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Bons Mots: Famous Quotes of Winston Churchill

1. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

2. The Left prefers an "equal distribution of poverty" over an "unequal distribution of wealth."

3. Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

4. Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

5. Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.

6. Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

7. The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

8. The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

9. This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

10. A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
11. Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
12. Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.
13. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
14. I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
15. It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
16. It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
17. It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.
18. However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
19. In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
20. In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
21. It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.
22. Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.
23. No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
24. It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
25. If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
26. I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.
27. I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.
28. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
29. An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
30. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
31. Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.
32. Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
33. Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
34. 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.
35. Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
36. Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
37. There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.
38. True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
39. We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
40. We must beware of needless innovations, especially when guided by logic.
41. We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
42. 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.  
43. When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.  
44. When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.  
45. When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.  
46. When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.  
47. Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.  
48. Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.  
49. Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.
50. You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.  
51. You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.   
52. "I'd drink it [poison]"

    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."

53. "Never Give In"

    The speech was made 29 October 1941 to the boys at Churchill's old public [private] school, Harrow--not Oxford or Cambridge:"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.'' See full speech.
    
    "So much owed by so many to so few"

    "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."-- Speech made in the House of Commons as the Battle Britain peaked on August 20, 1940. The home front was totally involved in the war because of the Germany bombing raids and Britain was "a whole nation fighting and suffering together." But special gratitude was directed towards the airmen whose prowess and devotion were capable of turning the tide of the war. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. He worked out the phrase in his mind as he visited the Fighter Command airfields in Southern England.

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Winston Churchill Quotes