Winston Churchill

If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time; a tremendous whack.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule to never criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion’s roar.

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

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.

Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.

Sympathetic people often don’t communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths.

Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do with you?

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

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.

If you want the time to pass quickly, just give your note for 90 days.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if has a headache.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

You know about a person who deeply interests you more than you can be told. A look, a gesture, an act, which to everybody else is insignificant tells you more about that one than words can.

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

The remedy is worse than the disease.

We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry.