There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.
Sir Winston Churchill Quotations
We found 70 matching quotations.
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
So they [the Government] 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.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma but perhaps there is a key.
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.
The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.
For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
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 myself.
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
If heaven is going to be full of people like Hardie, well, the Almighty can have them to himself.
.... You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Virtuous motives, trammeled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness. A sincere love of peace is no excuse for muddling hundreds of millions of humble folk into total war. The cheers of the weak, well-meaning assemblies soon cease to count. Doom marches on.
To be conservative at 20 is heartless and to be a liberal at 60 is plain idiocy.
Statistics are like a drunk with a lampost: used more for support than illumination.
I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is, 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.
We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.
[On recognizing China] But if you recognize anyone it does not mean you like them. For instance, we all recognize the right honourable gentleman the member for Ebbw Vale.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last.
I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.
Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt... 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.
Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
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.
There but for the grace of God goes God.
Who will relieve me of this Wuthering Height
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, 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.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
It helps to write down half a dozen things which are worrying me. Two of them, say, disappear; about two, nothing can be done, so it?s no use worrying, and two perhaps can be settled.
MacDonald has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thoughts.
I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.
Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into a even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill- designed for the purpose.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
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.
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.
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
[He] looks at foreign affairs through the wrong end of a municipal drainpipe.
The British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst.
Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.
A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
We shall not fail or falter we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
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.
We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few.
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
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.
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.
It is no use saying, "We are doing our best." You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
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.
All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward.
It might be said that Lord Rosebery outlived his future by ten years and his past by more than twenty.