Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.

It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.

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.

Always remember: if you’re going through hell, keep going.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.

When the war of the giants is over the wars of the pygmies will begin.

Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.

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.

For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.

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

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

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

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

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

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.

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong – these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.

It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.

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

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

Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.

India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the Equator.

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

If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.

The first quality that is needed is audacity.

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

A state of society where men may not speak their minds cannot long endure.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

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

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

I like a man who grins when he fights.

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

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

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

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.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.

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.

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

Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

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.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

I’m just preparing my impromptu remarks.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.

One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

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.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body; it calls attention to the development of an unhealthy state of things. If it is heeded in time, danger may be averted; if it is suppressed, a fatal distemper may develop.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves, and to save all those who rely upon you. You have only to go right on, and at the end of the road, be it short or long, victory and honor will be found.

‘No comment’ is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

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

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

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

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

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

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.

History is written by the victors.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

The price of greatness is responsibility.

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

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

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

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

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

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

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Never, never, never give up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.

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

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

I am quite sure, that if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

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

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.

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

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

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

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

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

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

The Almighty in His infinite wisdom did not see fit to create Frenchmen in the image of Englishmen.