Winston Churchill

You must put your head into the lion’s mouth if the performance is to be a success.

It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.

There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.

Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.

We are still masters of our fate. We are still captains of our souls.

Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about.

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

The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

There is no such thing as a good tax.

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

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.

This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

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

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

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

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

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

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

In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

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

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

History is written by the victors.

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

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

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

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

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

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

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

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

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

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.

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.

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

We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

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

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

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

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

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

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

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

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English.

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

Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

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

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

Never give in - never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

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.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.

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

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

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

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

Never, never, never give up.

Never give in and never give up.

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

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

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

Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried.

Gentleman, I am hardening on this enterprise. I repeat, I am now hardening towards this enterprise.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Keep calm and carry on.

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.