Winston Churchill (1874–1965,) fully Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, was a British political leader who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom 1940–45 and 1951–55. He is best remembered for his opposition to the pacification of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, for his inspiring leadership during World War II, and his forewarnings about Soviet expansionism.
Born at the Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Churchill entered the army in 1895 and served in India, Egypt, and Sudan. He was a war correspondent during the Boer War before entering Parliament in 1900. He became prime minister in 1940 and allied with the U.S. to defeat the Axis Powers. He was an exceptional orator whose wartime speeches, broadcast over the radio in his deep voice, included many well-known passages.
Churchill was defeated in the 1945 general elections. He used his standing to warn of the dangers of Soviet expansionism in his famous “Iron Curtain” speech delivered at Fulton, Missouri, USA. He also called for European reconciliation and spoke in support of the nascent United Europe movement.
Churchill was elected prime minister for a second term in 1951; he retired from the premiership in 1955 but remained in Parliament until 1964.
Beyond politics, Churchill was a prolific author of history and biography; he was often assisted by secretaries and researchers. His notable works include The Second World War (1948–53) and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956–58.) Churchill was awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Winston Churchill
Everyone can recognize history when it happens. Everyone can recognize history after is has happened; but only the wise man knows at the moment what is vital and permanent, what is lasting and memorable.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: History
To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Opportunity
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Virtues, Courage, Bravery
I must point out … that 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, and like to be told that they are very likely to get much worse in the future and must prepare themselves for further reverses.
—Winston Churchill
There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Community, Babies, Children
The substance of the eminent Socialist gentlemen’s speech is that making a profit is a sin. It is my belief that the real sin is taking a loss!
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Socialism, Communism
Our inheritance of well-founded, slowly conceived codes of honor, morals and manners, the passionate convictions which so many hundreds of millions share together of the principles of freedom and justice, are far more precious to us than anything which scientific discoveries could bestow.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Principles, Honor
The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: The Military
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
—Winston Churchill
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Opinions, Opinion
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Courage
I confess myself to be a great admirer of tradition. The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.
—Winston Churchill
It cannot in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some risk of terminological inexactitude.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Slavery
One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Happiness
Never give up. Never, never give up!. We shall go on to the end.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Perseverance
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.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Historians, History
Working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation.
—Winston Churchill
Never, never, never quit.
—Winston Churchill
On the qualities of a Politician: 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.”
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Vision, Politics
You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. Yet in their hearts there is unspoken—unspeakable!—fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden. These terrify them. A little mouse—a little tiny mouse!—of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Words, Thinking
Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller..
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Golf
A joke is a very serious thing.
—Winston Churchill
These are not dark days: these are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Optimism
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Heroes, Adversity, Heroism
There is no limit to the ingenuity of man if it is properly and igorously applied under conditions of peace and justice.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Justice
The difference between an optimist and a pessimist is that a pessimist sees problems in opportunities whereas an optimist sees opportunities in problems.
—Winston Churchill
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Life
There is not much collective security in a flock of sheep on the way to the butcher.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Security
I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Faith, Dying, Death, Nature, God
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Public opinion
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