Winston Churchill Quotes

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.

For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all Parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history.

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.

The first lesson that you must learn is that, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

The power of the Executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government.

We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.

The maxim ‘Nothing avails but perfection’ may be spelt shorter: ‘Paralysis.’

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.

We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job.

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 last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

Where my reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or I could not learn.

If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

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.

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.