Winston Churchill

Nothing will bring American sympathy along with us so much as American blood shed in the field.

The eagle has ceased to scream, but the parrots will now begin to chatter. The war of the giants is over and the pigmies will now start to squabble.

I was very glad that Mr. Attlee described my speeches in the war as expressing the will not only of Parliament but of the whole nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless and, as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it, and if I found the right words you must remember that I have always earned my living by my pen and by my tongue. It was a nation and race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

Judged by every standard which history has applied to Governments, the Soviet Government of Russia is one of the worst tyrannies that has ever existed in the world. It accords no political rights. It rules by terror. It punishes political opinions. It suppresses free speech. It tolerates no newspapers but its own. It persecutes Christianity with a zeal and a cunning never equalled since the times of the Roman Emperors. It is engaged at this moment in trampling down the peoples of Georgia and executing their leaders by hundreds.

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.

You may drive out nature with a pitchfork, yet she’ll be constantly running back.

Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.

Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

Where you stand depends on where you sit.

Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things they denote.

If thou wouldn’t conquer thy weakness thou must not gratify it.

Every great movement must experience three stages ridicule, discussion, adoption.

There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

It is only through labour and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage; that we move on to better things.

Why was the human race created? Or at least why wasn’t something creditable created in place of it? God had His opportunity. He could have made a reputation. But no, He must commit this grotesque folly – a lark which must have cost Him a regret or two when He came to think it over and observe effects.

When setting out on a journey, do not seek advice from those who have never left home.

I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.

The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.