Winston Churchill

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.

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

We have all seen with a sense of nausea the abject, squalid, shameless avowal made in the Oxford Union. We are told that we ought not to treat it seriously. The Times talked of the childrens hour. I disagree. It is a very disquieting and disgusting symptom. One can almost feel the curl of contempt upon the lips of the manhood of Germany, Italy, and France when they read the message sent out by Oxford University in the name of Young England. Let them be assured that it is not the last word. But before they blame, as blame they should, these callow ill-tutored youths, they must be sure that they have not been set a bad example by people much older and much higher up.

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.

In war you can be killed only once. In politics, many times.

We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Do what you love. Know you own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.

Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

The only living works are those which have drained much of the author’s own life into them.

Youth, which is forgiven everything, forgives itself nothing: age, which forgives itself everything, is forgiven nothing.

He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.

I always forgive others. The anger; sadness; frustration; pain, whatever feelings I felt, no matter the hurt; the tears, I always found understanding and reason to forgive them; to not hold onto it; to not resent them. But there is one, who I never seem to be able to give absolution, and that’s myself.

The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others

He does not care for flowers. Calls them rubbish, and cannot tell one from another, and thinks it is superior to feel like that.

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain; and there is no good theory of disease which does not at once suggest a cure.

If you protect a man from folly, you will soon have a nation of fools.