WIST

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, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Speech in the House of Commons (4 Jun 1940)
Full text.

Dictators ride to and fro on tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
“Armistice – or Peace?” Evening Standard (11 Nov 1937)

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 the glory of the climb.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
“Painting as a Pastime,” The Strand Magazine (Dec 1921/Jan 1922)

Of course I’m an optimist. What’s the point of being anything else?

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(1941)

You can always trust the Americans. in the end they will do the right thing, after they have eliminated all the other possibilities.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

WOMAN: There are two things I don’t like about you, Mr. Churchill — your politics and your mustache.
CHURCHILL: My dear madam, pray do not disturb yourself. You are not likely to come into contact with either.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Exchange with anonymous woman

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

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

Responsibility is the price of greatness.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
on Sir Stafford Cripps

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have been wrecked.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

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

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

This is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Margin note after receiving an objection to ending a sentence with a preposition and using a dangling participle in official documents. In Kay Halle's Irrepressible Churchill (1966)

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping it will eat him last.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Churchill used this phrase frequently prior to WW II. The above was a commonly reported statement in the 1930s about Astorites, followers of Nancy Astor in Parliament.

On a radio broadcast (20 Jan 1940), speaking of the neutral states standing by while Germany (and Russia) swallowed them up (referencing Finland fighting against Russia in particular), "Each one hopes that if it feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last."

 

 

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
On Sir Stafford Cripps.

I am a sporting man. I always like to give trains and aeroplanes a fair chance of getting away.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Regarding his unpunctuality.

I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

The biggest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
Variant: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute talk with the average voter." Commonly attributed but no citation has been found.

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 your danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

YOUNG MAN (after seeing Churchill leave the bathroom without washing his hands): At Eton they taught us to wash our hands after using the toilet.

CHURCHILL: At Harrow they taught us not to piss on our hands.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)

Rehearsing my impromptu witticisms.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed)
When asked by Harold MacMillan what he was doing.

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Attributed, 1949)

Comment on his 75th birthday, when asked whether he was afraid of death.  Quoted in the NY Times Magazine (1 Nov 1964).

Sometimes quoted as, "I am ready to meet my Maker. ..."

If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
(Spurious)

This hasn't been found in Churchill's writings, and is generally believed by researchers (and the Churchill Centre) to be spurious.  It has been attributed at different points to George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Disraeli, Otto von Bismarck, and others.  It  has been found in the works of mid-nineteenth century historian and statesman François Guizot: "Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head."

Further, Paul Addison of Edinburgh University notes: "Surely Churchill can't have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of Clemmie, who is generally thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?"