Winston Churchill Quotes

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Never, never, never give in! It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required. Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best. Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip. Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. If you are going through hell, keep going. History will be kind to me for I intend to write it. For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use to be anything else. A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk', to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly. A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it. The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out. A good speech should be like a woman's skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest. I pass with relief from the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of Result and Fact. When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber. In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet. A joke is a very serious thing. I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have. Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required. When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put. It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself, believe. All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks. Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others. The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us. To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. Don't interrupt me while I'm interrupting. The price of greatness is responsibility. The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

Winston Churchill

1874 - 1965