Winston Churchill

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

Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.

I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, ‘Verify your quotations.’

We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.

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.

It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Of all the anti-social vested interests the worst is the vested interest in ill-health.

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation.

Power doesn’t corrupt people; people corrupt power.

As soon as beauty is sought not from religion and love, but for pleasure, it degrades the seeker.

A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove.

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

Conversation enriches the understanding; but solitude is the school of genius.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won’t sit upon a cold stove lid, either.

The first thing a great person does, is make us realize the insignificance of circumstance.

Courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.