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.

I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

Say what you have to say and first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending; sit down.

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

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

There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle the mental apparatus.

Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be… those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes… those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober — minded men.

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.

We have a problem. Congratulations. But it’s a tough problem. Then double congratulations.

Human beliefs, like all other natural growths, elude the barrier of systems.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science.

No matter how hard the past is, we can always begin again.

I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large mattertis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

It is all right to rat, but you can’t re-rat.

Rebellions of the belly are the worst.

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.