Top 500 Winston Churchill Quotes (2024 Update)
Page 10 of 10

451. “We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.”

— Winston Churchill

452. “I cannot help reflecting that if my father had been American and my mother British instead of the other way around, I might have gotten here on my own.”

— Winston Churchill

453. “We are weakened and we are tired, but we are not done yet.”

— Winston Churchill

454. “The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.”

— Winston Churchill

455. “The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.”

— Winston Churchill

456. “Singapore could only be taken after a siege by an army of at least 50,000 men. It is not considered possible that the Japanese would embark on such a mad enterprise.”

— Winston Churchill

457. “There is no sphere of human thought in which it is easier to show superficial cleverness and the appearance of superior wisdom than in discussing questions of currency and exchange.”

— Winston Churchill

458. “The water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add whisky. By diligent effort, I learned to like it.”

— Winston Churchill

459. “Working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation.”

— Winston Churchill

460. “All I want is compliance with my wishes, after reasonable discussion.”

— Winston Churchill

461. “The chief aim of wisdom is to enable one to bear with the stupidity of the ignorant.”

— Winston Churchill

462. “You ought to let the Jews have Jerusalem; it was they who made it famous.”

— Winston Churchill

463. “It is not given to human beings, happily for them, for otherwise life would be intolerable, to foresee or to predict to any large extent the unfolding course of events.”

— Winston Churchill

464. “Fancy living in one of these streets, never seeing anything beautiful, never eating anything savoury, never saying anything clever!”

— Winston Churchill

465. “A sheep in sheep’s clothing.”

— Winston Churchill

466. “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.”

— Winston Churchill

467. “Always remember, a cat looks down on man, a dog looks up to man, but a pig will look man right in the eye and see his equal.”

— Winston Churchill

468. “Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object worship of the state.”

— Winston Churchill

469. “You know, in war, you don’t have to be nice. You only have to be right.”

— Winston Churchill

470. “Civilisation will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will stand in awe.”

— Winston Churchill

471. “Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.”

— Winston Churchill

472. “Hess or no Hess, I’m going to watch the Marx Brothers.”

— Winston Churchill

473. “Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.”

— Winston Churchill

474. “One must regard the hyphen as a blemish to be avoided wherever possible.”

— Winston Churchill

475. “Sir, we must beware of needless innovation, especially when guided by logic.”

— Winston Churchill

476. “A single glass of champagne imparts a feeling of exhilaration. The nerves are braced; the imagination is stirred, the wits become more nimble.”

— Winston Churchill

477. “When great causes are on the move in the world, stirring all men’s souls, drawing them from their firesides, casting aside comfort, wealth and the pursuit of happiness in response to impulses at once awe-striking and irresistible, we learn that we are spirits, not animals.”

— Winston Churchill

478. “One might as well legalise sodomy as recognise the Bolsheviks.”

— Winston Churchill

479. “Ethics evolve naturally, and we trample upon them with laws created by reason and experience.”

— Winston Churchill

480. “With the end of the Victorian era, we passed into what I feel I must call the terrible 20th century.”

— Winston Churchill

481. “Men and kings must be judged in the testing moments of their lives. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

— Winston Churchill

482. “Champagne is the wine of civilization and the oil of government.”

— Winston Churchill

483. “Beginning with audacity is a very great part of the art of painting.”

— Winston Churchill

484. “Politics is like waking up in the morning. You never know whose head you’ll find on the pillow.”

— Winston Churchill

485. “When someone says to me, Ugh, you smoke. I reply, Ugh, you’re ugly. I can quit smoking.”

— Winston Churchill

486. “And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever occurred.”

— Winston Churchill

487. “The whole of northern Norway was covered with snow to depths which none of our soldiers had ever seen, felt, or imagined. There were neither snow-shoes nor skis – still less skiers. We must do our best. Thus began this ramshackle campaign.”

— Winston Churchill

488. “When you are on a great horse, you have the best seat you will ever have.”

— Winston Churchill

489. “The British people are good all through. You can test them as you would put a bucket into the sea and always find it salt.”

— Winston Churchill

490. “People who are not prepared to do unpopular things and defy the clamor of the multitude are not fit to be ministers in time of difficulty.”

— Winston Churchill

491. “If, however, there is to be a war of nerves let us make sure our nerves are strong and are fortified by the deepest convictions of our hearts.”

— Winston Churchill

492. “This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.”

— Winston Churchill

493. “There is no greater mistake than to suppose that platitudes, smooth words, and timid policies offer a path to safety.”

— Winston Churchill

494. “The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars Englandhe should have said Britain, of coursealways wins one battlethe last.”

— Winston Churchill

495. “An aphorism is not an aphorism unless you know what it means.”

— Winston Churchill

496. “History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.”

— Winston Churchill

497. “Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory !!”

— Winston Churchill

498. “If I was your wife Sir, I’d poison you! Madam, if you were my wife, I’d let you!”

— Winston Churchill

499. “I do think unpunctuality is a vile habit, and all my life I have tried to break myself of it.”

— Winston Churchill

500. “We have taken a grave and hazardous decision to sustain the Greeks and try to make a Balkan Front.”

— Winston Churchill