Winston Churchill

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

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.

Socialists think profits are a vice; I consider losses the real vice.

The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

I’ll tell you why yes, because why people lie is, because when people stop lying you know they’ve stopped caring.

Revolutions go not backward.

Our impartiality is kept for abstract merit and demerit, which none of us ever saw.

I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.

This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.

That strong mother doesn’t tell her cub ‘Son, stay weak so the wolves can get you’. She says, ‘Toughen up, this is reality we are living in’.

The essence of greatness is the perception that virtue is enough.

The best armor is to keep out of gunshot.

A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

When a man says money can do anything, that settles it: he hasn’t got any.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience!

Find enough clever things to say, and you’re a Prime Minister; write them down and you’re a Shakespeare.

All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income.