Winston Churchill

I have never accepted what many people have kindly said-namely that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless, and as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it.

We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.

I have not become the Kings First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.

Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.

At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man walking into the little booth with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper. No amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you can not eat.

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

A lucky person gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they’re about to do and thinks it still matters.

If you are good, life is good.

What I mean is you make the world less ugly just by living in it.

You can often change your circumstances by changing your attitude.

Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it.

Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.

The less government we have the better.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.

Sincerity is the highest complement you can pay.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a gray one.

The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.