evil, and the fewer of them we have the better.”

Winston S. Churchill

Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 424, (1907, 12 February)
Early career years (1898–1929)

Evil

“My ability to persuade my wife to marry me [was] quite my most brilliant achievement ... Of course, it would have been impossible for any ordinary man to have got through what I had to go through in peace and war without the devoted aid of what we call, in England, one's better half.”

Winston S. Churchill

Post-war years (1945–1955)
Source: As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 511, ISBN 1586489577

War , Peace

“By noon it was clear that the Socialists would have a majority.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

The Second World War (1948–1953)
Source: On the (July 26, 1945) landslide electoral defeat that turned him out of office near the end of WWII, in The Second World War, Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy (1953), Chapter 40 (The End of My Account), p. 583.
Context: At luncheon my wife said to me, 'It may well be a blessing in disguise. 'I replied, 'At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised.'

“He was a cut flower in a vase; fair to see, yet bound to die, and to die very soon if the water was not constantly renewed.”

Winston S. Churchill book The World Crisis

Concerning Admiral von Spee’s East Asia Squadron
The World Crisis, 1911–1914 : Chapter XIII (On The Oceans), Churchill, Butterworth (1923), p. 295
The World Crisis (1923–1931)

Flowers , Water

“Arabs would have sat in the dark forever had not the Zionist engineers harnessed the Jordan river for electrification. Now they swarm into Palestine in seeking the light.”

Winston S. Churchill book The World Crisis

1922
The World Crisis (1923–1931)

Light

“We must establish on broad and solid foundations a National Health Service. Here let me say that there is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies. Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Broadcast (21 March 1943), quoted in The Times (22 March 1943), p. 6
The Second World War (1939–1945)

Baby , Communication , Health , Country

“It is absolutely certain we shall have to grow a larger proportion of our food at home. ... I hope to see a vigorous revival of healthy village life on the basis of these higher wages and of improved housing.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

The Second World War (1939–1945)
Source: Broadcast (21 March 1943), quoted in The Times (22 March 1943), p. 6

Home , Housing , Food , Hope

“The best way to insure against unemployment is to have no unemployment. ... Idlers at the top make idlers at the bottom.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

The Second World War (1939–1945)
Source: Broadcast (21 March 1943), quoted in The Times (22 March 1943), p. 6

Way

“No one in England has ever wished to prevent the fullest expression of Scottish or Welsh traditions and customs. Indeed, their manifestation is regarded with pleasure and pride by the English people. We have reaped great advantages from this tolerant mood.”

Winston S. Churchill

Source: 'Yugoslavia and Europe' (29 October 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step, 1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 169

People , Pleasure , Mood

“We desire to see the return of a liberal age where Parliaments will guard freedom, where science will open the banqueting halls to the millions, and where what Bismarck once called "practical Christianity" will mitigate suffering and misfortunes.”

Winston S. Churchill

Source: 'No Intervention In Spain' (8 January 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step, 1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 84

Freedom , Suffering , Age , Science

“Let them [Socialists] abandon the utter fallacy, the grotesque, erroneous, fatal blunder of believing that by limiting the enterprise of man, by riveting the shackles of a false equality... they will increase the well-being of the world.”

Winston S. Churchill

Early career years (1897–1929)
Source: Winston S. Churchill, His Complete Speeches 1897-1963, Vol. IV, p. 3821, (1926, 21 January)

Falseness , World

“Germany will recover and Russian will rise... our policy must be directed to prevent a union between German militarism and Russian Bolshevism.”

Winston S. Churchill

Early career years (1897–1929)
Source: The Fortnightly Review, July 1919, William Harbutt Dawson, "The Liabilities of the Treaty," p. 10, speech in Dundee on May 14, 1919

“If Great Britain lost her Empire and India and her share in world trade and her sea power, she would be like a vast whale stranded in one your Scottish bays, which swam in upon the tide and then was left to choke and rot upon the sands. We should be like a great shop emporium in a district from which prosperity has for ever departed. We least of all peoples and races can afford to fail. Failure to us does not mean merely that we shall not improve. It means that we shall be ruined and frozen out.”

Winston S. Churchill

Source: Rectorial address ("The present decline of Parliamentary government in Great Britain") to Edinburgh University (5 March 1931), quoted in The Times (6 March 1931), p. 19

Sea , Failure , People , World

“The evils and dangers of which I speak are of slow growth, and their cure can only be gradual. Unless Great Britain is able by a united and well-instructed effort to grapple with her economic problems, and unless she is worthy to be the heart of her world-wide establishment, you here in this hall today will live long enough to lose not only your inheritance, but your livelihood. The continuance of our present confusion and disintegration will reduce us within a generation, and perhaps sooner, to the degree of States like Holland and Portugal, which nursed valiant races and held great possessions, but were stripped of them in the crush and competition of the world. That would be a melancholy end to all the old glories and recent triumphs.”

Winston S. Churchill

Source: Rectorial address ("The present decline of Parliamentary government in Great Britain") to Edinburgh University (5 March 1931), quoted in The Times (6 March 1931), p. 19

Problem , Effort , World , Evil

“Silly people, and there are many, not only in enemy countries, might discount the force of the United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand bloodletting. Their democracy and system of recurrent elections would paralyse their war horizon to friend or foe. Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote, wealthy, and talkative people. But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last desperate inch.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

The Second World War (1948–1953)
Source: The Grand Alliance: The Second World War, Volume 3, (1950) p. 540

Democracy , Country , Study , War

“You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”

Winston S. Churchill

The 1930s
Source: [Winston Churchill Quotes Military History Matters, https://www.military-history.org/feature/winston-churchill-quotes.htm, www.military-history.org, 2010-11-20, 2022-03-09, en-US, Military History, Matters]

War