Few individuals have etched their legacy into the annals of world history as definitively as Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill. Born on November 30, 1874, in Woodstock, England, Churchill grew to become a symbol of tenacity, leadership, and unwavering determination. From a passionate orator to a savvy statesman, he was a man of many talents, who found himself at the forefront of world events, shaping the course of the 20th century.
As a two-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Churchill’s pivotal role during the darkest hours of World War II not only uplifted a beleaguered nation, but also cemented his place among the most influential figures of modern history. His inspiring speeches, imbued with steadfast resolve and undying spirit, were instrumental in spurring the British populace to face the impending threat with courage and conviction.
However, it wasn’t just in public speeches that Churchill’s rhetorical genius shone. His writings and musings, imbued with wit, wisdom, and a unique perspective on life and leadership, have transcended time. It’s through his words that we can still catch a glimpse of the charisma that propelled him to greatness.
So let’s delve into the wisdom of this indomitable spirit, as we explore some of the most memorable and impactful Sir Winston Churchill quotes – words that can inspire us, challenge us, and help us navigate the complexities of our world.
Some of the quotes appear in the following video:
Table of Contents
- Best Winston Churchill Quotes
- Inspiring Winston Churchill Quotes
- Witty Winston Churchill Quotes
- Winston Churchill Quotes on War
- Winston Churchill Quotes on Politics
- Interesting Facts about Winston Churchill
Best Winston Churchill Quotes
If you are going through hell, keep going.
Time and money are largely interchangeable terms.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.
Harsh laws are at times better than no laws at all.
Everyone has his day, and some days last longer than others.
Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often.
Vengeance is the most costly and dissipating of luxuries.
My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.
It is not in our power to anticipate our destiny.
Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.
Every man should ask himself each day whether he is not too readily accepting negative solutions.
The price of greatness is responsibility.
When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.
If you destroy a free market you create a black market.
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
One ought to be just before one is generous.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something in your life.
To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them.
Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it’s also what it takes to sit down and listen.
You will never get to the end of the journey if you stop to shy a stone at every dog that barks.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
One always measures friendships by how they show up in bad weather.
There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.
History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.
Evils can be created much quicker than they can be cured.
If we open a quarrel between the past and the present we shall find that we have lost the future.
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
We must beware of needless innovation, especially when guided by logic.
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
Inspiring Winston Churchill Quotes
If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
I never worry about action, but only about inaction.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities.
It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.
We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right and not to fear to do or say what you believe to be right.
It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.
I have in my life concentrated more on self-expression than self-denial.
The true guide of life is to do what is right.
Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
I like things to happen, and if they don’t happen I like to make them happen.
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.
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.
Witty Winston Churchill Quotes
Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library.
For myself I am an optimist, it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.
You must look at facts because they look at you.
In the course of my life I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.
Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Great and good are seldom the same man.
‘No comment’ is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.
Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.
Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you.
We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
Winston Churchill Quotes on War
War never pays its dividends in cash on the money it costs.
If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care.
Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace, and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.
We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.
If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.
No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.
Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
History is written by the victors.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
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.
What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?
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. Never run away from anything. Never!
If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.
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.
Battles are won by slaughter and manoeuvre. The greater the general, the more he contributes in manoeuvre, the less he demands in slaughter.
I like a man who grins when he fights.
When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.
Winston Churchill Quotes on Politics
In a war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.
Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.
Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.
I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
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.
Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.
It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.
Interesting Facts about Winston Churchill
After these witty, profound, and inspiring Winston Churchill quotes, it’s time to get to know the man a bit better. Here are some interesting facts about Winston Churchill that may even surprise you. Enjoy!
- A Daring Prison Escape That Led to Instant Fame – After Churchill graduated from Sandhurst, he decided to leave the army and travel to Cuba. From there, he reported to a London newspaper about an uprising. He served as a war correspondent as well as a military officer, a dual role that was permitted back then, in India, Sudan and South Africa. When he arrived to South Africa in 1899, his armoured train was ambushed by Boers, who were the descendants of Dutch settlers who were fighting the British at the time. Churchill was captured and took a prison camp, but was able to escape from it by scaling a wall at night. He had no plan, but luckily for him, he stumbled upon the house of a British coal mine manager. For 3 days, Churchill hid in a mineshaft and then he took cover on a wool-filled rail truck that was heading into Mozambique. From there, Churchill caught a ship back to South Africa and rushed to the front as a newfound hero.
- He Didn’t Like Gandhi – Most of his life, Churchill opposed any form of autonomy for India. He also didn’t like Mohandas Gandhi, and at one point even called him “a seditious Middle Temple lawyer now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East.” When Gandhi went on a hunger strike, Churchill had no problems if he died. He also referred to Zulus, Afghans and Dervishes as “savages and barbarous peoples.”
- He Popularized the Term “Iron Curtain” – Churchill didn’t like communism, to say the least, yet he gladly allied himself with the Soviet Union during World War II. Afterward, however, he began to question the aims of the Soviet Union. In a speech he gave in March 1946, he spoke of “an iron curtain [that] has descended across the continent.” By saying that, he meant that many countries were controlled by the Soviet Union and Moscow. From then on, Western officials mentioned the “iron curtain” time and time again when they talked about the USSR.
- An Award-Winning Author – During his lifetime, Churchill wrote many books. The first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, detailed his army experiences in India, Sudan and South Africa. He later wrote a biography of his father, a biography of the first Duke of Marlborough, numerous volumes on World War I and World War II, a history of English-speaking peoples and other books. In 1953, when he was serving his second term as prime minister, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for “his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.”
- Extremely Prone to Accidents – When he was a kid, Churchill decided to jump off a bridge, which resulted suffering from a concussion and a ruptured kidney. That wasn’t the end of it, as later he almost drowned in a Swiss lake, fell several times from horses, dislocated his shoulder while disembarking from a ship in India, crashed a plane when he learned to fly and was hit by a car when he looked the wrong way to cross Fifth Avenue in New York City. However, even though he was extremely prone to accidents, he survived to live all the way until the age of 90 before he died of a stroke.
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