Winston Churchill quotes

As taken from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/winston_churchill.html

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

"A joke is a very serious thing."

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

"A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality."

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

"A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."

"A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him."

"All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."

"Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement."

"Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed."

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."

"Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all."

"Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential."

"Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities... because it is the quality which guarantees all others."

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."

"Difficulties mastered are opportunities won."

"Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old."

"Great and good are seldom the same man."

"Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have."

"History is written by the victors."

"I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place."

"I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught."

"I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else."

"I am easily satisfied with the very best."

"I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

"I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."

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

"I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."

"I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly."

"I never worry about action, but only inaction."

"If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."

"If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire."

"If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another."

"If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future."

"If you are going through hell, keep going."

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

"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law."

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

"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

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

"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time."

"It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see."

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

"It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary."

"Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it."

"Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on."

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

"My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them."

"Never, never, never give up."

""No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again."

"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

"One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!"

"Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong."

"Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game."

"Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times."

"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong."

"Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft."

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

"Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer."

"The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see."

"The first quality that is needed is audacity."

"The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read."

"The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself."

"The price of greatness is responsibility."

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

"The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is."

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

"There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you."

"There is no such thing as a good tax."

"This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure."

"Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war."

"To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day."

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."

"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."

"True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information."

"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."

"We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out."

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

"We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival."

"Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse."

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

Yes, I realise that that's nearly every quote on the site. That's just how amazing Winston Churchill was.