Winston Churchill

Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup Poll, always feeling ones pulse and taking ones temperature. I see that a speaker at the week-end said that this was a time when leaders should keep their ears to the ground. All I can say is that the British nation will find it very hard to look up to leaders who are detected in that somewhat ungainly posture.

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Nothing is so exhilarating in life as to be shot at with no result.

Danger – if you meet it promptly and without flinching – you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Most men would feel insulted if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death.

For what is love itself, for the one we love best? An enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love.

If you are good, life is good.

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

Speech is for the convenience of those who are hard of hearing; but there are many fine things which we cannot say if we have to shout.

God screens us evermore from premature ideas.

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their grieves and fears.

I gleaned jests at home from obsolete farces.

Writers are the engineers of human souls.