Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874–1965) 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 Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Winston Churchill
When I warned them the French that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken. Some chicken! Some neck!
—Winston Churchill
Writing a long and substantial book is like having a friend and companion at your side, to whom you can always turn for comfort and amusement, and whose society becomes more attractive as a new and widening field of interest is lighted in the mind.
—Winston Churchill
We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Aging, Age
I am a child of the House of Commons. I was brought up in my fathers house to believe in democracy. Trust the peoplethat was his message.
—Winston Churchill
Sometimes it is not enough to do our best; we must do what is required.
—Winston Churchill
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
—Winston Churchill
You must sleep sometime between lunch and dinner, and no halfway measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed. That’s what I always do. Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day. That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imaginations. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one—well, at least one and a half.
—Winston Churchill
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
—Winston Churchill
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.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Adversity, Criticism
It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what is required.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Doing
Civilisation will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will stand in awe.
—Winston Churchill
Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
—Winston Churchill
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Virtue, People, Virtues
It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Charity
We must all turn our backs upon the horrors of the past. We must look to the future. We cannot afford to drag forward across the years that are to come the hatreds and revenges which have sprung from the injuries of the past.
—Winston Churchill
Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.
—Winston Churchill
Never does a man portray his character more vividly than his proclaiming the character of another.
—Winston Churchill
In War: Resolution
In Defeat: Defiance
In Victory: Magnanimity
In Peace: Good Will.
—Winston Churchill
There is a hush over all Europe, nay, over all the world. Alas! it is the hush of suspense, and in many lands it is the hush of fear. Listen! No, listen carefully, I think I hear somethingyes, there it was quite clear. Don’t you hear it? It is the tramp of armies crunching the gravel of the paradegrounds, splashing through rain-soaked fields, the tramp of two million German soldiers and more than a million Italiansgoing on maneuversyes, only on maneuvers!
—Winston Churchill
Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Courage
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
—Winston Churchill
The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
—Winston Churchill
No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.
—Winston Churchill
I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial… I thought I knew a good deal about it all, I was sure I should not fail.
—Winston Churchill
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Fanaticism, Change, People
We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.
—Winston Churchill
Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valor, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be.
—Winston Churchill
One woman who managed to corner him, the story runs, said in a treacly gushing voice: Doesn’t it thrill you, Mr. Churchill, to know that every time you make a speech the hall is packed to overflowing? It is quite flattering, Mr. Churchill replied, but whenever I feel this way I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big.
—Winston Churchill
Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Character
Of course, when you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
—Winston Churchill
If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care.
—Winston Churchill
Never, never, never quit.
—Winston Churchill
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Adversity, Survival, Ability
I wonder whether any other generation has seen such astounding revolutions of data and values as those through which we have lived. Scarcely anything material or established which I was brought up to believe was permanent and vital, has lasted. Everything I was sure or taught to be sure was impossible, has happened.
—Winston Churchill
I am a man of simple tastes, easily satisifed with the best.
—Winston Churchill
Never, never, never give in.
—Winston Churchill
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Failure, Success & Failure, Perseverance, Success
The human story does not always unfold like a mathematical calculation on the principle that two and two make four. Sometimes in life they make five or minus three; and sometimes the blackboard topples down in the middle of the sum and leaves the class in disorder and the pedagogue with a black eye.
—Winston Churchill
Topics: Disorder, Perfection
I have not become the Kings First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
—Winston Churchill
Everything tends towards catastrophe and collapse. I am interested, geared up and happy. Is it not horrible to be made like this?
—Winston Churchill
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