Winston S. Churchill Quotes
“If you make 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law.”
In the House of Commons (3 February 1949), as quoted in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 17 ISBN 1586486381
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Newspaper interview (1902), when asked what qualities a politician required, Halle, Kay, Irrepressible Churchill. Cleveland: World, 1966. cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 489 ISBN 1586486381
Early career years (1898–1929)
“This Treasury paper, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.”
As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 50, ISBN 1586486389
Post-war years (1945–1955)
“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
Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches, Hyperion (2003), p. 453 ISBN ISBN 1401300561
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Source: Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches
“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”
Speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943 ( full text https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1941-1945-war-leader/the-price-of-greatness-is-responsibility, audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESiuSi8Qp9U).
The Second World War (1939–1945)
To his personal secretary John Colville the evening before Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. As quoted by Andrew Nagorski in The Greatest Battle (2007), Simon & Schuster, pp. 150–151 ISBN 0743281101
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Variant: If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
“Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught,”
In debate http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1952/nov/04/debate-on-the-address in the House of Commons, 4 Nov 1952
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Variant: Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
Context: Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught, but I shall not attempt to foreshadow the proposals which will be brought before the House tomorrow. Today it will be sufficient and appropriate to deal with the obvious difficulties and confusion of the situation as we found it on taking office.
“I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”
As cited in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007), Ed. Goodwin, Black Dog Publishing, p. 49, ISBN 1579127215
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Variant: I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
Speech in the House of Commons, June 18, 1940 "War Situation" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1940/jun/18/war-situation#column_52.
The Second World War (1939–1945)
“When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”
Variant: When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
“We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.”
Speech to the House of Commons (October 28, 1943), on plans for the rebuilding of the Chamber (destroyed by an enemy bomb May 10, 1941), in Never Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill’s Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. 358 ISBN 1401300561
The Second World War (1939–1945)
The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948).
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Speech before Joint Session of the Canadian Parliament, Ottawa (December 30, 1941)
The Yale Book of Quotations, ed. Fred R. Shapiro, Yale University Press (2006), p. 153 ISBN 0300107986
The Second World War (1939–1945)
“My ability to persuade my wife to marry me [was] quite my most brilliant achievement …”
As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 511,
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Context: 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.
In the House of Commons (18 April 1947), cited in The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations (1996), Jay, Oxford University Press, p. 93.
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Variant: You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true and also fierce you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was meant to be wooed and won by youth.
Source: My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 4 (Sandhurst).
Source: My Early Life, 1874-1904
“I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.”
This slanderous remark was attributed to Churchill, possibly by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels to depict him as a liar.
In German: »Ich glaube nur der Statistik, die ich selbst gefälscht habe«
Misattributed
“The maxim ‘Nothing avails but perfection’ may be spelt shorter: ‘Paralysis.”
Minute [brief note] to General Ismay, December 6, 1942, on proposed improvements to landing-craft.
In The Second World War, Volume IV : The Hinge of Fate (1951), Appendix C.
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Source: On his appointment as Prime Minister, May 10, 1940; The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948).
