John Petrie’s Collection of
Winston Churchill Quotes
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965)
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
There is no such thing as a good tax.
Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile—hoping it will eat him last.
The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I shall not put.
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”
Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.”
Churchill: “If I were your husband I would take it.”
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.
Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to
pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.
If you are going to go through hell, keep going.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter. The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.
Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.
The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.
If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.
The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
