Churchill quotes

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#1

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Sir Winston Churchill
A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.
Sir Winston Churchill
All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Sir Winston Churchill
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Sir Winston Churchill
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.
Sir Winston Churchill

  • More quotations on: [Language]
    Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [Progress]
    From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [Vices]
    History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [History]
    I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [Pets]
    It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [Excellence]
    Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [Truth]
    Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    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.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [War]
    One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [Success] [Failure]
    The price of greatness is responsibility.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
    Sir Winston Churchill
    We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [Life] [Giving]
    When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
    Sir Winston Churchill
  • More quotations on: [Patriotism]
    When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
#2

Some nice stuff there Matey.

#3

I may be drunk lady, but i nthe morning I will be sober, but you will still be ugly.

#4

Some nice quotes there but wouldnt it be a bit reduntant to put “Sir Winston Churchill” after everyone? Just a thought…

#5

The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. 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

The greatest political speech ever?

#6

To be frank - I enjoy the Gettysburg Address more - but those are some pretty moving words as well.

#7

You have enemies, good that means you’ve stood for something.

#8

Hey 1000 yard- that qoute about being drunk and her being ugly came from W.C. Fields in the 1930s from a movie. Guess he coulda stole it from Churchill. :?

#9

The correct Churchill quote is something like:

I may be drunk madam, but you are ugly and in the morning I shall be sober.

1000yds version does sound rather American and crude for such an accomplished orator.

#10

I believe it was said to another MP who was complaining about his drinking in the house. It may have been Aster?

#11

Sounds about right, I don’t think he was particularly keen on her.

#12

Is she the one who said that if he was her husband she’d put poison in his tea and he replied “if you were my wife, I’d drink it”?

#13

The version of this I had read was delivered in the house of commons:

Female MP: “Sir, you are drunk. Very drunk.”
Winston: “Madam, you are ugly. Very ugly. But in the morning, I will be sober.”

#14

Lady Nancy Astor I believe.

However there are so many quotes that are supposed to show the fencing between them that it may well just be attributed to one of their sparring bouts.

If it was indeed said in the House it’ll be in Hansard, but I’ve not the inclination to look up every comment said in parliament by the great man. :slight_smile:

#15

Unfortunately the hansard web search doesn’t extend back far enough. I don’t think I’ll try rummaging through the hard copy.

#16

Found so far only this:
Lady Astor: “Winston, if I were your wife I’d put poison in your coffee.”
Winston: “Nancy, if I were your husband I’d drink it.”
This exchange is sometimes attributed to Winston’s good friend F.E. Smith, but in Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan’s The Glitter and the Gold she writes that the exchange occurred at Blenheim when her son was host. See also the American edition of Martin Gilbert’s In Search of Churchill (not in the British edition). In Nancy: The Life of Lady Astor, Christopher Sykes confirms Consuelo Balsan’s account. “It sounds like an invention but is well authenticated. [Churchill] and the Astors were staying with Churchill’s cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, at Blenheim Palace. Nancy and Churchill argued ferociously throughout the weekend.”
End quote. From
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=388#poison

#17

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A224434

Quoted:

Bessie Braddock: ‘Winston you are drunk!’

Winston Churchill: ‘Bessie, you’re ugly. And tomorrow morning I will be sober.’

#18

And when he gets to heaven,
To Saint Peter he will tell,
Another soldier reporting Sir!
I’ve severd my time in hell.

  • Sir Winston Churchill, 1944