Books and other Resources about Winston Churchill

>Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War (WWII). He is widely regarded as one of the great wartime leaders. He served as prime minister twice (1940–45 and 1951–55). A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. To date, he is the only British prime minister to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he was the first person created an honorary citizen of the United States.

Quotes Attributed to: Winston Churchill

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

A joke is a very serious thing.

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.

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

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.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

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

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

History is written by the victors.

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

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

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

I like a man who grins when he fights.

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.

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

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 ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

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

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

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 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 wife and I tried two or three times in the last 40 years to have breakfast together, but it was so disagreeable we had to stop.

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

Never, never, never give up.

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

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

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

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

Politics is 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.

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

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.

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.

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 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.

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.