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

Winston S. Churchill: 601 quotes75 likes

Winston S. Churchill Quotes

“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.”

My early life, 1874–1904 (1930), Churchill, Winston S., p. 45 (1996 Touchstone Edition), ISBN 0684823454
My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930)

“Eating words has never given me indigestion.”

Winston S. Churchill

“Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it should be postponed.”

Winston S. Churchill

Source: My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930), Chapter 4 (Sandhurst), p. 72.

“When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

The Second World War, Volume II : Their Finest Hour (1949) Chapter 8 (September Tensions).
Post-war years (1945–1955)

“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

Winston S. Churchill

Variant: We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, 'it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

Winston S. Churchill

In Great Contemporaries, "Alfonso XIII" (1937).
The 1930s

“Do you know why the nose of the bull dog is sloped backwards? So it can keep on breathing without ever letting go.”

Winston S. Churchill

“There is no such thing as a good tax.”

Winston S. Churchill

The correct attribution is Oklahoma Senator Thomas Gore, in his speech to the National Tax Association in 1935.. Though it is often attributed to Churchill, there is no evidence he ever said it.
Misattributed
Variant: There is no such thing as a good tax.
Source: http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/there_is_no_such_thing_as_a_good_tax/
Source: http://newspaperarchive.com/san-antonio-express/1935-10-17/page-2

“Success always demands a greater effort.”

Winston S. Churchill

Source: Their Finest Hour

“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.”

Winston S. Churchill

“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”

Winston S. Churchill

From a speech given at the Royal Academy of Art in 1953; quoted in Time magazine (11 May 1954).
Post-war years (1945–1955)

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.”

Winston S. Churchill

“The way to achieve happiness is to try for perfection that is impossible to achieve, and spend the rest of your life trying to achieve it.”

Winston S. Churchill

“Writing a long and substantial book is like having a friend and companion at your side, to whom you can always turn for comfort and amusement, and whose society becomes more attractive as a new and widening field of interest is lighted in the mind.”

Winston S. Churchill

“There comes a precious moment in all of our lives when we are tapped on the shoulder and offered the opportunity to do something very special that is unique to us and our abilities, what a tragedy it would be if we are not ready or willing.”

Winston S. Churchill

“The POSITIVE THINKER sees the INVISIBLE, feels the INTANGIBLE, and achieves the IMPOSSIBLE.”

Winston S. Churchill

Source: My Early Life, 1874-1904

“Mr Churchill, to what do you attribute your success in life?

Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down. And never sit down when you can lie down.”

Winston S. Churchill

Variant: Mr.Churchill, to what do you attribute your success in life? Conservation of energy. Never stand up when you can sit down. And never sit down when you can lie down.

“Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an ever smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose”

Winston S. Churchill

“Americans Will Always Do the Right Thing — After Exhausting All the Alternatives.”

Winston S. Churchill

This is a modification of a March 1967 quote by Israeli politician Abba Eban who said, "Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources." Eban used various versions of this quote over the years. In 1979 he said, "My experience teaches me this: Men and nations do act wisely when they have exhausted all the other possibilities." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/ In a 1970 Congressional hearing, a version of the quote first referenced Americans. It was attributed to an unnamed Irishman. "And indeed, we often know how to do things by the philosophy that was expounded by another Irishman I know. He said that you can depend on Americans to do the right thing when they have exhausted every other possibility." http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/ The earliest known attribution of the quote to Churchill occurred in 1980. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/ Misattributed

“Keep Calm and Carry On”

Winston S. Churchill

“A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.”

Winston S. Churchill

“The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.”

Winston S. Churchill

“Without courage all other virtues lose their meaning.”

Winston S. Churchill

“You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.”

Winston S. Churchill

Extensive research of writings by and about Churchill at the Churchill Centre http://www.winstonchurchill.org fails to indicate that Churchill ever spoke or wrote those words. Some sites list Norman MacEwen as the originator of the quote. Misattributed Variant: We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. Variant: We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

“Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind.”

Winston S. Churchill

“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without vicory there is no survival.”

Winston S. Churchill

“You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.' - To Neville Chamberlain”

Winston S. Churchill

“I never worry about action, but only about inaction.”

Winston S. Churchill

Winston Churchill (Author) and Richard Langworth (Editor) (28. Oktober 2008): Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations. New York: PublicAffairs (1st Edition), page 160. note: See also: 1940s. Passim. Martin Gilbert, The Churchill War Papers, Volume II: Never Surrender, May 1940-December 1940. London: Heinemann, New York: Norton, 1994, page xvi, where Sir Martin writes in his Preface: "Inefficiency, incompetence and negative attitudes roused his ire: I have indicated some examples of this in the Churchill index entry, under “rebukes by.” He did not take kindly to what he called “a drizzle of carping criticism,” or to those officials, military or civilian, who, as he expressed it, “failed to rise to the height of circumstances.” Among his injunctions to his Ministers were, “Don’t let this matter sleep,” and, “I never ‘worry’ about action, but only about inaction.”" note: See also: In a letter, on page 1184 of the above work: Concerning “Operation Compass,” the first major British offensive in North Africa, Churchill wrote to General Dill on 7 December 1940: "If, with the situation as it is, General Wavell is only playing small, and is not hurling on his whole available forces with furious energy, he will have failed to rise to the height of circumstances. I never “worry” about action, but only about inaction." note: Source for all the aforementioned information: Richard M. Langworth (Senior fellow, Hillsdale College Churchill Project, Writer and Historian) (March 4, 2009): Churchill on Action vs. Inaction. Source: Archived on June 2, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20200602062301/https://richardlangworth.com/i-never-worry-about-action-but-only-about-inaction and secured on June 2, 2020 http://archive.is/Xgxu6 from the original https://richardlangworth.com/i-never-worry-about-action-but-only-about-inaction

“Where does the family start? It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl - no superior alternative has yet been found.”

Winston S. Churchill

“We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Radio broadcast, London, Dieu Protège La France [God protect France], October 21, 1940 ( partial text http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/LaFrance.html). The Second World War (1939–1945)

“The world today is ruled by harassed politicians absorbed in getting into office or turning out the other man so that not much room is left for debating the great issues on their merits”

Winston S. Churchill

“Woe betide the leaders now perched on their dizzy pinnacles of triumph if they cast away at the conference table what the soldiers had won on a hundred bloodsoaked battlefields.”

Winston S. Churchill

Source: Memoirs of the Second World War

“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.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Speech in the House of Commons, June 18, 1940 "War Situation" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1940/jun/18/war-situation#column_60. The Second World War (1939–1945) Source: Never Give In!: The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches Context: Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. 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.

“Lady Nancy Astor: If I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee.
Churchill: If I were your husband I'd drink it.”

Winston S. Churchill

Dates to 1899, American humor origin, originally featuring a woman upset by a man's cigar smoking. Cigar often removed in later versions, coffee added in 1900. Incorrectly attributed in Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Glitter and Gold (1952). See various early citations and references to refutations at “If you were my husband, I’d poison your coffee” (Nancy Astor to Churchill?) http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/if_you_were_my_husband_id_poison_your_coffee_nancy_astor_to_churchill, Barry Popik, The Big Apple,' February 09, 2009 Early examples include 19 November 1899, Gazette-Telegraph (CO), "Tales of the Town," p. 7, and early attributions are to American humorists Marshall P. Wilder and De Wolf Hopper. Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations, by Richard Langworth, PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 578. The Yale Book of Quotations, edited by Fred R. Shapiro, New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2006, p. 155. George Thayer, The Washington Post (April 27, 1971), p. B6. Misattributed Variant: Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your morning coffee. Winston Churchill: Madam, if you were my wife, I'd drink it.

“No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.”

Winston S. Churchill

“Be a peg, hammered into the frozen ground, immovable.”

Winston S. Churchill

“You'll never find a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

Winston S. Churchill

“This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put.”

Winston S. Churchill

"Churchill on Prepositions" http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/churchill.html, and alt.english.usage at google groups http://groups.google.com/group/alt.english.usage/browse_thread/thread/dbf8ed860d953172/d44fbc9923cd662c?q=ben+zimmer+%22The+Strand%22&rnum=2#d44fbc9923cd662c have been the most immediate sources for much of the information which indicates this remark or others like it were probably not remarks actually made by Churchill. Disputed Variant: This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put. Context: This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.

“It is all true, or it ought to be; and more and better besides.”

Winston S. Churchill

“So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”

Winston S. Churchill

Speech in the House of Commons, November 12, 1936 "Debate on the Address" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1936/nov/12/debate-on-the-address#column_1107, criticizing Stanley Baldwin's record on rearmament against Hitler. The 1930s Context: Anyone can see what the position is. The Government simply cannot make up their mind, or they cannot get the Prime Minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent. So we go on preparing more months and years — precious, perhaps vital to the greatness of Britain — for the locusts to eat.

“The House of Lords, in rejecting the Budget which provides for the national expenditure of the year, are refusing, for the first time since the great Rebellion, aids and supplies to the Crown, and by that fact and by their intrusion upon finance they commit an act of violence against the British Constitution. There is no precedent of any kind for the rejection of a Budget Bill by the House of Lords in all the long annals of the British Parliament, or, before that, in the still more venerable annals of the English Parliament. The custom of centuries forbids their intrusion upon finance.”

Winston S. Churchill

The People's Rights [1909] (London: Jonathan Cape, 1970), p. 25
Early career years (1898–1929)

“The twentieth century has witnessed with surprise, not merely the promulgation of these ferocious doctrines, but their enforcement with brutal vigour by the Government and by the populace. No past services, no proved patriotism, even wounds sustained in war, could procure immunity for persons whose only crime was that their parents had brought them into the world. Every kind of persecution, grave or petty, upon the world-famous scientists, writers, and composers at the top down to the wretched little Jewish children in the national schools, was practised, was glorified, and is still being practised and glorified.”

Winston S. Churchill

"Hitler and His Choice", The Strand Magazine (November 1935), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (London: Minerva, 1990), p. 681
The 1930s

“The heaviest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine.”

Winston S. Churchill

This remark referring to Charles de Gaulle was actually made by General Edward Louis Spears, Churchill's personal representative to the Free French.
Film producer Alexander Korda asked Churchill in 1948 if he had made the remark, he replied
No, I didn't say it; but I'm sorry I didn't, because it was quite witty … and so true!
Quoted in Nigel Rees, Sayings of the Century p. 105.
Misattributed

“No, bury them in caves and cellars. None must go. We are going to beat them.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Minute (1 June 1940) in response to the suggestion of Kenneth Clark (Director of the National Gallery) that the National Gallery's paintings should be sent to Canada, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (London: Heinemann, 1983), p. 449
The Second World War (1939–1945)

“Someone once said that history is written by the victors. He probably was not the greatest of all victors, if only because his name has been utterly forgotten.”

Winston S. Churchill book A History of the English-Speaking Peoples

On the Norman conquest of England; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956–58)

“The whole world is against Hitler and Hitlerism. Men of every race and clime feel that this monstrous apparition stands between them and the forward move which is their due, and for which the age is ripe. Even in Germany itself there are millions who stand aloof from the seething mass of criminality and corruption constituted by the Nazi Party machine. Let them take courage amid perplexities and perils, for it may well be that the final extinction of a baleful domination will pave the way to a broader solidarity of all the men in all the lands than we could ever have planned if we had not marched together through the fire.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

The Second World War (1939–1945)
Source: Broadcast (12 November 1939), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (London: Heinemann, 1983), p. 81

“The Times is speechless, and takes three columns to express its speechlessness.”

Winston S. Churchill

Speech at Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, Scotland ("The Dundee Election"), May 14, 1908, in Liberalism and the Social Problem (1909), Churchill, BiblioBazaar (Second Edition, 2006), p. 148 ISBN 1426451989
Early career years (1898–1929)

“We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. The injury she has inflicted on Great Britain, the United States, and other countries, and her detestable cruelties, call for justice and retribution. We must now devote all our strength and resources to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad. Advance, Britannia! Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Broadcast (8 May 1945) from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (London: Heinemann, 1986), p. 1344
The Second World War (1939–1945)

“…live dangerously; take things as they come; dread naught, all will be well.”

Winston S. Churchill

My New York Misadventure, The Daily Mail, 4 and 5 January 1932
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol IV, Churchill at Large, Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 94. ISBN 0903988453
The 1930s

“We in this country, as in other Liberal and democratic countries, have a perfect right to exalt the principle of self-determination, but it comes ill out of the mouths of those in totalitarian States who deny even the smallest element of toleration to every section and creed within their bounds.”

Winston S. Churchill

Speech https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1938/oct/05/policy-of-his-majestys-government#column_365 in the House of Commons (5 October 1938) against the Munich Agreement The 1930s