Cita Con El Almirante

Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG OM CH TD FRS

PC (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965) was a British
statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from
1951 to 1955. Best known for his wartime leadership as Prime
Minister, Churchill was also a Sandhurst-educated soldier, a Nobel
Prize-winning writer and historian, a prolific painter, and one of the
longest-serving politicians in British history. Apart from two years
between 1922 and 1924, he was a Member of Parliament (MP)
from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies.
Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most
of his career a member of the Conservative Party, which he led
from 1940 to 1955, though he was a member of the Liberal Party
from 1904 to 1924.
See also: The Second World War (book series) Let us therefore brace ourselves to
our duties, and so bear ourselves
that, if the British Empire and its
Contents Commonwealth last for a thousand
years, men will still say, 'This was
Quotes their finest hour.'
Early career (1897–1929)
The World Crisis (1923–1931)
My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930)
The 1930s
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Post-war years (1945–1955)
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956–
1958)
Disputed
Misattributed
Quotes about Churchill
Churchill's Finest Hour (November 27, 2009)
References
To improve is to change, so to be
External links perfect is to have changed often.
Quotes
Early career (1897–1929)
[T]he British workman has more to hope for from the rising tide of Tory democracy than from
the dried up drain-pipe of Radicalism.
Speech in Claverton Down, Bath (26 July 1897), quoted in Churchill By Himself: The
Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 424
There are not wanting those who say that in this Jubilee year our Empire has reached the
height of its glory and power, and that now we shall begin to decline, as Babylon, Carthage,
Rome declined. Do not believe these croakers but give the lie to their dismal croaking by
showing by our actions that the vigour and vitality of our race is unimpaired and that our
determination is to uphold the Empire that we have inherited from our fathers as Englishmen
(cheers), that our flag shall fly high upon the sea, our voice be heard in the councils of
Europe, our Sovereign supported by the love of her subjects, then shall we continue to
pursue that course marked out for us by an all-wise hand and carry out our mission of
bearing peace, civilisation and good government to the uttermost ends of the earth. (Loud
cheers.)
Speech in Claverton Down, Bath (26 July 1897), quoted in Never Give In! The Best of
Winston Churchill's Speeches (2003), p. 3
Every influence, every motive, that provokes the spirit of murder among men, impels these
mountaineers to deeds of treachery and violence. The strong aboriginal propensity to kill,
inherent in all human beings, has in these valleys been preserved in unexampled strength
and vigour. That religion, which above all others was founded and propagated by the sword
— the tenets and principles of which are instinct with incentives to slaughter and which in
three continents has produced fighting breeds of men — stimulates a wild and merciless
fanaticism. The love of plunder, always a characteristic of hill tribes, is fostered by the
spectacle of opulence and luxury which, to their eyes, the cities and plains of the south
display. A code of honour not less punctilious than that of old Spain, is supported by
vendettas as implacable as those of Corsica.
The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter I
Description of the tribal areas of what is now Pakistan, commonly referred to as
Waziristan
Downloadable eText version(s) of this book can be found online (http://onlinebooks.librar
y.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=9404) at Project Gutenberg
It is, thank heaven, difficult if not impossible for the modern European to fully appreciate the
force which fanaticism exercises among an ignorant, warlike and Oriental population.
Several generations have elapsed since the nations of the West have drawn the sword in
religious controversy, and the evil memories of the gloomy past have soon faded in the
strong, clear light of Rationalism and human sympathy. Indeed it is evident that Christianity,
however degraded and distorted by cruelty and intolerance, must always exert a modifying
influence on men's passions, and protect them from the more violent forms of fanatical fever,
as we are protected from smallpox by vaccination. But the Mahommedan religion increases,
instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and
ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form
of madness. In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear
of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All
rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons, they become Ghazis—as
dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be treated as such. While the more
generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious
bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the
influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are
roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the
British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each case
civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with
those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace. Luckily the
religion of peace is usually the better armed.
The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter III
I pass with relief from the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of
Result and Fact.
The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter III
It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.
The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter VIII
Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter X
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the
fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful
fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly
systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist
wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life
of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan
law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a
wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has
ceased to be a great power among men.
Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal
soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the
social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.
Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has
already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it
not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against
which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the
civilisation of ancient Rome.
The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (1899), Volume II
pp. 248–250
(This passage does not appear in the 1902 one-volume abridgment, the version posted
by Project Gutenberg.)
Downloadable etext version(s) of this book can be found online (http://onlinebooks.librar
y.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4943) at Project Gutenberg
It is the habit of the boa constrictor to besmear the body of his victim with a foul slime before
he devours it; and there are many people in England, and perhaps elsewhere, who seem to
be unable to contemplate military operations for clear political objects, unless they can
cajole themselves into the belief that their enemy are utterly and hopelessly vile. To this end
the Dervishes, from the Mahdi and the Khalifa downwards, have been loaded with every
variety of abuse and charged with all conceivable crimes. This may be very comforting to
philanthropic persons at home; but when an army in the field becomes imbued with the idea
that the enemy are vermin who cumber the earth, instances of barbarity may easily be the
outcome. This unmeasured condemnation is moreover as unjust as it is dangerous and
unnecessary.
The River War: An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan (1899), Volume II
pp. 394–395
(This passage does not appear in the 1902 one-volume abridgment, the version posted
by Project Gutenberg).
What is the true and original root of Dutch aversion to British rule? It is the abiding fear and
hatred of the movement that seeks to place the native on a level with the white man ... the
Kaffir is to be declared the brother of the European, to be constituted his legal equal, to be
armed with political rights.
On the Boer War, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria (1900).
There must be room in our army system for nearly everyone who is not grossly idle or
grossly stupid. It is not a case of employing incompetent or worthless men, and such should,
of course, be expelled from the army. It is a case of finding suitable employment for officers
not fit for higher command.
Officers and Gentlemen, The Saturday Evening Post, 29 December 1900.
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol I, Churchill at War,
Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 51. ISBN 0903988429
It may be said, therefore, that the military opinion of the world is opposed to those people
who cry 'Democratize the army!' and it must be remembered that an army is not a field
upon which persons with Utopian ideas may exercise their political theories, but a
weapon for the defence of the State.
British Cavalry, The Anglo-Saxon Review, March 1901.
I think we shall have to take the Chinese in hand and regulate them. I believe that as
civilized nations become more powerful they will get more ruthless, and the time will come
when the world will impatiently bear the existence of great barbaric nations who may at any
time arm themselves and menace civilized nations. I believe in the ultimate partition of
China — I mean ultimate. I hope we shall not have to do it in our day. The Aryan stock
is bound to triumph.
Speech and interview at the University of Michigan, 1902. (http://www.winstonchurchill.or
g/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-159/wsc-a-midnight-interview-1902)
In former days, when wars arose from individual causes, from the policy of a Minister or the
passion of a King, when they were fought by small regular armies of professional soldiers,
and when their course was retarded by the difficulties of communication and supply, and
often suspended by the winter season, it was possible to limit the liabilities of the
combatants. But now, when mighty populations are impelled on each other, each individual
severally embittered and inflamed—when the resources of science and civilisation sweep
away everything that might mitigate their fury, a European war can only end in the ruin of the
vanquished and the scarcely less fatal commercial dislocation and exhaustion of the
conquerors. Democracy is more vindictive than Cabinets. The wars of peoples will be
more terrible than those of kings.
House of Commons, 13 May 1901, Hansard vol. 93 col. 1572. (http://hansard.millbanksy
stems.com/commons/1901/may/13/army-organisation)
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.
Newspaper interview (1902), when asked what qualities a politician required, Halle, Kay,
Irrepressible Churchill. Cleveland: World, 1966. cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed.
Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 489 ISBN 1586486381
The old Conservative Party, with its religious convictions and constitutional principles, will
disappear, and a new Party will arise like perhaps the Republican Party of the United States
of America—rich, materialist, and secular—whose opinions will turn on tariffs, and who will
cause the lobbies to be crowded with the touts of protected industries.
Speech (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1903/may/28/fiscal-policy-of-the-
country#column_194) in the House of Commons (28 May 1903)
The whole Bill looks like an attempt on the part of the Government to gratify a small but noisy
section of their own supporters and to purchase a little popularity in the constituencies by
dealing harshly with a number of unfortunate aliens who have no votes. It will commend
itself to those who like patriotism at other people's expense and admire Imperialism on the
Russian model. It is expected to appeal to insular prejudice against foreigners, to racial
prejudice against Jews, and to labour prejudice against competition; and it will no doubt
supply a variety of rhetorical phrases for the approaching election. The same men who are
obstinate opponents of trade unionism will declaim about "the rights of British labour." Those
who champion the interests of slum landlords will dilate on the evils of overcrowding. Those
who have been most forward in bringing Chinese into Africa will pose as the champions of
racial purity at home.
Letter to Nathan Laski on the Aliens Bill (30 May 1904), quoted in The Times (31 May
1904), p. 10
I take leave to doubt the wisdom of this Bill even as a political manoeuvre. In spite of
militarism and false ideals about trade, there is a growing spirit of fraternity between
democracies. English working men are not so selfish as to be unsympathetic towards the
victims of circumstances or oppression. They do not respond in any marked degree to the
Anti-Semitism which has darkened recent Continental history; and I for one believe that they
will disavow an attempt to shut out the stranger from our land because he is poor or in
trouble, and will resent a measure which without any proved necessity smirches those
ancient traditions of freedom and hospitality for which Britain has been so long renowned.
Letter to Nathan Laski on the Aliens Bill (30 May 1904), quoted in The Times (31 May
1904), p. 10
Governments create nothing and have nothing to give but what they have first taken away —
you may put money in the pockets of one set of Englishmen, but it will be money taken from
the pockets of another set of Englishmen, and the greater part will be spilled on the way.
Every vote given for Protection is a vote to give Governments the right of robbing Peter to
pay Paul and charging the public a handsome commission on the job.
"Why I am a Free Trader," Chapter I in T.W. Stead's journal Coming Men on Coming
Questions (April 13, 1905), bottom p. 9.
The doctrines that by keeping out foreign goods more wealth, and consequently more
employment, will be created at home, are either true or they are not true. We contend that
they are not true. 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.[1]:9
From "Why I am a Free Trader" (1905), Churchill revised this several times, the earliest
recorded version coming from the speech "For Free Trade" at the Free Trade Hall,
Manchester, 19 February 1904:
It is the theory of the Protectionist that imports are an evil. He thinks that if you shut
out the foreign imported manufactured goods you will make these goods yourselves,
in addition to the goods which you make now, including those goods which we make
to exchange for the foreign goods that come in. If a man can believe that he can
believe anything. (Laughter.) We Free-traders say it is not true. To think you can make
a man richer by putting on a tax is like a man thinking that he can stand in a bucket
and lift himself up by the handle. (Laughter and cheers.) [2]:Vol.I: 261
Politics are almost as exciting as war, and – quite as dangerous ... [I]n war, you can only be
killed once. But in politics many times.
From a conversational exchange with Harold Begbie, as cited in Master Workers,
Begbie, Methuen & Co. (1906), p. 177.
For my own part I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities which
he excites among his opponents. I have always set myself not merely to relish but to deserve
thoroughly their censure.
November 17, 1906, Institute of Journalists Dinner, London; in Churchill by Himself
(2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 392 ISBN 1586486381
The conditions of the Transvaal ordinance under which Chinese Labour is now being
carried on do not, in my opinion, constitute a state of slavery. A labour contract into which
men enter voluntarily for a limited and for a brief period, under which they are paid wages
which they consider adequate, under which they are not bought or sold and from which they
can obtain relief on payment of seventeen pounds ten shillings, the cost of their passage,
may not be a healthy or proper contract, but it cannot in the opinion of His Majesty's
Government be classified as slavery in the extreme acceptance of the word without some
risk of terminological inexactitude.
In the House of Commons, February 22, 1906 "King's Speech (Motion for an Address)"
(http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1906/feb/22/kings-speech-motion-for-an-
address#column_555), as Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office, repeating what he had
said during the 1906 election campaign. This is the original context for terminological
inexactitude, used simply literally, whereas later the term took on the sense of a
euphemism or circumlocution for a lie. As quoted in Sayings of the Century (1984) by
Nigel Rees.
I submit respectfully to the House as a general principle that our responsibility in this matter
is directly proportionate to our power. Where there is great power there is great
responsibility, where there is less power there is less responsibility, and where there is no
power there can, I think, be no responsibility.
In the House of Commons, February 28, 1906 speech South African native races (http://h
ansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1906/feb/28/south-african-native-races#S4V015
2P0_19060228_HOC_307)
Taxes are an evil—a necessary evil, but still an evil, and the fewer of them we have the
better.
Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth,
2008, p. 424, (1907, 12 February)
They knew what to expect when their opponents returned to power a party of great vested
interests—corruption at home, aggression to cover it up abroad, the trickery of tariff juggles,
the tyranny of a well-fed party machine; sentiment by the bucketful, patriotism and
Imperialism by the Imperial pint, the open hand at the public Exchequer, the open door at the
publichouse, dear food for the million, cheap labour for the millionaire. That was the policy
which the Tory party offered them, and that was the policy which he asked them to strike at
with the battle-axe of Scotland.
Speech in Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, Scotland (8 May 1908), quoted in The Times (9 May
1908), p. 14
The Times is speechless, and takes three columns to express its speechlessness.
Speech at Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, Scotland ("The Dundee Election"), May 14, 1908, in
Liberalism and the Social Problem (1909), Churchill, BiblioBazaar (Second Edition,
2006), p. 148 ISBN 1426451989
Uncounted generations will trample heedlessly upon our tombs. What is the use of living, if
it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for
those who will live in it after we are gone? How else can we put ourselves in harmonious
relation with the great verities and consolations of the infinite and the eternal? And I avow
my faith that we are marching towards better days. Humanity will not be cast down. We are
going on swinging bravely forward along the grand high road and already behind the
distant mountains is the promise of the sun.
Speech at Kinnaird Hall, Dundee, Scotland ("Unemployment"), October 10, 1908, in
Liberalism and the Social Problem (1909), Churchill, Echo Library (2007), p. 87 ISBN
1406845817
The quarrel between a tremendous democratic electorate and a one-sided hereditary

chamber of wealthy men has often been threatened, has often been averted, has been long
debated, has been long delayed, but it has always been inevitable, and it has come at last. It
is now open, it is now flagrant, and it must now be carried to a conclusion.
The People's Rights [1909] (1970), p. 20
Why should five hundred or six hundred titled persons govern us, and why should their
children govern our children for ever? I invite a reply from the apologists and the admirers of
the House of Lords. I invite them to show any ground of reason, or of logic, or of expediency
or practical common sense in defence of the institution which has taken the predominant
part during the last few days in the politics of our country. There is no defence, and there is
no answer, except that the House of Lords...has survived out of the past. It is a lingering relic
of a feudal order. It is the remains, the solitary reminder of a state of things and of a balance
of forces which has wholly passed away. I challenge the defenders, the backers, and the
instigators of the House of Lords—I challenge them to justify and defend before the electors
of the country the character and composition of the hereditary assembly.
There is no difficulty in vindicating the principle of a hereditary monarchy. The experience of

every country and of all ages, the practical reasonings of common sense, arguments of the
highest theory, arguments of most commonplace convenience, all unite to show the wisdom
which places the supreme leadership of the State beyond the reach of private ambition and
above the shocks and changes of party strife.
The House of Lords, in rejecting the Budget which provides for the national expenditure of
the year, are refusing, for the first time since the great Rebellion, aids and supplies to the
Crown, and by that fact and by their intrusion upon finance they commit an act of violence
against the British Constitution. There is no precedent of any kind for the rejection of a
Budget Bill by the House of Lords in all the long annals of the British Parliament, or, before
that, in the still more venerable annals of the English Parliament. The custom of centuries
forbids their intrusion upon finance.
The House of Lords have only been tolerated all these years because they were thought to
be in a comatose condition which preceded dissolution. They have got to dissolution now.
That this body, utterly unrepresentative, utterly unreformed, should come forward and claim
the right to make and unmake Governments, should lay one greedy paw on the prerogatives
of the sovereign and another upon the established and most fundamental privileges of the
House of Commons is a spectacle which a year ago no one would have believed could
happen; which fifty years ago no Peer would have dared suggest; and which two hundred
years ago would not have been discussed in the amiable though active manner of a political
campaign, but would have been settled by charges of cavalry and the steady advance of
iron-clad pikemen.
"All civilization", said Lord Curzon, quoting Renan, "all civilization has been the work of
aristocracies". ... It would be much more true to say "The upkeep of aristocracies has been
the hard work of all civilizations".
The People's Rights [1909] (1970), pp. 53-54
I cannot believe that in the twentieth century the British people are by their deliberate vote
going to constitute this assembly – a fraction of whom no doubt are men of real eminence
and dignity, but the great majority of whom are quite ordinary people of the well-to-do class
with all the narrowest prejudices and special interests of that class – I cannot believe that
you by your votes are going to constitute them the main foundation on which the governing
power in our land is reposed. I cannot believe the middle classes and the working classes,
who after all have only to use their voting strength to get their own way, are going to degrade
and cast away their own voting powers which their fathers won for them in the past...I cannot
believe that the electors are going obsequiously to hand over their most vital constitutional
right, namely, to choose the Chamber that governs the Government, to an antiquated body of
titled persons utterly beyond their control.
There is nothing economically unsound in increasing temporarily and artificially the demand
for labour during a period of temporary and artificial contraction. There is a plain need of
some averaging machinery to regulate and even-up the general course of the labour market.
... by every step in that direction you would free thousands of your fellow-countrymen from
undeserved agony and ruin.
We have entered upon a period of crisis and conflict more grave and crucial than any living
man has known, and it is a conflict which I think has been more deliberately undertaken and
will be more resolutely fought through by both sides than any political conflict that we can
recall. Terribly important as economic and constitutional questions may be, the fiscal system
of a country and the system of Government which prevails in a country are only means to an
end, and that end must be to create conditions favourable to the social and moral welfare of
the masses of the citizens.
We have left the wilderness of phrases and formulas, the cut and dried party issues,
and we have broken violently into a world of constructive action. It would be an
exaggeration to speak of these changes as though they were a revolution. They are not a
revolution, but, taken altogether, the policy which has been unfolded to this country during
the last two or three years, and which is gripped together and carried forward by the Budget
– that policy which the Lords have for the time being brought to a full stop – constitutes by far
the largest, most scientific, most deliberate, most resolute attempt at social organization and
social advance which any man living can remember.
The social conditions of the British people in the early years of the twentieth century cannot
be contemplated without deep anxiety... We are at the cross-ways. If we stand on the old
happy-go-lucky way, the richer classes ever growing in wealth and in number, and ever
declining in responsibility, the very poor remaining plunged or plunging even deeper into
helpless, hopeless misery, then I think there is nothing before us but savage strife between
class and class, with an increasing disorganization, with an increasing destruction of human
strength and human virtue—nothing, in fact, but that dual degeneration which comes from
the simultaneous waste of extreme wealth and of extreme want.
The greatest danger to the British Empire and to the British people is not to be found among
the enormous fleets and armies of the European Continent, nor in the solemn problems of
Hindustan; it is not in the 'Yellow Peril' nor the 'Black Peril' nor any danger in the wide circuit
of colonial and foreign affairs. No, it is here in our midst, close at home, close at hand in the
vast growing cities of England and Scotland, and in the dwindling and cramped villages of
our denuded countryside. It is there you will find the seeds of Imperial ruin and national
decay—the unnatural gap between rich and poor, the divorce of the people from the land,
the want of proper discipline and training in our youth, the exploitation of boy labour, the
physical degeneration which seems to follow so swiftly on civilized poverty, the awful
jumbles of an obsolete Poor Law, the horrid havoc of the liquor traffic, the constant insecurity
in the means of subsistence and employment which breaks the heart of many a sober, hard-
working man, the absence of any established minimum standard of life and comfort among
the workers, and, at the other end, the swift increase of vulgar, joyless luxury—here are the
enemies of Britain. Beware lest they shatter the foundations of her power.
The Budget, and the policy of the Budget, is the first conscious attempt on the part of the
State to build up a better and a more scientific organization of society for the workers of this
country.
If large classes of the population live under conditions which make it difficult if not
impossible for them to keep a home together in decent comfort, if the children are habitually
underfed, if the housewife is habitually overstrained, if the bread-winner is under-employed
or under-paid, if all are unprotected and uninsured against the common hazards of modern
industrial life, if sickness, accident, infirmity, or old age, or unchecked intemperance, or any
other curse or affliction, break up the home, as they break up thousands of homes, and
scatter the family, as they scatter thousands of families in our land, it is not merely the waste
of earning-power or the dispersal of a few poor sticks of furniture, it is the stamina, the virtue,
safety, and honour of the British race that are being squandered.
Liberalism supplies at once the higher impulse and the practicable path; it appeals to
persons by sentiments of generosity and humanity; it proceeds by courses of moderation. By
gradual steps, by steady effort from day to day, from year to year, Liberalism enlists hundreds
of thousands upon the side of progress and popular democratic reform whom militant
Socialism would drive into violent Tory reaction... The cause of the Liberal Party is the cause
of the left-out millions.
The whole tendency of civilization is...towards the multiplication of the collective functions of
society. The ever growing complications of civilization create for us new services which
have to be undertaken by the State, and create for us an expansion of the existing services. I
am of the opinion that the State should increasingly assume the position of the reserve
employer of labour. I am very sorry we have not got the railways of this country in our hands.
We may do something better with the canals, and we are all agreed that the State must
increasingly and earnestly concern itself with the care of the sick and aged, and, above all,
of the children.
I look forward to the universal establishment of minimum standards of life and labour, and
their progressive elevation as the increasing energies of production may permit. I do not
think that Liberalism in any circumstances can cut itself off from this fertile field of social
effort, and I would recommend you not to be scared in discussing any of these proposals,
just because some old woman comes along and tells you they are Socialistic.
Roads are made, streets are made, services are improved, electric light turns night into day,
water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains -- and all the while the
landlord sits still. Every one of those improvements is effected by the labour and cost of other
people and the taxpayers. To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist, as a
land monopolist, contribute, and yet by every one of them the value of his land is enhanced.
He renders no service to the community, he contributes nothing to the general welfare, he
contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived.
Speech to the Scottish Liberal Association, Edinburgh, 18 July 1909
The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is
one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country. A calm and
dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the State, and even of
convicted criminals against the State, a constant heart-searching by all charged with the
duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry all those
who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment, tireless efforts towards the
discovery of curative and regenerating processes, and an unfaltering faith that there is a
treasure, if you can only find it, in the heart of every man—these are the symbols which in
the treatment of crime and criminals mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation,
and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1910/jul/20/class-iii#column
_1354) in the House of Commons (20 July 1910)
The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the feeble-minded and insane classes,
coupled as it is with steady restriction among all the thrifty, energetic and superior stocks
constitutes a national and race danger which is impossible to exaggerate. I feel that the
source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed before another
year has passed.
(Home Secretary) Churchill to Prime Minister Asquith on compulsory sterilization of 'the
feeble-minded and insane'; cited, as follows (excerpted from longer note) : It is worth
noting that eugenics was not a fringe movement of obscure scientists but often led and
supported, in Britain and America, by some of the most prominent public figures of the
day, across the political divide, such as Julian Huxley, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence,
John Maynard Keynes and Theodore Roosevelt. Indeed, none other than Winston
Churchill, whilst Home Secretary in 1910, made the following observation: [text of quote]
(quoted in Jones, 1994: 9)., in ‍'‍Race‍'‍, sport, and British society (2001), Carrington &
McDonald, Routledge, Introduction, Note 4, p. 20 ISBN 0415246296
'I propose that 100,000 degenerate Britons should be forcibly sterilized and others put in
labour camps to halt the decline of the British race.'
As Home Secretary in a 1910 Departmental Paper. The original document is in the
collection of Asquith's papers at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Also quoted in Clive
Ponting, "Churchill" (Sinclair Stevenson 1994)
I consider that every workman is well advised to join a trade union. I cannot conceive how
any man standing undefended against the powers that be in this world could be so foolish, if
he can possibly spare the money from the maintenance of his family, not to associate himself
with an organisation to protect the rights and interests of labour.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1911/may/30/trade-unions-
no-2-bill#column_1017) in the House of Commons (30 May 1911)
There can be no question of the military forces of the Crown "intervening in a labour dispute"
in the proper sense of the words. That, so-far as it can be done by the Government, is a
function of the Board of Trade. It is only when a trade dispute is accompanied by riot,
intimidation, or other violations of the law, or when a serious interruption is caused or likely
to be caused to the supply of necessary commodities, that the military can be called on to
support the police; and then their duty is to maintain the law, not to interfere in the matter in
dispute.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1911/aug/15/trade-dis
putes#S5CV0029P0_19110815_CWA_38) in the House of Commons (15 August 1911)
The main argument which all these years has sustained the Home Rule cause has been the
continuous and unalterable demand of the Irish people in an overwhelming majority, through
every recognised channel of the national will, for the establishment of an Irish Legislature.
The Irish claim has never been fairly treated by the statesmen of Great Britain. They have
never tried to deal with Ireland in the spirit in which both great parties face the large
problems of the British Empire. And yet, why should not Ireland have her chance? Why
should not her venerable nationhood enjoy a recognised and respected existence? Why
should not her own distinctive point of view obtain a complete expression? Why should the
Empire, why should the world at large, be deprived of a new contribution to the sum of
human effort? History and poetry, justice and good sense, alike demand that this race, gifted,
virtuous, and brave, which has lived so long and has endured so much, should not, in view
of her passionate desire, be left out of the family of nations, and should not be lost forever
among the indiscriminated multitudes of men.—(Cheers.) What harm could Irish ideas and
Irish sentiments and Irish dreams, if given their free play in the Irish Parliament, do to the
strong structure of the British power? Would not the arrival of an Irish Parliament upon the
brilliantly lighted stage of the modern world be an enrichment and an added glory to the
treasures of the British Empire?
Speech in Celtic Park Football Ground in Belfast (8 February 1912), quoted in Never
Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches (2003), pp. 48-49
The British Navy is to us a necessity and, from some points of view, the German Navy is to
them more in the nature of a luxury. Our naval power involves British existence. It is
existence to us; it is expansion to them. We cannot menace the peace of a single
Continental hamlet, nor do we wish to do so no matter how great and supreme our Navy
may become. But, on the other hand, the whole fortunes of our race and Empire, the whole
treasure accumulated during so many centuries of sacrifice and achievement would perish
and be swept utterly away if our naval supremacy were to be impaired. It is the British Navy
which makes Great Britain a great Power.
Speech in Glasgow (9 February 1912), quoted in The Times (10 February 1912), p. 9
Any Ulster county, upon the requisition of a tenth of the electors, can, by a simple vote, stand
out, for six years, of the whole operation of the Home Rule Bill and remain exactly as they
are... Consider what that offer must cost to the Irish Nationalist Leaders. When I think of the
patience, the wisdom, and the eloquence with which Mr. Redmond has conducted this great
historic controversy, and when I think how dearly he and those who are working with him
cherish the dream, the hope, of a united and self-governing Ireland, I can measure the cruel
pang with which this temporary, but none the less serious, change has been accepted by
him and by the great mass of the Irish nation. It is their hope, and I think they are right and
wise in hoping, that the day will come, perhaps before that period is passed, when, of their
own free will, the Ulster counties that have exercised the option will seek to be incorporated
in the ancient Parliament of their motherland (cheers), when that brilliant and courageous
speaker, Mr. Devlin, will lead the democracy of Belfast to take their true position in the
councils of a united and progressive Ireland. (Cheers.)
Speech in Bradford (14 March 1914), quoted in The Times (16 March 1914), p. 13
Mr. Bonar Law says, in effect, if there is civil war in Ulster it will spread to England too. I
agree with him. I go farther... This will be the issue—Whether civil and Parliamentary
government in these realms is to be beaten down by the menace of armed force. Whatever
sympathies we have for Ulster, we need have no compunction here. It is the old battle-
ground of English history. It is the same issue fought out 250 years ago on the field of
Marston Moor. (Cheers.) From the language which is employed it would almost seem that
we are face to face with a disposition on the part of some sections of the propertied classes
to subvert Parliamentary government and to challenge the civil and constitutional
foundations of society. Against such a mood, wherever it manifests itself in action, there is no
lawful measure from which the Government should shrink, and there is no lawful measure
from which this Government will shrink. (Cheers.)
Bloodshed no doubt is lamentable. I have seen some of it—more perhaps than many of
those who talk about it with such levity—but there are worse things than bloodshed, even on
an extensive scale. The collapse of the Central Government of the British Empire would be
worse. The abandonment by public men of the righteous aims to which they are pledged in
honour would be worse. The cowardly abdication of responsibility by the Executive would
be worse. The trampling down of that law and order which under the conditions of a civilised
State assure to millions, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—all this would be worse
than bloodshed. (Cheers.)
As long as it effects working men in England or Nationalist peasants in Ireland, there is no

measure of military force which the Tory Party will not readily employ. They denounce all
violence except their own. They uphold all law except the law they choose to break.
(Cheers.) They always welcome the application of force to others. (Laughter.) But they
themselves are to remain immune. They are to select from the Statute-book the laws they
will obey and the laws they will resist. They claim to be a party in the State free to use force
in all directions, but never to have it applied to themselves. Whether in office or in
opposition, as they have very often told us, they are to govern the country. If they cannot do it
by the veto of privilege, they will do it by the veto of violence. If constitutional methods serve
their ends, they will be Constitutionalists. If law suits their purpose, they will be law-abiding,
aye, and law-enforcing. When social order means the order of the Tory Party, when social
order means the order of the propertied classes against the wage-earner, when social order
means the master against the man, or the landlord against the tenant, order is sacred and
holy, order is dear to the heart of the Tory Party and order must be maintained by force. But if
it should happen that the Constitution, or the law, or the maintenance of order stand in the
path of some Tory project, stand in the path of the realisation of some appetite or ambition
which they have conceived, then they vie with the wildest anarchists in the language which
they use against the Constitution, against the law, and against all order and all means of
maintaining order. And that is the political doctrine with which they salute the 20th century.
(Cheers.)
If Ulster seeks peace and fair play she can find it. She knows where to find it. (Cheers.) If
Ulstermen extend the hand of friendship it will be clasped by Liberals and by their
Nationalist countrymen in all good faith and in all good will; but if there is no wish for peace,
if every concession that is made is spurned and exploited, if every effort to meet their views
is only to be used as a means of breaking down Home Rule and of barring the way to the
rest of Ireland; if Ulster is to become a tool in party calculations, if the civil and Parliamentary
systems under which we have dwelt so long and our fathers before us are to be brought to
the crude challenge of force, if the Government and the Parliament of this great country and
greater Empire are to be exposed to menace and brutality, if all the loose, wanton, and
reckless chatter we have been forced to listen to these many months is in the end to disclose
a sinister and revolutionary purpose, then I can only say to you: Let us go forward together
and put these grave matters to the proof. (Loud cheers.)
Everything tends towards catastrophe and collapse. I am interested, geared up and happy. Is
it not horrible to be made like this?
In a letter to his wife Clemmie, during the build up to World War I.
Like chasing a quinine pill around a cow pasture.

On playing golf : as cited in The quote verifier: who said what, where, and when (2006),
Keyes, Macmillan, p. 27 ISBN 0312340044
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.
Remarks at the Guildhall, 4 September 1914, after the first British naval victory of World
War I, the sinking of three German cruisers in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, as cited in
Churchill: A Life, Martin Gilbert, Macmillan (1992), p. 279 : ISBN 0805023968
I am finished.
On losing his position at the Admiralty in 1915. Said to Lord Riddell, as cited in Maxims
and Reflections, Chapter I (On Himself), Churchill, Houghton Mifflin Company (1947).
[The] truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may
distort it, but there it is.
Speech in the House of Commons, May 17, 1916 "Royal Assent" (http://hansard.millban
ksystems.com/commons/1916/may/17/royal-assent#column_1578).
We are not a young people with an innocent record and a scanty inheritance... We
have engrossed to ourselves an altogether disproportionate share of the wealth and
traffic of the world. We have got all we want in territory, and our claim to be left in the
unmolested enjoyment of vast and splendid possessions, mainly acquired by
violence, largely maintained by force, often seems less reasonable to others than to
us.
In a comment to his British Cabinet colleagues in January 1914 in a confidential paper.
Cited in John Darwin, The Empire Project, Cambridge 2010, p268.
Only the final results can prove whether military autocracies or Parliamentary Governments
are more likely — take them for all in all — to preserve the welfare and safety of great
nations. If the result is inconclusive, the conflict will be renewed after an uneasy
interval. But when an absolute decision is obtained the system of the victors — whoever
they are — will probably be adopted to a very great extent by the vanquished.
On the Great War, The Sinister Hypothesis, The Sunday Pictorial, 9 July 1916.
The true characteristic of all British strategy lies in the use of amphibious power. Not
the sea alone, but the land and the sea together: not the Fleet alone, but the Army in the
hand of the Fleet.
The Great Amphibian, The Sunday Pictorial, 23 July 1916.
The German hope is that if the frontiers can be unshakeably maintained for another year, a
peace can be obtained which will relieve Germany from the consequences of the hideous
catastrophe in which she has plunged the world, and leave her free to scheme and prepare
a decisive stroke in another generation. Unless Germany is beaten in a manner which
leaves no room for doubt or dispute, unless she is convinced by the terrible logic of
events that the glory of her people can never be achieved by violent means, unless
her war-making capacity after the war is sensibly diminished, a renewal of the conflict,
after an uneasy and malevolent truce, seems unavoidable.
The War by Land and Sea, Part IV, The London Magazine, January 1917.
Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 147-8. ISBN 0903988429
I think a curse should rest on me — because I love this war. I know it's smashing and
shattering the lives of thousands every moment — and yet — I can't help it — I enjoy every
second of it.
A letter to a friend (1916)
No compromise on the main purpose; no peace till victory; no pact with unrepentant wrong --
that is the Declaration of July 4th, 1918.
At a joint Anglo-American rally in Westminster, July 4, 1918, speaking against calls for a
negotiated truce with Germany. As printed in War aims & peace ideals: selections in
prose & verse (1919), edited by Tucker Brooke & Henry Seidel Canby, Yale University
Press, p. 138
Why should anybody make a great fortune out of the war? While everybody has been
serving the country, profiteers and contractors & shipping speculators have gained fortunes
of a gigantic character. Why shd we be bound to bear the unpopularity of defending old
Runciman's ill-gotten gains? I wd reclaim everything above £10,000 (to let the small fry off)
in reduction of the War Debt.
Letter to David Lloyd George (21 November 1918), quoted in Paul Addison, Churchill On
The Home Front, 1900–1955 (1992), p. 197
One might as well legalise sodomy as recognise the Bolsheviks.

Paris, 24 January 1919. Churchill: A Life. Gilbert, Martin (1992). New York: Holt, p. 408.
ISBN 9780805023961
The aid which we can give to those Russian armies which are now engaged in fighting
against the foul baboonery of Bolshevism can be given by arms, munitions, equipment, and
by the technical services. It is a malicious statement against the interests of the British
Empire to suggest that it is necessary for us to prolong the action of the Military Service Act
because of enterprises which we have on foot in Russia.
Mansion House speech (19 February 1919)[3][4]
I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas. We have definitely adopted
the position at the Peace Conference of arguing in favour of the retention of gas as a
permanent method of warfare. It is sheer affectation to lacerate a man with the
poisonous fragment of a bursting shell and to boggle at making his eyes water by
means of lachrymatory gas. I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against
uncivilised tribes. The moral effect should be so good that the loss of life should be
reduced to a minimum. It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gases: gases can be
used which cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave
no serious permanent effects on most of those affected ... We cannot, in any
circumstances acquiesce to the non-utilisation of any weapons which are available to
procure a speedy termination of the disorder which prevails on the frontier.
Statement as president of the Air Council, War Office Departmental Minute (1919-05-12);
Churchill Papers 16/16, Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.
Many argue that quotes from this passage are often taken out of context, because
Churchill is distinguishing between non-lethal agents and the deadly gasses used in
World War I and emphasizing the use of non-lethal weapons; however Churchill is not
clearly ruling out the use of lethal gases, simply stating that "it is not necessary to use
only the most deadly". It is sometimes claimed that gas killed many young and elderly
Kurds and Arabs when the RAF bombed rebelling villages in Iraq in 1920 during the
British occupation. For more information on this matter, see Gas in Mesopotamia.
Germany will recover and Russian will rise... our policy must be directed to prevent a union
between German militarism and Russian Bolshevism.
The Fortnightly Review, July 1919, William Harbutt Dawson, "The Liabilities of the
Treaty," p. 10, speech in Dundee on May 14, 1919
Lenin was sent into Russia by the Germans in the same way that you might send a
phial containing a culture of typhoid or cholera to be poured into the water supply of a
great city, and it worked with amazing accuracy.
On Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, in the House of Commons, November 5, 1919 as cited in
Churchill by Himself (2008), Ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 355 ISBN 1586486381
First there are the Jews who, dwelling in every country throughout the world, identify
themselves with that country, enter into its national life and, while adhering faithfully to their
own religion, regard themselves as citizens in the fullest sense of the State which has
received them. Such a Jew living in England would say, 'I am an English man practising the
Jewish faith.' This is a worthy conception, and useful in the highest degree. We in Great
Britain well know that during the great struggle the influence of what may be called the
'National Jews' in many lands was cast preponderatingly on the side of the Allies; and in our
own Army Jewish soldiers have played a most distinguished part, some rising to the
command of armies, others winning the Victoria Cross for valour. There is no need to
exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of
the Russian Revolution, by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews, it is
certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. With the notable exception of
Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and
driving power comes from the Jewish leaders. Thus Tchitcherin, a pure Russian, is eclipsed
by his nominal subordinate Litvinoff, and the influence of Russians like Bukharin or
Lunacharski cannot be compared with the power of Trotsky, or of Zinovieff, the Dictator of the
Red Citadel (Petrograd) or of Krassin or Radek -- all Jews. In the Soviet institutions the
predominance of Jews is even more astonishing. And the prominent, if not indeed the
principal, part in the system of terrorism applied by the Extraordinary Commissions for
Combating Counter-Revolution has been taken by Jews, and in some notable cases by
Jewesses. The same evil prominence was obtained by Jews in the brief period of terror
during which Bela Kun ruled in Hungary. The same phenomenon has been presented in
Germany (especially in Bavaria), so far as this madness has been allowed to prey upon the
temporary prostration of the German people. Although in all these countries there are many
non-Jews every whit as bad as the worst of the Jewish revolutionaries, the part played by
the latter in proportion to their numbers in the population is astonishing.
"Zionism versus Bolshevism", Illustrated Sunday Herald (February 1920)
(A note: Churchill viewed Bolshevism as a heavily Jewish phenomenon. He

contrasted the Jewish role in the creation of Bolshevism with a more positive view of
the role that Jews had played in England.[1] (https://richardlangworth.com/enemies-of-
civilization-misquoting-churchill)).
In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International
Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the
unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most,
if not all of them, have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, and divorced from their minds all
spiritual hopes of the next world. This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days
of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun
(Hungary), Rosa Luxemburg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world-
wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the
basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been
steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, a definitely
recognisable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of
every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of
extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America
have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the
undisputed masters of that enormous empire.
Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill 'Bolshevism versus Zionism; a struggle for the soul of the
Jewish people' in Illustrated Daily Herald, 8 February 1920.
However we may dwell upon the difficulties of General Dyer during the Amritsar riots, upon
the anxious and critical situation in the Punjab, upon the danger to Europeans throughout
that province, ... one tremendous fact stands out – I mean the slaughter of nearly 400
persons and the wounding of probably three to four times as many, at the Jallian Wallah
Bagh on 13th April. That is an episode which appears to me to be without precedent or
parallel in the modern history of the British Empire. ... It is an extraordinary event, a
monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation.
Speech in the House of Commons, July 8, 1920 "Amritsar" (http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.
au/churchill/am-text.htm) ; at the time, Churchill was serving as Secretary of State for War
under Prime Minister David Lloyd George
Men who take up arms against the State must expect at any moment to be fired upon. Men
who take up arms unlawfully cannot expect that the troops will wait until they are quite ready
to begin the conflict.
Frightfulness is not a remedy known to the British Pharmacopaeia.

I yield to no one in my detestation of Bolshevism, and of the revolutionary violence which

precedes it. ... But my hatred of Bolshevism and Bolsheviks is not founded on their silly
system of economics, or their absurd doctrine of an impossible equality. It arises from the
bloody and devastating terrorism which they practice in every land into which they have
broken, and by which alone their criminal regime can be maintained. ... Governments who
have seized upon power by violence and by usurpation have often resorted to terrorism in
their desperate efforts to keep what they have stolen, but the august and venerable structure
of the British Empire ... does not need such aid. Such ideas are absolutely foreign to the
British way of doing things.
au/churchill/am-text.htm)
Let me marshal the facts. The crowd was unarmed, except with bludgeons. It was not
attacking anybody or anything. It was holding a seditious meeting. When fire had
been opened upon it to disperse it, it tried to run away. Pinned up in a narrow place
considerably smaller than Trafalgar Square, with hardly any exits, and packed
together so that one bullet would drive through three or four bodies, the people ran
madly this way and the other. When the fire was directed upon the centre, they ran to
the sides. The fire was then directed to the sides. Many threw themselves down on the
ground, and the fire was then directed on the ground. This was continued for 8 or 10
minutes ... [i]f the road had not been so narrow, the machine guns and the armoured cars
would have joined in. Finally, when the ammunition had reached the point that only enough
remained to allow for the safe return of the troops, and after 379 persons ... had been killed,
and when most certainly 1,200 or more had been wounded, the troops, at whom not even a
stone had been thrown, swung round and marched away. ... We have to make it absolutely
clear ... that this is not the British way of doing business. ... Our reign, in India or anywhere
else, has never stood on the basis of physical force alone, and it would be fatal to the British
Empire if we were to try to base ourselves only upon it.
au/churchill/am-text.htm)
The scientific apparatus which has rendered possible the great expansion of the populations
of the world in modern times is the result of capitalist production by individual effort. And
from much earlier times the power of men to form themselves into civilised communities
depended upon the observance of laws which secured personal possession of the fruits of
work, or enterprise, or thrift, which procured respect for contracts entered into between man
and man, which gave even greater prizes for greater efforts or greater aptitudes. These
conceptions were based on the primary desire of man to seek his own benefit and that of his
family. By harnessing this desire into laws, capable, no doubt, of infinite improvement, the
motive power of material progress was obtained.
'Mr Wells and Bolshevism: A Reply', The Sunday Express (5 December 1920), quoted in
Paul Addison, Churchill On The Home Front, 1900–1955 (1992), p. 440
I cannot pretend to feel impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am
genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
In "Painting as a Pastime", first published in the Strand Magazine in two parts
(December 1921/January 1922), cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth,
PublicAffairs, p. 456 ISBN 1586486381
He ought to be lain bound hand and foot at the gates of Delhi, and then trampled on by an
enormous elephant with the new Viceroy seated on its back.
Referring to Mahatma Gandhi in conversation with Edwin Montagu, Secretary of State for
India, 1921.[5][6]
Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out
before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will
never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy
and the glory of the climb.
In "Painting as a Pastime", the Strand Magazine (December 1921/January 1922), cited
in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 568 ISBN 1586486381
Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.

Remark in 1923 after rejoining the Conservatives, having left them earlier to join the
Liberals; reported in Kay Halle, Irrepressible Churchill (1966), p. 52–53. Other sources
say this remark was made in 1924.
The enthronement in office of a Socialist Government will be a serious national misfortune

such as has usually befallen great States only on the morrow of defeat in war. It will delay
the return of prosperity; it will check enterprise and impair credit; it will open a period of
increasing political confusion and disturbance.
Letter to a correspondent shortly before the Labour Party formed its first government (17
January 1924), quoted in The Times (18 January 1924), p. 14
Might a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy a
whole block of buildings — nay to concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and
blast a township at a stroke?.
Pall Mall Gazette (1924) on HG Wells' suggestion of an atomic bomb, in "BBC Article" (h
ttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33365776)
By abandoning the naval base at Singapore the Socialist Government has made it
impossible for the British Navy to enter the Pacific, and consequently to afford the slightest
assistance to Australia and New Zealand, no matter how terrible their need might be. Yet
almost at the same time that the British Navy is stripped of its old power of defending the
British Empire we know well that they would gladly hawk it round Europe to be the drudge of
an international organization and fight in every quarrel but its own.
Speech in Edinburgh (25 September 1924), quoted in The Times (26 September 1924),
p. 14
Judged by every standard which history has applied to Governments, the Soviet
Government of Russia is one of the worst tyrannies that has ever existed in the world.
(Cheers.) It accords no political rights. It rules by terror. It punishes political opinions. It
suppresses free speech. It tolerates no newspapers but its own. It persecutes Christianity
with a zeal and a cunning never equalled since the times of the Roman Emperors. It is
engaged at this moment in trampling down the peoples of Georgia and executing their
leaders by hundreds. It is for this process that Mr. MacDonald asks us to make ourselves
responsible. We are to render these tyrannies possible by lending to their authors money to
pay for the ammunition to murder the Georgians, to enable the Soviet sect to keep its
stranglehold on the dumb Russian nation, and to poison the world, and so far as they can,
the British Empire, with their filthy propaganda. (Cheers.) That is what we are asked to take
upon ourselves. It is an outrage on the British name.
p. 14
But contrast the attitude of the Socialist Government towards their Bolshevist friends and
their attitude to the great self-governing Dominions of the Crown. To the enemies of Britain,
of civilization, of freedom, to those who deserted us in the crises of the war—smiles,
compliments, caresses, cash. But for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, who
sent their brave men to fight and die by scores of thousands, who never flinched and never
wearied, who are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh—to them nothing but frigid
repulsion. Our bread for the Bolshevist serpent; our aid for the foreigner of every country; our
favours for the Socialists all over the world who have no country; but for our own daughter
States across the oceans, on whom the future of the British island and nation depends, only
the cold stones of indifference, aversion, and neglect. (Cheers.) That is the policy with which
the Socialist Government confronts us, and against that policy we will strive to marshal the
unconquerable might of Britain.
p. 14
Mankind has never been in this position before. Without having improved appreciably in
virtue or enjoying wiser guidance, it has got into its hands for the first time the tools
by which it can unfailingly accomplish its own extermination. That is the point in human
destinies to which all the glories and toils of men have at last led them. They would do well
to pause and ponder upon their new responsibilities...Surely if a sense of self-preservation
still exists among men, if the will to live resides not merely in individuals or nations but
in humanity as a whole, the prevention of the supreme catastrophe ought to be the
paramount object of all endeavour.
Shall We All Commit Suicide?, 1924
I am most anxious that in dealing with matters which every Member knows are extremely
delicate matters, I should not use any phrase or expression which would cause offence to
our friends and Allies on the Continent or across the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaking on inter-Allied debts in the House of Commons (December 10, 1924); reported
in Parliamentary Debates (Commons) (1925), 5th series, vol. 179, col. 259.
To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have
changed often.
Winston Churchill (June 23, 1925), His complete
speeches, 1897–1963, edited by Robert Rhodes
James, Chelsea House ed., vol. 4 (1922–1928), p.
3706. During a debate with Philip Snowden, 1st
Viscount Snowden.
Often misquoted as: To improve is to change, to be
perfect is to change often.
The follies of Socialism are inexhaustible... Even among

themselves they have twenty discordant factions who
hate one another even more than they hate you and me.
Their insincerity! Can you not feel a sense of disgust at
the arrogant presumption of superiority of these
Surely if a sense of self-preservation
people?.... Then when it comes to practice, down they
still exists among men...the
fall with a wallop not only to the level of ordinary human
prevention of the supreme
beings but to a level which is even far below the
catastrophe ought to be the
average.
paramount object of all endeavour
Winston S. Churchill, His Complete Speeches 1897-
1963, Vol. IV, p. 3821, Town Hall, Battersea (1925,
11, December)
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.
Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches (1974), Chelsea House, Volume IV:
1922–1928, p. 3462 ISBN 0835206939
Let them [Socialists] abandon the utter fallacy, the grotesque, erroneous, fatal blunder of
believing that by limiting the enterprise of man, by riveting the shackles of a false equality...
they will increase the well-being of the world.
Winston S. Churchill, His Complete Speeches 1897-1963, Vol. IV, p. 3821, (1926, 21
January)
I have never taken the view which seems to give so much pleasure to morbid and
misanthropic minds, a view which they have spread so widely through the United States,
that Britain is "down and out," that the foundations of her commercial and industrial
greatness have been sapped, that the stamina of her people is impaired, that her workmen
are mutinous and lazy, that her employers are pleasure-loving and benighted, that her
institutions are crumbling, and that her Empire is falling to pieces.
Speech in Ulster Hall, Belfast (2 March 1926), quoted in The Times (3 March 1926), p.
21
I decline utterly to be impartial as between the fire brigade and the fire.
Speech in the House of Commons, July 7, 1926 "Emergency Services" (http://hansard.m
illbanksystems.com/commons/1926/jul/07/emergency-services#column_2216),
responding to criticism that he edited the British Gazette in a biased manner during the
General Strike, as cited in The Yale Book of Quotations (2006), ed. Fred R. Shapiro,
Yale University Press, p. 152 ISBN 0300107986
Make your minds perfectly clear that if ever you let loose upon us again a general strike, we
will loose upon you — another "British Gazette."
Speech in the House of Commons, July 7, 1926 "Emergency Services" (http://hansard.m
illbanksystems.com/commons/1926/jul/07/emergency-services#column_2218) ; at this
time, Churchill was serving as Chancellor of the Excheqer under Prime Minister Stanley
Baldwin.
Threatening the Labour Party and trade union movement with a return of the
Government-published newspaper he edited during that May's General Strike.
A sheep in sheep's clothing.

On Ramsay MacDonald. This is often taken as referring to Clement Attlee, but Scottish
historian D. W. Brogan is cited in Safire's Political Dictionary (2008), William Safire,
Oxford University Press US, p. 352 ISBN 0195343344 as follows: 'Sir Winston Churchill
never said of Clement Attlee that he was a sheep in sheep's clothing. I have this on the
excellent authority of Sir Winston himself. The phrase was totally inapplicable to Mr.
Attlee. It was applicable, and applied, to J. Ramsay MacDonald, a very different kind of
Labour leader.'
What a man! I have lost my heart! ... If I were Italian, I am sure I would have been with you
entirely from the beginning of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites and
passion of Leninism. ... Your movement has rendered a service to the whole world. The
greatest fear that ever tormented every Democratic or Socialist leader was that of being
outbid or surpassed by some other leader more extreme than himself. It has been said that a
continual movement to the Left, a kind of fatal landslide toward the abyss, has been the
character of all revolutions. Italy has shown that there is a way to combat subversive forces.
On Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism, in a press statement from Rome (20 January
1927), quoted in Churchill by Himself : The Definitive Collection of Quotations (2011) by
Richard Langworth, p. 169
Italy has shown that there is a way of fighting the subversive forces which can rally the
masses of the people, properly led, to value and wish to defend the honour and stability of
stabilized society. She has provided the necessary antidote to the Russian poison. Hereafter
no great nation will be unprovided with an ultimate means of protection against the
cancerous growth of Bolshevism.
Press statement from Rome (20 January 1927), as quoted in Introduction: A Political-
Biographical Sketch by Tariq Ali in Class War Conservatism and Other Essays (2015) by
Ralph Miliband, with date of quote given in Go Betweens for Hitler by Karina Urbach.
Although trade is important, there are other and stronger bonds of Empire, and since the
Conference of 1926 nothing but common interests and traditions have held the Empire
together. But those are mighty ties, incomprehensible to Europeans, which have drawn
millions of men from the far corners of the earth to the battlefields of France, and we must
trust to them to continue to draw us together.
Speech in Toronto (16 August 1929), quoted in Martin Gilbert, The Churchill Documents,
Volume 12: The Wilderness Years, 1929–1935 (1981; 2012), p. 51
Cultured people are merely the glittering scum which floats upon the deep river of
production.
Quoted in Randolph Churchill's diary entry (24 August 1929), quoted in Martin Gilbert,
The Churchill Documents, Volume 12: The Wilderness Years, 1929–1935 (1981; 2012),
p. 55
The rescue of India from ages of barbarism, tyranny, and internecine war and its slow but
ceaseless forward march to civilisation constitute upon the whole the finest achievement of
our history.
Article for the Daily Mail (16 November 1929), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 356
Dominion status can certainly not be attained by a community which brands and treats sixty
millions of its members, fellow human beings, toiling at their side, as 'Untouchables', whose
approach is an affront and whose very presence is pollution. Dominion status can certainly
not be attained while India is a prey to fierce racial and religious dissensions and when the
withdrawal of British protection would mean the immediate resumption of mediaeval wars. It
cannot be attained while the political classes in India represent only an insignificant fraction
of the three hundred and fifty millions for whose welfare we are responsible.
Article for the Daily Mail (16 November 1929), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), pp. 356–357
The World Crisis (1923–1931)

Arabs would have sat in the dark forever had not the Zionist engineers harnessed the
Jordan river for electrification. Now they swarm into Palestine in seeking the light. (1922)
The Great War through which we have passed differed from all ancient wars in the immense
power of the combatants and their fearful agencies of destruction, and from all modern wars
in the utter ruthlessness with which it was fought. ... Europe and large parts of Asia and
Africa became one vast battlefield on which after years of struggle not armies but nations
broke and ran. When all was over, Torture and Cannibalism were the only two expedients
that the civilized, scientific, Christian States had been able to deny themselves: and these
were of doubtful utility.
The World Crisis, 1911–1914 : Chapter I (The Vials of Wrath), Churchill, Butterworth
(1923), pp. 10-11
We may now picture this great Fleet, with its flotillas and cruisers, steaming slowly out of
Portland Harbour, squadron by squadron, scores of gigantic castles of steel wending
their way across the misty, shining sea, like giants bowed in anxious thought. We may
picture them again as darkness fell, eighteen miles of warships running at high speed and in
absolute blackness through the narrow Straits, bearing with them into the broad waters of
the North the safeguard of considerable affairs....The king's ships were at sea.
The World Crisis, 1911–1914 : Chapter IX (The Crisis), Churchill, Butterworth (1923), pp.
212-213
He was a cut flower in a vase; fair to see, yet bound to die, and to die very soon if the water
was not constantly renewed.
Concerning Admiral von Spee’s East Asia Squadron
The World Crisis, 1911–1914 : Chapter XIII (On The Oceans), Churchill, Butterworth
(1923), p. 295
There is always a strong case for doing nothing, especially for doing nothing yourself.
The World Crisis, 1911–1914 : Chapter XV (Antwerp), Churchill, Butterworth (1923), p.
340
Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Dangers which are warded off by effective precautions and
foresight are never even remembered.
The World Crisis, 1911–1914 : Chapter XVII (The Grand Fleet and the Submarine
Alarm), Churchill, Butterworth (1923), p. 399
Mechanical not less than strategic conditions had combined to produce at this early period
in the war a deadlock both on sea and land. The strongest fleet was paralysed in its
offensive by the menace of the mine and the torpedo. The strongest army was arrested in its
advance by the machine gun......The mechanical danger must be overcome by a
mechanical remedy.....Something must be discovered which would render ships immune
from the torpedo, and make it unnecessary for soldiers to bare their breasts to the machine-
gun hail.
The World Crisis, 1915 : Chapter I (The Deadlock in the West), Churchill, Butterworth
(1923), pp. 22-23
Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon.
The World Crisis, 1916-1918 Part I : Chapter V (Jutland: The Preliminaries), Churchill,
Butterworth (1927), pp. 112
Is this the end? Is it to be merely a chapter in a cruel and senseless story? Will a new
generation in their turn be immolated to square the black accounts of the Teuton and Gaul?
Will our children bleed and gasp again in devastated lands? Or will there spring from the
very fires of conflict that reconciliation of the three giant combatants, which would unite their
genius and secure to each in safety and freedom a share in rebuilding the glory of Europe.
The World Crisis, 1916-1918 Part II : Chapter XXIII (Victory), Churchill, Butterworth
(1927), p. 544
An infected Russia, a plague-bearing Russia; a Russia of armed hordes not only smiting
with bayonet and with cannon, but accompanied and preceded by swarms of typhus-bearing
vermin which slew the bodies of men, and political doctrines which destroyed the health and
even the souls of nations.
The Aftermath, by Winston Churchill (1929), p. 274
Great Britain could have no other object but to use her whole influence and resources
consistently over a long period of years to weave France and Germany so closely together
economically, socially and morally, as to prevent the occasion of quarrels and make their
causes die in a realization of mutual prosperity and interdependence.
The World Crisis, The Aftermath : Chapter XX (The End of the World Crisis), Churchill,
Butterworth (1929), p. 457
The choice was clearly open: crush them with vain and unstinted force, or try to give them
what they want. These were the only alternatives, and though each had ardent advocates,
most people were unprepared for either. Here indeed was the Irish spectre — horrid and
inexorcisable.
The World Crisis, Volume V : the Aftermath (1929), Churchill, Butterworth (London).
My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930)

She shone for me like the Evening Star. I loved her dearly — but at a distance.
On his mother, Lady Randolph Churchill, Chapter 1 (Childhood).
Where my reason, imagination or interest were not engaged, I would not or I could not learn.
Chapter 1 (Childhood).
Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence, which is a
noble thing.
On studying English rather than Latin at school, Chapter 2 (Harrow).
No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.

My early life, 1874–1904 (1930), Churchill, Winston S., p. 45 (1996 Touchstone Edition),
ISBN 0684823454
Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime Ministers have never yet been
invested.
Chapter 2 (Harrow).
Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.
Chapter 2 (Harrow).
I then had one of the three or four long intimate conversations with him which are all I can
boast.
On his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, Chapter 3 (Examinations).
In retrospect these years form not only the least agreeable, but the only barren and unhappy
period of my life. I was happy as a child with my toys in my nursery. I have been happier
every year since I became a man. But this interlude of school makes a sombre grey patch
upon the chart of my journey. It was an unending spell of worries that did not then seem
petty, of toil uncheered by fruition; a time of discomfort, restriction and purposeless
monotony. This train of thought must not lead me to exaggerate the character of my school
days ... Harrow was a very good school ... Most of the boys were very happy ... I can only
record the fact that, no doubt through my own shortcomings, I was an exception. ... I was on
the whole considerably discouraged ... All my contemporaries and even younger boys
seemed in every way better adapted to the conditions of our little world. They were far better
both at the games and at the lessons. It is not pleasant to feel oneself so completely
outclassed and left behind at the very beginning of the race.
Chapter 3 (Examinations).
Certainly the prolonged education indispensable to the progress of Society is not natural to
mankind. It cuts against the grain. A boy would like to follow his father in pursuit of food or
prey. He would like to be doing serviceable things so far as his utmost strength allowed. He
would like to be earning wages however small to help to keep up the home. He would like to
have some leisure of his own to use or misuse as he pleased. He would ask little more than
the right to work or starve. And then perhaps in the evenings a real love of learning would
come to those who are worthy — and why try to stuff in those who are not? — and
knowledge and thought would open the 'magic casements' of the mind.
Chapter 3 (Examinations).
I had a feeling once about Mathematics, that I saw it all—Depth beyond depth was revealed
to me—the Byss and the Abyss. I saw, as one might see the transit of Venus—or even the
Lord Mayor's Show, a quantity passing through infinity and changing its sign from plus to
minus. I saw exactly how it happened and why the tergiversation was inevitable: and how
the one step involved all the others. It was like politics. But it was after dinner and I let it go!
Chapter 3 (Examinations), p. 27.
Although always prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it should be postponed.
Chapter 4 (Sandhurst), p. 72.
Come on now all you young men, all over the world. You are needed more than ever now to
fill the gap of a generation shorn by the war. You have not an hour to lose. You must take
your places in Life's fighting line. Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don't be
content with things as they are. 'The earth is yours and the fulness thereof.' Enter upon your
inheritance, accept your responsibilities. Raise the glorious flags again, advance them upon
the new enemies, who constantly gather upon the front of the human army, and have only to
be assaulted to be overthrown. Don't take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. Do not
be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of
mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the
world or even seriously distress her.
End of Chapter 4 (Sandhurst).
The Netflix movie series "The Crown" (2016) attributes the following, modified citation to
this source: "Hear this, young men and women everywhere, and proclaim it far and wide.
The earth is yours and the fullness thereof. Be kind but be fierce. You're needed now
more than ever before. Take up the mantle of change for this is your time."
I wonder whether any other generation has seen such astounding revolutions of data and
values as those through which we have lived. Scarcely anything material or established
which I was brought up to believe was permanent and vital, has lasted. Everything I was
sure or taught to be sure was impossible, has happened.
Chapter 5 (The Fourth Hussars).
I have no doubt that the Romans planned the time-table of their days far better than we do.
They rose before the sun at all seasons. Except in wartime we never see the dawn.
Sometimes we see sunset. The message of sunset is sadness; the message of dawn is
hope. The rest and the spell of sleep in the middle of the day refresh the human frame far
more than a long night. We were not made by Nature to work, or even play, from eight
o'clock in the morning till midnight. We throw a strain upon our system which is unfair and
improvident. For every purpose of business or pleasure, mental or physical, we ought to
break our days and our marches into two.
Chapter 6 (Cuba).
I do think unpunctuality is a vile habit, and all my life I have tried to break myself of it.
Chapter 7 (Hounslow).
I now began for the first time to envy those young cubs at the university who had fine
scholars to tell them what was what; professors who had devoted their lives to mastering
and focusing ideas in every branch of learning; who were eager to distribute the treasures
they had gathered before they were overtaken by the night. But now I pity undergraduates,
when I see what frivolous lives many of them lead in the midst of precious fleeting
opportunity. After all, a man's Life must be nailed to a cross either of Thought or Action.
Without work there is no play.
Chapter 9 (Education At Bangalore).
I accumulated in those years so fine a surplus in the Book of Observance that I have been
drawing confidently upon it ever since.
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's
Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations
when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you
anxious to read the authors and look for more.
I had been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who got drunk —
and I would have liked to have the boozing scholars of the Universities wheeled into line
and properly chastised for their squalid misuse of what I must ever regard as a gift of the
gods.
Chapter 10 (The Malakand Field Force).
When we all got back to camp, our General communicated by heliograph through a distant
mountain top with Sir Bindon Blood at Nawagai. Sir Bindon and our leading brigade had
thenselves been heavily attacked the night before. They had lost hundreds of animals and
twenty or thirty men, but otherwise were none the worse. Sir Bindon sent orders that we
were to stay in the Mamund valley and lay it waste with fire and sword in vengeance. This
accordingly we did, but with great precautions. We proceeded systematically, village by
village, and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the towers, cut down
the great shady trees, burned the crops and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation. So
long as the villages were in the plain, this was quite easy. The tribesmen sat on the
mountains and sullen watched the destruction of their homes and means of livelihood. When
however we had to attack the villas on the sides of the mountains they resisted fiercely, and
we lost for every village two or three British officers and fifteen or twenty native soldiers.
Whether it was worth it, I cannot tell. At any rate, at the end of a fortnight the valley was a
desert, and honour was satisfied.
Chapter 11 (The Mamund Valley). [2] (https://books.google.com/books?id=ooFGl74WbX
sC&pg=PT149)
They knew so much more about the controversy than I did, that my bold broad generalities
about liberty, equality and fraternity got seriously knocked about. I entrenched myself around
the slogan "No slavery under the Union Jack." Slavery they suggested might be right or
wrong: the Union Jack was no doubt a respectable piece of bunting: but what was the moral
connection between the two? I had the same difficulty in discovering a foundation for the
assertions I so confidently made, as I have found in arguing with the people who contend
that the sun is only a figment of our imagination.
Chapter 16 (I Leave the Army)
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who
embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will
encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is
given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and
uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent, or arrogant
Commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful
miscalculations — all take their seats at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of
war. Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not
be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.
Chapter 18 (With Buller To The Cape), p. 246
Quoted in This Time It's Our War (http://www.forward.com/articles/7759/) (2003) by
Leonard Fein in The Forward (July 25, 2003).
The 1930s
We are bound to further every honest and practical
step which the nations of Europe may make to
reduce the barriers which divide them and to nourish
their common interests and common welfare. We
rejoice at every diminution of the internal tariffs and
martial armaments of Europe. We see nothing but
good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented
European commonalty. But we have our own
dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but
not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are The era of procrastination, of half-
interested and associated, but not absorbed. And measures, of soothing and baffling
should European statesmen address us in the words expedients, of delays, is coming to its
which were used of old, 'Wouldest thou be spoken for close. In its place we are entering a
to the king, or captain of the host?', we should reply, period of consequences.
with the Shunammite woman: 'I dwell among mine
own people.'
"The United States of Europe", The Saturday Evening Post (15 February 1930)
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol II, Churchill and
Politics, Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 184. ISBN 0903988437
[T]he inexorable duty which has come upon you to use your political power to help our
Island out of the rotten state which it has now fallen. When I think of the way in which we
poured out blood and money to take Contalmaison or to hold Ypres, I cannot understand
why it is we should now throw away our conquests and our inheritance with both hands,
through sheer helplessness and pusillanimity. In this disastrous year we have written
ourselves down as a second Naval Power, squandered our authority in Egypt, and brought
India to a position when the miserable public take it as an open question whether we should
not clear out of the country altogether. Currently with all this, we have so reduced our
reputation abroad and among our own dominions, that as you said the other night, 'they all
think we are down and out'. My only interest in politics is to see this position retrieved.
Letter to Lord Beaverbrook (23 September 1930), quoted in Martin Gilbert, The Churchill
Documents, Volume 12: The Wilderness Years, 1929–1935 (1981; 2012), p. 185
The truth is that Gandhi-ism and all it stands for will, sooner or later, have to be grappled
with, and finally crushed. It is no use trying to satisfy a tiger by feeding him with cat's-meat.
The sooner this is realised, the less trouble and misfortune will there be for all concerned.
Speech in Cannon Street Hotel, London (12 December 1930) at the first public meeting
of the Indian Empire Society, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S.
Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 377
For 30 years I have watched from a central position the manifestations of the will power of
Great Britain, and I do not believe the people will consent to be edged, pushed, talked and
cozened out of India. No nation of which I am aware, great or small, has ever voluntarily or
tamely suffered such an overwhelming injury to its interests or such a harsh abrogation of its
rights. After all, there are British rights and interests in India. Two centuries of effort and
achievement, lives given on a hundred fields, far more lives given and consumed in faithful
and devoted service to the Indian people themselves. All this has earned us rights of our
own in India.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1931/jan/26/india-1#column
_702) in the House of Commons (26 January 1931)
I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum's circus, which
contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities. But the exhibit on the programme which
I most desired to see was the one described as "The Boneless Wonder." My parents judged
that that spectacle would be too revolting and demoralising for my youthful eyes, and I have
waited 50 years to see the boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.
A jibe at Prime Minister (and First Lord of the Treasury) Ramsay MacDonald during a
speech in the House of Commons, January 28, 1931 "Trade Disputes and Trade Unions
(Amendment) Bill" (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1931/jan/28/trade-dis
putes-and-trade-unions-1#column_1021).
It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now
posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the
Vice-regal palace, while he is still organising and conducting a defiant campaign of civil
disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representatives of the King-Emperor. Such a
spectacle can only increase the unrest in India and the danger to which white people there
are exposed. It can only encourage all the forces which are hostile to British authority.
Speech to the Council of the West Essex Conservative Association on Gandhi's meeting
with the Viceroy of India (23 February 1931), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
Almost the only great real living popular chamber functioning in full power at the present
time is the British House of Commons. What was the cradle of free institutions throughout
the world is still their citadel. I am deeply anxious that its walls shall not be undermined by
slow decay or overthrown by violent battering-rams. I believe that Parliamentary institutions
are, upon the whole, the most tolerable form of government for men—and, of course, women
—and I am animated solely by the desire to discover how the ancient institutions in our
island can be given a new lease of life by being rendered capable of discharging effectually
the duties they have claimed.
Rectorial address ("The present decline of Parliamentary government in Great Britain")
to Edinburgh University (5 March 1931), quoted in The Times (6 March 1931), p. 19
The evils and dangers of which I speak are of slow growth, and their cure can only be
gradual. Unless Great Britain is able by a united and well-instructed effort to grapple with her
economic problems, and unless she is worthy to be the heart of her world-wide
establishment, you here in this hall today will live long enough to lose not only your
inheritance, but your livelihood. The continuance of our present confusion and disintegration
will reduce us within a generation, and perhaps sooner, to the degree of States like Holland
and Portugal, which nursed valiant races and held great possessions, but were stripped of
them in the crush and competition of the world. That would be a melancholy end to all the
old glories and recent triumphs.
If Great Britain lost her Empire and India and her share in world trade and her sea power,
she would be like a vast whale stranded in one your Scottish bays, which swam in upon the
tide and then was left to choke and rot upon the sands. We should be like a great shop
emporium in a district from which prosperity has for ever departed. We least of all peoples
and races can afford to fail. Failure to us does not mean merely that we shall not improve. It
means that we shall be ruined and frozen out.
India is a geographical term. It is no more a united nation than the equator.
Speech at the Constitutional Club, London (26 March 1931).
In the twinkling of an eye I found myself without an office, without a seat, without a
party, and without an appendix.
"Election Memories", The Strand Magazine (September 1931).
Reproduced in Thoughts and Adventures, 1932.
We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or
wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.
"Fifty Years Hence", The Strand Magazine (December 1931).
...live dangerously; take things as they come; dread naught, all will be well.
My New York Misadventure, The Daily Mail, 4 and 5 January 1932
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol IV, Churchill at Large,
We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
Lecture at Cleveland, Ohio (February 3, 1932), reported in Robert Rhodes James, ed.,
Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963 (1974), vol. 5, p. 5130;
referring to the theory that over-production caused the Depression.
His great creation of the "Little Man" has become as much a reality in the popular mind as
any live subject of caricature. Strube's Little Man is very different from Poy's Mr. John Citizen;
but there is this in common between them: they both exhibit trials and misfortunes
descending ceaselessly upon a weak and battered being. What a gulf separates these
characterizations of our national type from the bluff, strong, hale, and hearty John Bull of
former times, with his thick stick and his square-topped bowler hat and his resolute, rugged
face! The change is due to post-War mentality. The exhausted nation weighed down by
taxation, harried by Socialists; its trade declining, its doles expanding; the trident of the sea
already gone, and the sceptre in the East about to fall! For such situations the careworn face
of Strube's Little Man and Poy's haggard paterfamilias are well-suited.
'Cartoons and Cartoonists', Thoughts and Adventures (1932), pp. 33-34
That abject, squalid, shameless avowal... It is a very disquieting and disgusting symptom...
My mind turns across the narrow waters of Channel and the North Sea, where great nations
stand determined to defend their national glories or national existence with their lives. I think
of Germany, with its splendid clear-eyed youths marching forward on all the roads of the
Reich singing their ancient songs, demanding to be conscripted into an army; eagerly
seeking the most terrible weapons of war; burning to suffer and die for their fatherland. I think
of Italy, with her ardent Fascisti, her renowned Chief, and stern sense of national duty. I think
of France, anxious, peace-loving, pacifist to the core, but armed to the teeth and determined
to survive as a great nation in the world. One can almost feel the curl of contempt upon the
lips of the manhood of all these people when they read this message sent out by Oxford
University in the name of young England.
Speech to the Anti-Socialist and Anti-Communist Union after the Oxford Union passed
the motion "that this House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country" (17
February 1933), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–
1939 (1976), p. 456
[Fascism] is not a sign-post which would direct us here, for I firmly believe that our long
experienced democracy will be able to preserve a parliamentary system of government with
whatever modifications may be necessary from both extremes of arbitrary rule.
Speech to the Anti-Socialist and Anti-Communist Union (17 February 1933), quoted in
Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 457
I am strongly of opinion that we require to strengthen our armaments by air and upon the
seas in order to make sure that we are still judges of our own fortunes, our own destinies
and our own action... Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to
compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1933/mar/14/supply#colum
n_1820) in the House of Commons (14 March 1933)
"Thank God for the French army." When we read about Germany, when we watch with
surprise and distress the tumultuous insurgence of ferocity and war spirit, the pitiless ill-
treatment of minorities, the denial of the normal protections of civilised society to large
numbers of individuals solely on the ground of race—when we see that occurring in one of
the most gifted, learned, scientific and formidable nations in the world, one cannot help
feeling glad that the fierce passions that are raging in Germany have not found, as yet, any
other outlet but upon themselves. It seems to me that, at a moment like this, to ask France to
halve her army while Germany doubles hers...to ask France to halve her air force while the
German air force remains whatever it is...such a proposal, it seems to me, is likely to be
considered by the French Government at present, at any rate, as somewhat unseasonable.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1933/mar/23/european-situ
ation#S5CV0276P0_19330323_HOC_299) in the House of Commons shortly after
Hitler became Chancellor (23 March 1933)
We know that he has, more than any other man, the gift of compressing the largest number
of words into the smallest amount of thought.
A jibe directed at Ramsay MacDonald, during a speech in the House of Commons,
March 23, 1933 "European Situation" (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/19
33/mar/23/european-situation#column_544). This quote is similar to a remark ("He can
compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met") made by
Abraham Lincoln. [Frederick Trevor Hill credits Lincoln with this remark in Lincoln the
Lawyer (1906), adding that 'History has considerately sheltered the identity of the victim'.]
New discord has arisen in Europe of late years from the fact that Germany is not satisfied
with the result of the late War. I have indicated several times that Germany got off lightly after
the Great War. I know that that is not always a fashionable opinion, but the facts repudiate
the idea that a Carthaginian peace was in fact imposed upon Germany. No division was
made of the great masses of the German people. No portion of Germany inhabited by
Germans was detached, except where there was the difficulty of disentangling the
population of the Silesian border. No attempt was made to divide Germany as between the
northern and southern portions which might well have tempted the conquerors at that time.
No State was carved out of Germany. She underwent no serious territorial loss, except the
loss of Alsace and Lorraine, which she herself had seized only 50 years before. The great
mass of the Germans remained united after all that Europe had passed through, and they
are more vehemently united to-day than ever before. You may talk of the War indemnity;
what has happened there? I suppose that the Germans paid, in round terms,
£1,000,000,000. But they had borrowed £2,000,000,000 at the same time, and there are no
signs of their paying back.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1933/apr/13/adjournment-e
aster-1#column_2790) in the House of Commons (13 April 1933)
On the other hand, when we think of what would have happened to us, to France or to
Belgium if the Germans had won; when we think of the terms which they exacted from
Rumania, or of the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk; when we remember that up to a few
months of the end of the War German authorities refused to consider that Belgium could ever
be liberated, but said that she should be kept in thrall for military purposes for ever, I do not
think that we need break our hearts in deploring the treatment that Germany is receiving
now. Germany is not satisfied; but...no concession which has been made has produced any
very marked appearance of gratitude. Once it has been conceded it has seemed less
valuable than when it was demanded.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1933/apr/13/adjournment-e
aster-1#column_2790) in the House of Commons (13 April 1933)
Historians have noticed, all down the centuries, one peculiarity of the English people which
has cost them dear. We have always thrown away after a victory the greater part of the
advantages we gained in the struggle. The worst difficulties from which we suffer do not
come from without. They come from within. They do not come from the cottages of the wage-
earners. They come from a peculiar type of brainy people always found in our country, who,
if they add something to its culture, take much from its strength. Our difficulties come from the
mood of unwarrantable self-abasement into which we have been cast by a powerful section
of our own intellectuals. They come from the acceptance of defeatist doctrines by a large
proportion of our politicians. But what have they to offer but a vague internationalism, a
squalid materialism, and the promise of impossible Utopias?
Speech to the Royal Society of St George (23 April 1933), Winston Churchill, Never Give
In! Winston Churchill's Speeches (2013), p. 84
Nothing can save England if she will not save herself. If we lose faith in ourselves, in our
capacity to guide and govern, if we lose our will to live, then indeed our story is told. If, while
on all sides foreign nations are every day asserting a more aggressive and militant
nationalism by arms and trade, we remain paralysed by our own theoretical doctrines or
plunged into the stupor of after-war exhaustion, then indeed all that the croakers predict will
come true, and our ruin will be swift and final. Stripped of her Empire in the Orient, deprived
of the sovereignty of the seas, loaded with debt and taxation, her commerce and carrying
trade shut out by foreign tariffs and quotas, England would sink to the level of a fifth-rate
Power, and nothing would remain of all her glories except a population much larger than this
island can support.
Speech to the Royal Society of St George (23 April 1933), Winston Churchill, Never Give
In! Winston Churchill's Speeches (2013), p. 84
We must not despair, we must not for a moment pretend that we cannot face these things.
Dangers come upon the world; other nations face them. When, in old days, the sea gave
access to this island, it was a danger to this island, it made it the most invadable place at
any point, but by taking proper measures our ancestors gained the command of the sea,
and, consequently, what had been a means of inroad upon us became our sure shield and
protection; and there is not the slightest reason why, with our ability and our resources, and
our peaceful intentions, our desire only to live quietly here in our island, we should not raise
up for ourselves a security in the air above us which will make us as free from serious
molestation as did our control of blue water through bygone centuries.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1934/mar/08/air-estimates-1
934#column_2071) in the House of Commons during the debate on the Government's
White Paper on Defence that announced an increase in the Royal Air Force (8 March
1934)
I dread the day when the means of threatening the heart of the British Empire should pass
into the hands of the present rulers of Germany. I think we should be in a position which
would be odious to every man who values freedom of action and independence, and also in
a position of the utmost peril for our crowded, peaceful population, engaged in their daily toil.
I dread that day, but it is not, perhaps, far distant. It is, perhaps, only a year, or perhaps 18
months, distant...There is still time for us to take the necessary measures, but what we want
are the measures. We do not want this paragraph in this White Paper, we want the
measures. It is no good writing that first paragraph and then producing £130,000. We want
the measures to achieve parity.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1934/mar/08/air-estimates-1
934#column_2072) in the House of Commons (8 March 1934)
Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are
toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death.
Have You a Hobby?, Answers, 21 April 1934
I marvel at the complacency of Ministers in the face of the frightful experiences through
which we have all so newly passed. I look with wonder upon our thoughtless crowds
disporting themselves in the summer sunshine, and upon this unfocused, unheeding House
of Commons, which seems to have no higher function than to cheer a Minister. But what is
happening across the narrow seas? A terrible process is astir. Germany is arming. That
mighty race who fought and almost vanquished the whole world is on the march again. The
whole nation is inspired with the idea of retrieving and avenging their defeat in the Great
War. They have arisen from the pit of disaster in monstrous guise. ... And we are still
pestering France to disarm, and we are still disarmed ourselves!
'How I Would Procure Peace', Daily Mail (9 July 1934), quoted in Martin Gilbert, The
Churchill Documents, Volume 12: The Wilderness Years, 1929–1935 (1981; 2012), p.
825, n. 3
What is the dominant fact of the situation? Germany is arming...Germany is arming

particularly in the air. ... it seems of the utmost importance, not only that we should lose no
time in putting ourselves in an adequate position of defence but, that we should keep close
and friendly relations with other great Powers of a friendly character who have not fallen into
the error which has overtaken us of late years, of neglecting the essentials of our own
security.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1934/jul/13/foreign-office#c
olumn_734) in the House of Commons (13 July 1934)
At the present time we are the sixth air Power in the world. But every State is rapidly
expanding its air force. They are all expanding, but much more rapidly than we are doing. It
is certain, therefore, that..in 1936...we shall have fallen further behind other countries than
we are now in air defence... If you extend your view over the [Government's] five-years'
programme I believe it is also true to state that, having regard to the increases which are
being made by other countries and which are projected, even if the whole programme is
carried out, at the end of the period...we shall be worse off in 1939 relatively—it is relativity
that counts in these matters—than we are now... Yet even for this tiny, timid, tentative, tardy
increase of the Air Force, to which the Government have at length made up their mind, they
are to be censured by the whole united forces of the Socialist and Liberal parties here and
throughout the country.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1934/jul/30/armaments#col
umn_2366) in the House of Commons on Labour's motion of censure against the
Government for rearming (30 July 1934)
I am afraid that if you look intently at what is moving towards Great Britain, you will see that
the only choice open is the old grim choice our forbears had to face, namely, whether we
shall submit or whether we shall prepare. Whether we shall submit to the will of a stronger
nation or whether we shall prepare to defend our rights, our liberties and indeed our lives.
On German rearmament; BBC broadcast (16 November 1934), quoted in Martin Gilbert,
Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 566
If England had not resisted German militarism, in my view the German hegemony of Europe
would have been established and our island would have had to face a united Continental
army. It is the same old story from the days of Marlborough and Napoleon.
Letter to G. M. Trevelyan (3 January 1935), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
But what is this India Home Rule Bill? I will tell you. It is a gigantic quilt of jumbled crotchet
work. There is no theme; there is no pattern; there is no agreement; there is no conviction;
there is no simplicity; there is no courage. It is a monstrous monument of shame built by
pygmies.
BBC broadcast (29 January 1935), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S.
Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 595
The storm clouds are gathering over the European scene. Our defences have been
neglected. Danger is in the air...yes, I say in the air. The mighty discontented nations are
reaching out with the strong hands to regain what they have lost; nay, to gain a
predominance which they have never had. Is this, then, the time to plunge our vast
dependency of India into the melting-pot?
BBC broadcast (29 January 1935), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S.
Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 596
War arises from both sides feeling they have a hope of victory.
The King's Twenty-Five Years. III. The Coronation and the Agadir Crisis. The Evening
Standard, 4 May 1935
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Churchill, Vol III, Churchill and
People, Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 351-2. ISBN 0903988445
If [Hitler's] proposal means that we should come to an understanding with Germany to

dominate Europe I think this would be contrary to the whole of our history. You know the old
fable of the jackal who went hunting with the tiger and what happened after the hunt was
over. Thus Elizabeth resisted Philip II of Spain. Thus William III and Marlborough resisted
Louis XIV. Thus Pitt resisted Napoleon, and thus we all resisted William II of Germany. Only
by taking this path and effort have we preserved ourselves and our liberties, and reached
our present position. I see no reason myself to change from this traditional view.
Letter to Lord Rothermere (12 May 1935), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), pp. 648−649
In the name of liberty you have done what liberty disowns. In the name of theoretical
progress, you have opened the door to practical retrogression. In the name of appeasement
and the popular will, you have prescribed a course of endless irritation. ... He has won his
victory; he has won the victory for which he has fought hard, and long, and adroitly; but it is
not a victory, in our opinion, for the interests of this country, nor a victory for the welfare of the
peoples of India, and in the crashing cheers which no doubt will hail his majority to-night, we
pray there may not mingle the knell of the British Empire in the East.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1935/jun/05/government-of-
india-bill#column_1920) in the House of Commons addressing the Secretary of State for
India Samuel Hoare (5 June 1935)
Everyone can see the arguments against the English-speaking peoples becoming the
policemen of the world.
To End War, Collier's, 29 June 1935
Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 351-2. ISBN 0903988429
[In air power] so far from being half as strong again as Germany, so far from making up lee-
way, we are already greatly inferior in numbers and falling further and further behind every
month. ... No doubt it is not popular to say these things, but I am accustomed to abuse and I
expect to have a great deal more of it before I have finished. Somebody has to state the truth.
There ought to be a few members of the House of Commons who are in a sufficiently
independent position to confront both Ministers and electors with unpalatable truths. We do
not wish our ancient freedom and the decent tolerant civilisation we have preserved in this
island to hang upon a rotten thread.
Speech to the City Carlton Club (26 September 1935), quoted in Martin Gilbert, The
Churchill Documents, Volume 12: The Wilderness Years, 1929–1935 (1981; 2012), p.
1268
Mr. Gandhi has gone very high in my esteem since he stood up for the untouchables
... Well, you have the opportunity now. I do not like the [Indian Home Rule] Bill but it is now
on the Statute Book. I am not going to bother any more, but do not give us a chance to say
we anticipated a breakdown...So make it a success. ... My test of improvement in the lot of
the masses, morally as well as materially. I do not care whether you are more or less loyal to
Great Britain ... Tell Mr. Gandhi to use the powers that are offered and make the thing a
success.
G.D. Birla's account of his conversation with Churchill in a letter to Gandhi (September
1935), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939
(1976), p. 618
I am genuinely sympathetic towards India. I have got real fears about the future. India, I feel
is a burden on us. We have got to maintain an army and for the sake of India we have to
maintain Singapore and Near East strength. If India could look after herself we would be
delighted. ... I would be only too delighted if the Reforms are a success. I have all along felt
that there are fifty Indias. But you have got the thing now; make it a success and if you do I
will advocate your getting much more.
G.D. Birla's account of his conversation with Churchill in a letter to Gandhi (September
(1976), p. 619
The whole of Germany is an armed camp...The industries of Germany are mobilised for war
to an extent to which ours were not mobilised even a year after the Great War had begun.
The whole population is being trained from childhood up to war. A mighty army is coming
into being. Many submarines are already exercising in the Baltics. Great cannon, tanks,
machine guns and poison gas are fast accumulating. The Germans are even able to be
great exporters of munitions as well as to develop their own enormous magazines. The
German air force is developing at a great speed, and in spite of ruthless loss of life. We have
no speedy prospect of equalling the German air force or of overtaking Germany in the air,
whatever we do in the near future.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1935/oct/24/international-sit
uation) in the House of Commons (24 October 1935)
Germany is already well on her way to become, and must become incomparably, the most
heavily armed nation in the world and the nation most completely ready for war. There is the
dominant factor; there is the factor which dwarfs all others, the factor which we find affecting
the movements of politics and diplomacy in every country throughout Europe...we cannot
have any anxieties comparable to the anxiety caused by German re-armament. The House
will pardon me if I continue to press that anxiety upon it.
We cannot afford to see Nazidom in its present phase of cruelty and intolerance, with all its
hatreds and all its gleaming weapons, paramount in Europe at the present time.
One may dislike Hitler's system and yet admire his patriotic achievement. If our country were
defeated, I hope we should find a champion as indomitable to restore our courage and lead
us back to our place among the nations.
"Hitler and His Choice", The Strand Magazine (November 1935)
We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let loose upon the world
another war in which civilisation will irretrievably succumb, or whether he will go down in
history as the man who restored honour and peace of mind to the Great Germanic nation.
"Hitler and His Choice", The Strand Magazine (November 1935)
Hitherto, Hitler's triumphant career has been borne onwards, not only by a passionate love
of Germany, but by currents of hatred so intense as to sear the souls of those who swim
upon them.
"Hitler and His Choice", The Strand Magazine (November 1935), quoted in Martin
Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 680
The twentieth century has witnessed with surprise, not merely the promulgation of these
ferocious doctrines, but their enforcement with brutal vigour by the Government and by the
populace. No past services, no proved patriotism, even wounds sustained in war, could
procure immunity for persons whose only crime was that their parents had brought them into
the world. Every kind of persecution, grave or petty, upon the world-famous scientists,
writers, and composers at the top down to the wretched little Jewish children in the national
schools, was practised, was glorified, and is still being practised and glorified.
"Hitler and His Choice", The Strand Magazine (November 1935), quoted in Martin
A free Press is the unsleeping guardian of every other right that freemen prize; it is the
most dangerous foe of tyranny.
You Get It In Black And White, Collier's, 28 December 1935
There is a great danger that the Parliamentary nations and merciful, tolerant forces in the
world will be knocked out quite soon by the heavily armed, unmoral dictatorships. But I
believe there is still time to organise a European mass, and perhaps a world mass which
would confront them, overawe them, and perhaps let their peoples loose upon them.
Letter to Robert Cecil (9 April 1936), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston
S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 721
It seems a mad business to confront these dictators without weapons or military force, and at
the same time try to tame and cow the spirit of our people with peace films, anti-recruiting
propaganda and resistance to defence measures. Unless the free and law-respecting
nations are prepared to organise, arm and combine, they are going to be smashed up. This
is going to happen quite soon. But I believe we still have a year to combine and marshal
superior forces in defence of the League and its Covenant.
Letter to Robert Cecil (9 April 1936), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston
S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 722
I can only see one thing. I see it sharper and harsher day by day. Germany is arming more
strenuously, more scientifically and upon a larger scale, than any nation has ever armed
before... All this has gone into making the most destructive war weapons and war
arrangements that have ever been known: and there are four or five millions of active,
intelligent, valiant Germans engaged in these process, working, as General Goering has told
us, night and day. Surely these are facts which ought to bulk as large in ordinary peaceful
peoples' minds as horse racing, a prize fight, a murder trial or nineteen-twentieths of the
current newspaper bill of fare. What is it all for? Certainly it is not all for fun. Something quite
extraordinary is afoot. All the signals are set for danger. The red lights flash through the
gloom. Let peaceful folk beware. It is a time to pay attention and to be well prepared.
'How Germany Is Arming' (1 May 1936), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step,
1936–1939 (1939; 1947), pp. 13, 16
I certainly do not take the view that a war between England and Germany is inevitable. I fear
very gravely however unless something happens to the Nazi regime in Germany there will
be a devastating war in Europe, and it may come earlier than you expect. The only chance
of stopping it is to have a union of nations, all well-armed and bound to defend each other,
and thus confront the Nazi aggression with over-whelming force.
Letter to Lord Londonderry (6 May 1936), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
You are also mistaken in supposing that I have an anti-German obsession. British policy for
four hundred years has been to oppose the strongest power in Europe by weaving together
a combination of other countries strong enough to face the bully. Sometimes it is Spain,
sometimes the French monarchy, sometimes the French Empire, sometimes Germany. I
have no doubt who it is now...It is thus through the centuries we have kept our liberties and
maintained our life and power.
If I read the future aright Hitler's government will confront Europe with a series of outrageous
events and ever-growing military might. It is events which will show our dangers, though for
some the lesson will come too late.
It must be very painful to a man of Lord Hugh Cecil's natural benevolence and human charity
to find so many of God's children wandering simultaneously so far astray ... In these
circumstances I would venture to suggest to my noble friend, whose gifts and virtues I have
all my life admired, that some further refinement is needed in the catholicity of his
condemnations.
Letter to The Times on 12 May 1936, responding to Lord Cecil equally denouncing Italy,
France, Japan, the USSR, and Germany; Churchill said that the French did not deserve
as much criticism as the others. Quoted by John Gunther in Inside Europe (1940), p. 329
[E]xcept for a few handfuls of ferocious romanticists, or sordid would-be profiteers, war spells
nothing but toil, waste, sorrow and torment to the vast mass of ordinary folk in every land...
No plan for stopping war at this present late hour is of any value unless it has behind it force,
and the resolve to use that force... [S]afety will only come though a combination of pacific
nations armed with overwhelming power, and capable of the same infinity of sacrifice, and
indeed of the ruthlessness, which hitherto have been the attributes of the warrior mind. The
scales of justice are vain without her sword. Peace in her present plight must have her
constables. To bring the matter to an agate point, there must be a Grand Alliance of all the
nations who wish for peace against the Potential Aggressor, whoever he may be. Let us,
therefore, without delay make this Grand Alliance.
'How To Stop War' (12 June 1936), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step, 1936–
1939 (1939; 1947), pp. 25-26
We have pushed taxation of wealth to a point in Great Britain where in many cases the
yield would be greater if the rate were less. The idea that prosperity can be wooed by
chasing millionaires is one of the most common and most foolish of modern popular
delusions.
Soapbox Messiahs, Collier's, 20 June 1936
Through our own folly and refusal to face realities and deal with evil tendencies while they
were yet controllable, we have allowed brutal and intolerant forces to gain almost
unchallenged supremacy in Europe and have placed ourselves in a position of weakness
and peril, the like of which our history does not record for two and a half centuries.
Speech to the New Commonwealth Society (15 July 1936), quoted in Martin Gilbert,
Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 764
I can well imagine some circles of smart society, some groups of wealthy financiers, and the
elements in this country which are attracted by the idea of a Government strong enough to
keep the working classes in order; people who hate democracy and freedom, I can well
imagine such people accommodating themselves fairly easy to Nazi domination. But the
Trade Unionists of Britain, the intellectuals of Socialism and Radicalism, they could no more
bear it than the ordinary British Tory. It would be intolerable.
Speech in Horsham (23 July 1936), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S.
Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 768
I do not like to hear people talking of England, Germany and Italy forming up against
European communism.
Letter to Charles Corbin, the French Ambassador to Britain (31 July 1936), quoted in
Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 782
How could we bear, nursed as we have been in a free atmosphere, to be gagged and
muzzled; to have spies, eavesdroppers and delators at every corner; to have even private
conversations caught up and used against us by the Secret Police and all their agents and
creatures; to be arrested and interned without trial; or to be tried by political or Party courts
for crimes hitherto unknown to civil law. How could we bear to be treated like schoolboys
when we are grown-up men; to be turned out on parade by tens of thousands to march and
cheer for this slogan or for that; to see philosophers, teachers and authors bullied and toiled
to death in concentration camps; to be forced every hour to conceal the natural workings of
the human intellect and the pulsations of the human heart? Why, I say that rather than submit
to such oppression, there is no length we would not go to.
Speech at Théâtre des Ambassadeurs, Paris (24 September 1936), quoted in Martin
We must recognise that we have a great treasure to guard; that the inheritance in our
possession represents the prolonged achievement of the centuries; that there is not one of
our simple uncounted rights today for which better men than we are have not died on the
scaffold or the battlefield. We have not only a great treasure; we have a great cause. Are we
taking every measure within our power to defend that cause?
Speech at Théâtre des Ambassadeurs, Paris, 24 September 1936, "Thank God For the
French Army"
Quoted in Never Give In!: Winston Churchill's Speeches (https://books.google.co.uk/boo
ks?id=bcKOAQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA111&ots=Xh9ffWodWa&dq=churchill%20better%20me
n%20than%20we%20have%20not%20died%20on%20the%20scaffold%20or%20the%2
0battlefield&pg=PA110#v=onepage&q&f=false) (2013), p. 111. ISBN 9781472520852
The world looks with some awe upon a man who appears unconcernedly indifferent to
home, money, comfort, rank, or even power and fame. The world feels not without a
certain apprehension, that here is some one outside its jurisdiction; someone before
whom its allurements may be spread in vain; some one strangely enfranchised,
untamed, untrammelled by convention, moving independent of the ordinary currents
of human action.
At an unveiling of a memorial to T. E. Lawrence at the Oxford High School for Boys (3
October 1936); as quoted in Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E.
Lawrence (1989) by Jeremy M Wilson.
We live in a country where the people own the Government and not in a country where
the Government owns the people. Thought is free, speech is free, religion is free, no one
can say that the Press is not free. In short, we live in a liberal society, the direct product of the
great advances in human dignity, stature and well-being which will ever be the glory of the
nineteenth century.
I Ask You—What Price Freedom? Answers, 24 October 1936.
It will not benefit the world if we succeed in banishing the old-fashioned wars of nations only
to clear the board for social and doctrinal wars of even greater ferocity and destructiveness.
This, indeed, is a growing danger. We were told that the old wars of religion had ended, but
that is not much comfort if the wars of various kinds of secular religions or non-God religions
are to begin and are to make Europe the arena of their hideous conflict, and if all that makes
life worth living to the mass of the people is to be destroyed in the process.
I Ask You—What Price Freedom? Answers, 24 October 1936.
Occasionally he stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if
nothing had happened.
On Stanley Baldwin, as cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), Ed. Langworth,
PublicAffairs, p. 322 ISBN 1586486381
Also quoted by Kay Halle in Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill's
Wit (http://books.google.com/books?id=b0MTAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Occasionally+he+stum
bled+over+the+truth+but+hastily+picked+himself+up+and+hurried+on+as+if+nothing+ha
d+happened%22&pg=PA133#v=onepage) (1966).
I have heard it said that the Government had no mandate for rearmament until the General
Election. Such a doctrine is wholly inadmissible. The responsibility of Ministers for the public
safety is absolute and requires no mandate.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1936/nov/12/debate-on-the-
address#column_1105) in the House of Commons (12 November 1936)
Anyone can see what the position is. The Government simply cannot make up their mind, or
they cannot get the Prime Minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox,
decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for
fluidity, all powerful to be impotent. So we go on preparing more months and years —
precious, perhaps vital to the greatness of Britain — for the locusts to eat.
Speech in the House of Commons, November 12, 1936 "Debate on the Address" (http://
hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1936/nov/12/debate-on-the-address#column_1
107), criticizing Stanley Baldwin's record on rearmament against Hitler.
The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of

delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.
117)
Cited in Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth
This speech is also commonly known by the name "The Locust Years" (http://www.churc
hill-society-london.org.uk/Locusts.html).
I am trying to marshal all the forces I can to prevent this coming war, and to strengthen
Britain.
Letter to Guy Fleetwood Wilson (13 November 1936), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet
of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 800
All the left wing intelligentsia are coming to look to me for protection and I will give it
wholeheartedly in return for their aid in the rearmament of Britain.
Letter to Randolph Churchill (13 November 1936), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of
Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 800
Fascism and Communism... Polar opposites—no, polar the same!"

Churchill's remark to his son, Randolph Churchill. Quoted in Churchill: The Prophetic
Statesman, James C. Humes, Washington D.C., Regnery Publishing (2012), p. 137.
[T]hey were gathered together on that platform with one object. They wanted to stop this war
of which they had heard so much talk. They would like to stop it while time remained, for we
had had enough of the last war not to want another. The seriousness and urgency of the
danger was exemplified by the divergency of political opinion represented on the platform.
We had reached a fateful milestone in human history.
Speech at the Albert Hall, London at a cross-party meeting organised by the League of
Nations Union "in defence of freedom and peace" (3 December 1936), quoted in The
Times (4 December 1936), p. 18
[The] apostles of various kinds of error presented themselves. They were those like Sir
Oswald Mosley who were fascinated by the spectacle of brutal power. They would like to
use it themselves. They grovelled to Nazi dictatorship in order that they could make people
in their turn grovel to them... At the other end of the political scale were the Trotsky-ite
Communists, furious fanatics whose sole aim was to throw the world into one supreme
convulsion. Then there was Sir Stafford Cripps, who was in a class by himself. He wished
British people to be conquered by the Nazis in order to urge them into becoming Bolsheviks.
It seemed a long way round. (Laughter.) And not much enlightenment when they got to the
end of their journey. Lastly, there were the absolute non-resisters like Canon Sheppard and
Mr. Lansbury. They were pious men, but they would lead the country to ruin, even more
surely than all the others.
Speech at the Albert Hall, London (3 December 1936), quoted in The Times (4
December 1936), p. 18
...the war between the Nazis and the Communists; the war of the non-God religions, waged
with the weapons of the twentieth century. The most striking fact about the new religions was
their similarity. They substituted the devil for God and hatred for love.
If present dangers were to be averted there must be loyal aid from the whole masses of the
people; there must be voluntary and spontaneous comradeship; and there must even be a
measure of self-imposed discipline. ... was it not time that the free nations, great or small,
here or across the Atlantic Ocean, should take measures necessary to place themselves in a
state of security and in a state of adequate defence, not only for their own safety but also that
they might hold aloft the beacon-lights of freedom which would carry their rays of
encouragement to the thinker and toiler in every land?
Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, 'it is the
quality which guarantees all others.'
In Great Contemporaries, "Alfonso XIII" (1937)
The essence and foundation of House of Commons debating is formal conversation. The set
speech, the harangue addressed to constituents, or to the wider public out of doors, has
never succeeded much in our small wisely-built chamber. To do any good you have got to
get down to grips with the subject and in human touch with the audience.
In Great Contemporaries, "Clemenceau" (1937)
Whatever one may think about democratic government, it is just as well to have practical
experience of its rough and slatternly foundations. No part of the education of a politician is
more indispensable than the fighting of elections.
In Great Contemporaries, "Lord Rosebery" (1937)
We desire to see the return of a liberal age where Parliaments will guard freedom, where
science will open the banqueting halls to the millions, and where what Bismarck once called
"practical Christianity" will mitigate suffering and misfortunes.
'No Intervention In Spain' (8 January 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step,
1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 84
It is a strange thing that certain parts of the world should now be wishing to revive the old
religious war. There are those non-God religions Nazism and Communism . . . I repudiate
both and will have nothing to do with either... They are as alike as two peas. Tweedledum
and Tweedledee were violently contrasted compared with them. You leave out God and you
substitute the devil.
Manchester Guardian (26 January 1937) speech at Leeds Chamber of Commerce
I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even
though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not
admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the
black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the
fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put
it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians
had any right to say, 'The American Continent belongs to us and we are not going to have
any of these European settlers coming in here.' They had not the right, nor had they the
power.
To the Palestine Royal Commission (12 March 1937) on a Jewish Homeland in
Palestine. Quoted in Gilbert, Martin: "Winston S. Churchill, Volume 5, Companion Part 3,
Documents: "The Coming of War, 1936-1939" (https://archive.org/details/winstonschurch
il5pt3chur/). Heinemann, London, 1982. Pg 616.
Many Japanese speak English. But they do not think our thoughts. They worship at other
shrines; profess another creed; observe a different code. They can no more be moved by
Christian pacifism than wolves by the bleating of sheep. We have to deal with a people
whose values are in many respects altogether different from our own.
The Mission of Japan, Collier's, 20 February 1937.
I know that it is the Socialist idea that making profits is a vice, and that making large profits is
something of which a man ought to be ashamed. I hold the other view. I consider that the real
vice is making losses.
House of Commons, 1 June 1937. Hansard, Vol 324, Col 883 (https://api.parliament.uk/h
istoric-hansard/commons/1937/jun/01/finance-bill).
I do not believe in a major war this year because the French army at present is as large as
that of Germany and far more mature. But next year and the year after may carry these
Dictator-ridden countries to the climax of their armament and of their domestic
embarrassments. We shall certainly need to be ready then.
Letter to Lord Linlithgow (23 September 1937), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
The wars fanned the wings of science, and science brought to mankind a thousand
blessings, a thousand problems and a thousand perils.
This Age of Government by Great Dictators, News of the World, 10 October 1937
You cannot expect English people to be attracted by the brutal intolerances of Nazidom...
We certainly do not wish to pursue a policy inimical to the legitimate interests of Germany,
but you must surely be aware that when the German Government speaks of friendship with
England, what they mean is that we shall give them back their former Colonies, and also
agree to their having a free hand so far as we are concerned in Central and Southern
Europe. This means that they would devour Austria and Czecho-Slovakia as a preliminary
to making a gigantic middle Europe-block. It would certainly not be in our interests to
connive at such policies of aggression.
Letter to Lord Londonderry (23 October 1937), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
No one in England has ever wished to prevent the fullest expression of Scottish or Welsh
traditions and customs. Indeed, their manifestation is regarded with pleasure and pride by
the English people. We have reaped great advantages from this tolerant mood.
'Yugoslavia and Europe' (29 October 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step,
1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 169
Three hundred years ago it would have seemed absurd to say that this black mineral, this
sea-coal, which could be used as a substitute for wood to burn in one's grate, could be
applied to revolutionize human affairs. Today we know that there is another source of energy
a million times greater. We have not yet learned how to harness it or apply it, but it is there.
Occasionally in complicated processes in the laboratory a scientist observes transmutations,
re-arrangements in the core of the atom, which is known as the nucleus, which generate
power at a rate hundreds of thousands of times greater than is produced when coal is
burned and when, as the scientists put it, a carbon atom satisfied its affinity for an oxygen
molecule. It can scarcely be doubted that a way to induce and control these effects can be
found. The new fire is laid, but the particular kind of match is missing.
Vision of the Future Through Eyes of Science, News of the World, 31 October 1937
The peace of Europe dwells under the shield of the French Army. But in a few years the
German Army will be much larger than the French and increasingly its equal in maturity. The
deadly years of our policy were 1934 and 1935. "The years that the locusts have eaten." I
expect we shall experience the consequences of these years in the near future.
Letter to Lord Linlithgow (3 November 1937), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
I have to come to think myself in the last lap of life that one should always look back upon
the history of the past, study it and meditate upon it. Thus one learns the main line of
advance...it is wrong to be bound by the events and commitments of the last few years,
unless these are sound and compatible with the main historic line. I am sure the right course
is to know as much as possible about all that has happened in the world, and then to act
entirely upon the merits from day to day. Of course, my ideal is narrow and limited. I want to
see the British Empire preserved for a few more generations in its strength and splendour.
Only the most prodigious exertions of British genius will achieve this result.
Letter to Lord Linlithgow (3 November 1937), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
Night and day the forges roar, the hammers descend, the hellish implements of slaughter
pour out to multitudes of training troops. Statecraft is bankrupt. The unity of Christendom is a
mockery. Nay, even the idea of Christianity is repudiated by a new paganism. No longer can
the leading nations of the European family appeal to one another upon the New Testament.
Grim war-gods from remote ages have stalked upon the scene. International good faith; the
public law of Europe; the greatest good of the greatest number; the ideal of a fertile, tolerant,
progressive, demilitarised, infinitely varied society, is shattered. Dictators ride to and fro on
tigers from which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
'Armistice—or Peace?' (11 November 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step,
1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 174
The story of the human race is war. Except for brief and precarious interludes, there has
never been peace in the world; and before history began, murderous strife was universal
and unending.
Mankind is Confronted by One Supreme Task, News of the World, 14 November 1937
Centenary Edition (1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 421 ISBN 0903988453
[I]t is a horrible thing that a race of people should be attempted to be blotted out of the
society in which they have been born, that from their earliest years little children should be
segregated and that they should be exposed to scorn and odium. It is very painful. Moreover,
it is not only in regard to Jews that there is intolerance. Religious opinions, Protestant and
Catholic alike, are subject to a prejudice of which we fondly hoped and were brought up to
believe, the nineteenth century had rid the world.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1937/dec/21/foreign-affairs#
column_1830) in the House of Commons on the Nazis (21 December 1937)
On Christmas Day, 1914, the German soldiers on the Western Front ceased firing. They
placed small Christmas trees on their trenches and declared that on this day there should be
peace and goodwill among suffering men. Both sides came out of their trenches and met in
the blasted No-Man's Land. They clasped each other's hands, they exchanged gifts and kind
words. Together they buried the dead hitherto inaccessible and deprived of the rites which
raise men above the brute. Let no man worthy of human stature banish this inspiration from
his mind.
'Panorama of 1937' (23 December 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step,
1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 188
The dictator Powers of Europe are striding on from strength to strength and from stroke to
stroke, and the parliamentary democracies are retreating abashed and confused... Austria
has been laid in thrall, and we do not know whether Czechoslovakia will not suffer a similar
attack... It is because we have lost these opportunities of standing firm, of having strong
united forces and a good heart, and a resolute desire to defend the right and afterwards to do
generously as the result of strength; it is because we have lost these successive
opportunities which have presented themselves, that, when our resources are less and the
dangers greater, we have been brought to this pass. I predict that the day will come when at
some point or other on some issue or other you will have to make a stand, and I pray God
that when that day comes we may not find that through an unwise policy we are left to make
that stand alone.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1938/feb/22/foreign-affairs#
S5CV0332P0_19380222_HOC_332) in the House of Commons after the resignation of
the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden (22 February 1938)
For five years I have talked to the House on these matters – not with very great success. I
have watched this famous island descending incontinently, fecklessly, the stairway which
leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpet ends.
A little farther on there are only flagstones, and a little farther on still these break beneath
your feet. [ ... ] Look back upon the last five years – since, that is to say, Germany began to
rearm in earnest and openly to seek revenge ... historians a thousand years hence will still
be baffled by the mystery of our affairs. They will never understand how it was that a
victorious nation, with everything in hand, suffered themselves to be brought low, and to cast
away all that they had gained by measureless sacrifice and absolute victory – gone with the
wind! Now the victors are the vanquished, and those who threw down their arms in the field
and sued for an armistice are striding on to world mastery. That is the position – that is the
terrible transformation that has taken place bit by bit.
Speech in the House of Commons (24 March 1938) "Foreign Affairs and Rearmament"
(http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1938/mar/24/foreign-affairs-and-rearmam
ent#column_1454), 12 days after the Anschluss (the Nazi annexation of Austria).
The shores of History are strewn with the wrecks of Empires.

Peopling the Wide, Open Spaces of Empire, News of the World, 22 May 1938
Everything is overshadowed by the impending trial of will-power which is developing in

Europe. I think we shall have to choose in the next few weeks between war and shame, and
I have very little doubt what the decision will be.
Letter to David Lloyd George (13 August 1938), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of
Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), p. 962
Owing to the neglect of our defences and the mishandling of the German problem in the last
five years, we seem to be very near the bleak choice between War and Shame. My feeling is
that we shall choose Shame, and then have War thrown in a little later on even more
adverse terms than at present.
Letter to Lord Moyne (September 1938), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
The partition of Czechoslovakia under pressure from England and France amounts to the
complete surrender of the Western Democracies to the Nazi threat of force. Such a collapse
will bring peace or security neither to England nor to France. On the contrary, it will place
these two nations in an ever weaker and more dangerous situation. ... It is not
Czechoslovakia alone which is menaced, but also the freedom and the democracy of all
nations. The belief that security can be obtained by throwing a small State to the wolves is a
fatal delusion. The war potential of Germany will increase in a short time more rapidly than it
will be possible for France and Great Britain to complete the measure necessary for their
defence.
Statement to the Press (21 September 1938), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1976), pp. 978-979
It is the end of the British Empire.

Remark to Harold Nicolson after Neville Chamberlain flew to Godesberg to meet Hitler
(22 September 1938) , quoted in Harold Nicolson, Diaries and Letters, 1930-1964
(1980), p. 134
[W]e have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and that France has suffered even more
than we have... The utmost my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has been able to secure
by all his immense exertions, by all the great efforts and mobilisation which took place in this
country, and by all the anguish and strain through which we have passed in this country, the
utmost he has been able to gain...for Czechoslovakia and in the matters which were in
dispute has been that the German dictator, instead of snatching his victuals from the table,
has been content to have them served to him course by course.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1938/oct/05/policy-of-his-m
ajestys-government#S5CV0339P0_19381005_HOC_216) in the House of Commons
against the Munich Agreement (5 October 1938)
All is over. Silent, mournful, abandoned, broken, Czechoslovakia recedes into the
darkness. She has suffered in every respect by her association with the Western
democracies and with the League of Nations, of which she has always been an obedient
servant.
ajestys-government#column_364) in the House of Commons (5 October 1938)
We in this country, as in other Liberal and democratic countries, have a perfect right to exalt
the principle of self-determination, but it comes ill out of the mouths of those in totalitarian
States who deny even the smallest element of toleration to every section and creed within
their bounds.
I venture to think that in future the Czechoslovak State cannot be maintained as an

independent entity. You will find that in a period of time which may be measured by years,
but may be measured only by months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi régime...
It is the most grievous consequence which we have yet experienced of what we have done
and of what we have left undone in the last five years—five years of futile good intention, five
years of eager search for the line of least resistance, five years of uninterrupted retreat of
British power, five years of neglect of our air defences.
We are in the presence of a disaster of the first magnitude which has befallen Great Britain
and France. Do not let us blind ourselves to that. It must now be accepted that all the
countries of Central and Eastern Europe will make the best terms they can with the
triumphant Nazi Power. The system of alliances in Central Europe upon which France has
relied for her safety has been swept away, and I can see no means by which it can be
reconstituted... If the Nazi dictator should choose to look westward, as he may, bitterly will
France and England regret the loss of that fine army of ancient Bohemia which was
estimated last week to require not fewer than 30 German divisions for its destruction.
Many people, no doubt, honestly believe that they are only giving away the interests of
Czechoslovakia, whereas I fear we shall find that we have deeply compromised, and
perhaps fatally endangered, the safety and even the independence of Great Britain and
France... You have to consider the character of the Nazi movement and the rule which it
implies. The Prime Minister desires to see cordial relations between this country and
Germany. There is no difficulty at all in having cordial relations with the German people. Our
hearts go out to them. But they have no power. You must have diplomatic and correct
relations, but there can never be friendship between the British democracy and the
Nazi Power, that Power which spurns Christian ethics, which cheers its onward
course by a barbarous paganism, which vaunts the spirit of aggression and
conquest, which derives strength and perverted pleasure from persecution, and uses,
as we have seen, with pitiless brutality the threat of murderous force. That Power
cannot ever be the trusted friend of the British democracy.
What I find unendurable is the sense of our country falling into the power, into the orbit and
influence of Nazi Germany, and of our existence becoming dependent upon their good will
or pleasure. It is to prevent that that I have tried my best to urge the maintenance of every
bulwark of defence—first the timely creation of an Air Force superior to anything within
striking distance of our shores; secondly, the gathering together of the collective strength of
many nations; and thirdly, the making of alliances and military conventions, all within the
Covenant, in order to gather together forces at any rate to restrain the onward movement of
this Power. It has all been in vain. Every position has been successively undermined and
abandoned on specious and plausible excuses.
I do not grudge our loyal, brave people, who were ready to do their duty no matter what the
cost, who never flinched under the strain of last week—I do not grudge them the natural,
spontaneous outburst of joy and relief when they learned that the hard ordeal would no
longer be required of them at the moment; but they should know the truth. They should know
that there has been gross neglect and deficiency in our defences; they should know that we
have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us
along our road; they should know that we have passed an awful milestone in our history,
when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged, and that the terrible words
have for the time being been pronounced against the Western democracies: "Thou art
weighed in the balance and found wanting." And do not suppose that this is the end. This
is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a
bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of
moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in
the olden time.
The stations of uncensored expression are closing down; the lights are going out; but
there is still time for those to whom freedom and parliamentary government mean
something, to consult together. Let me, then, speak in truth and earnestness while
time remains.
Winston Churchill, in "The Defence of Freedom and Peace (The Lights are Going Out)",
radio broadcast to the United States and to London (16 October 1938) (http://www.winsto
nchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill/524-the-defence-of-freedo
m-and-peace).
People say we ought not to allow ourselves to be drawn into a theoretical antagonism
between Nazidom and democracy; but the antagonism is here now. It is this very
conflict of spiritual and moral ideas which gives the free countries a great part of their
strength. You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of
their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. On all sides they are guarded by
masses of armed men, cannons, aeroplanes, fortifications, and the like — they boast and
vaunt themselves before the world, yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are
afraid of words and thoughts; words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home — all
the more powerful because forbidden — terrify them. A little mouse of thought
appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic. They
make frantic efforts to bar our thoughts and words; they are afraid of the workings of
the human mind. Cannons, airplanes, they can manufacture in large quantities; but how are
they to quell the natural promptings of human nature, which after all these centuries of trial
and progress has inherited a whole armoury of potent and indestructible knowledge?
"The Defence of Freedom and Peace (The Lights are Going Out)", radio broadcast to the
United States and to London (16 October 1938).
I have always said that if Great Britain were defeated in war I hoped we should find a Hitler
to lead us back to our rightful position among the nations. I am sorry, however, that he has
not been mellowed by the great success that has attended him. The whole world would
rejoice to see the Hitler of peace and tolerance, and nothing would adorn his name in world
history so much as acts of magnanimity and of mercy and of pity to the forlorn and friendless,
to the weak and poor... Let this great man search his own heart and conscience before he
accuses anyone of being a warmonger.
"Mr. Churchill's Reply" in The Times (7 November 1938).
Are we going to make a supreme additional effort to remain a great Power, or are we going
to slide away into what seem to be easier, softer, less strenuous, less harassing courses,
with all the tremendous renunciations which that decision implies? Is not this the moment
when all should hear the deep, repeated strokes of the alarm bell, and when all should
resolve that it shall be a call to action, and not the knell of our race and fame?
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1938/nov/17/debate-on-the-
address#S5CV0341P0_19381117_HOC_347) in the House of Commons (17 November
1938)
The Prime Minister said...that where I failed, for all my brilliant gifts, was in the faculty of
judging. I will gladly submit my judgement about foreign affairs and national defence during
the last five years, in comparison with his own... In February the Prime Minister said the
tension in Europe had greatly relaxed. A few weeks later Nazi Germany seized Austria. I
predicted that he would repeat this statement as soon as the shock of the rape of Austria
passed away. He did so in the very same words at the end of July. By the middle of August
Germany was mobilising...which...ended in the complete destruction and absorption of the
Republic of Czecho-Slovakia... [I]n November...he told us that Europe was settling down to a
more peaceful state. The words were hardly out of his mouth before the Nazi atrocities on
the Jewish population resounded throughout the civilised world.
Speech in Chingford (9 December 1938), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
In 1934 I warned Mr. Baldwin that the Germans had a secret Air Force and were rapidly
overhauling ours. I gave definite figures and forecasts. Of course, it was all denied with all
the weight of official authority. I was depicted a scaremonger. Less than six months after Mr.
Baldwin had to come down to the House and admit he was wrong... He got more applause
for making this mistake, which may prove fatal to the British Empire and to British freedom,
than ordinary people would do after they rendered some great service which added to its
security and power. Well, Mr. Chamberlain was, next to Mr. Baldwin, the most powerful
Member of that Government. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer. He knew all the facts. His
judgment failed just like that of Mr. Baldwin and we are are suffering from the consequences
today.
Speech in Chingford (9 December 1938), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth:
To say that an arms race always leads to war seems to

me to be putting the cart before the horse. A government
resolved to attain ends detrimental to its neighbours,
which does not shrink from the possibility of war, makes
preparations for war, its neighbours take defensive
action, and you say an arms race is beginning. But this is
the symptom of the intention of one government to
challenge or destroy its neighbours, not the cause of the
conflict. The pace is set by the potential aggressor, and,
failing collective action by the rest of the world to resist
him, the alternatives are an arms race or surrender.
I, for one, am not so immensely
Interview (https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/20 impressed by the success we are
15/01/winston-churchill-new-statesman-archive) with making of our civilization here that I
Kingsley Martin for the New Statesman (7 January am prepared to think we are the only
1939) spot in this immense universe which
contains living, thinking creatures, or
War is horrible, but slavery is worse, and you may be that we are the highest type of
sure that the British people would rather go down mental and physical development
fighting than live in servitude. which has ever appeared in the vast
compass of space and time.
Interview (https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/20
15/01/winston-churchill-new-statesman-archive) with
Kingsley Martin for the New Statesman (7 January
1939)
In the main, the theme is emerging of the growth of freedom and law, of the rights of the
individual, of the subordination of the State to the fundamental and moral conceptions of an
ever-comprehending community. Of these ideas the English-speaking peoples were the
authors, then the trustees, and must now become the armed champions. Thus I condemn
tyranny in whatever guise and from whatever quarter it presents itself. All this of course has
a current application.
Letter to Maurice Ashley on his work on A History of the English Speaking Peoples (12
April 1939), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939
(1976), p. 1063
With hundreds of thousands of nebulae, each containing thousands of millions of suns, the
odds are enormous that there must be immense numbers which possess planets whose
circumstances would not render life impossible... I, for one, am not so immensely impressed
by the success we are making of our civilization here that I am prepared to think we are the
only spot in this immense universe which contains living, thinking creatures, or that we are
the highest type of mental and physical development which has ever appeared in the vast
compass of space and time. (from an article written by Churchill in 1939, revised during the
1950s but never published, discovered in 2017 in the Churchill Museum in the USA: ‘Are we
alone in the Universe?’ (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/feb/15/winston-churchill
-essay-alien-life-discovered-us-college-are-we-alone-in-the-universe))
As Quoted in: Winston Churchill and UFOs, by Phyllis Power, Share International (http
s://share-international.org/magazine/old_issues/2017/2017-04.htm#correo), April 2017
You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will
have war.[7]
Everyone can see how communism rots the soul
of a nation. How it makes it abject in peace and
proves it abominable in war.
Part of a speech played on the documentary
Timewatch - Russia: A Century of Suspicion.
I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is

a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma:
but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian
national interest. Winston Churchill addressing a joint
BBC broadcast ("The Russian Enigma"), London, session of the United States Congress,
October 1, 1939 (partial text (http://www.churchill- May 1943.
society-london.org.uk/RusnEnig.html), transcript
of the "First Month of War" speech (https://ww2me
mories.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/churchills-ww2-s
peech-to-the-nation-october-1939/)).
First, Poland has been again overrun by two of the

great powers which held her in bondage for 150
years but were unable to quench the spirit of the
Polish nation. The heroic defence of Warsaw shows
that the soul of Poland is indestructible, and that she
will rise again like a rock which may for a spell be
submerged by a tidal wave but which remains a rock.
I never "worry" about action, but only
BBC broadcast ("The Russian Enigma"), London, about inaction.
October 1, 1939 (First Month of War (excerpt) (https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Et45bs95I), transcript
of the full text (https://ww2memories.wordpress.com/
2011/09/24/churchills-ww2-speech-to-the-nation-oct
ober-1939/)).
The traditional British view is that character is what

matters in a general. They like a solid, simple man, with
no newfangled nonsense about him. He should be
preternaturally silent. If by chance he thinks at all he
should not let this leak out, otherwise confidence would
be destroyed.
Today's Battles. Collier's, 7 October 1939.
Reproduced in The Collected Essays of Sir Winston Now this is not the end. It is not
Churchill, Vol I, Churchill at War, Centenary Edition even the beginning of the end. But it
(1976), Library of Imperial History, p. 487. ISBN is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
0903988429
The whole world is against Hitler and Hitlerism. Men of

every race and clime feel that this monstrous apparition stands between them and the
forward move which is their due, and for which the age is ripe. Even in Germany itself there
are millions who stand aloof from the seething mass of criminality and corruption constituted
by the Nazi Party machine. Let them take courage amid perplexities and perils, for it may
well be that the final extinction of a baleful domination will pave the way to a broader
solidarity of all the men in all the lands than we could ever have planned if we had not
marched together through the fire.
Broadcast (12 November 1939), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S.
Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 81
I never "worry" about action, but only about inaction.

Source: Winston Churchill (Author) and Richard Langworth (Editor) (28. Oktober 2008):
Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations. New York: PublicAffairs
(1st Edition), page 160.
See also: 1940s. Passim. Martin Gilbert, The Churchill War Papers, Volume II: Never
Surrender, May 1940-December 1940. London: Heinemann, New York: Norton,
1994, page xvi, where Sir Martin writes in his Preface: "Inefficiency, incompetence
and negative attitudes roused his ire: I have indicated some examples of this in the
Churchill index entry, under "rebukes by." He did not take kindly to what he called "a
drizzle of carping criticism," or to those officials, military or civilian, who, as he
expressed it, "failed to rise to the height of circumstances." Among his injunctions to
his Ministers were, "Don't let this matter sleep," and, "I never 'worry' about action, but
only about inaction.""
See also: In a letter, on page 1184 of the above work: Concerning "Operation
Compass," the first major British offensive in North Africa, Churchill wrote to General
Dill on 7 December 1940: "If, with the situation as it is, General Wavell is only playing
small, and is not hurling on his whole available forces with furious energy, he will
have failed to rise to the height of circumstances. I never "worry" about action, but
only about inaction."
Source for all the aforementioned information: Richard M. Langworth (Senior
fellow, Hillsdale College Churchill Project, Writer and Historian) (March 4, 2009):
Churchill on Action vs. Inaction. Archived on June 2, 2020 (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20200602062301/https://richardlangworth.com/i-never-worry-about-action-
but-only-about-inaction) and secured on June 2, 2020 (http://archive.is/Xgxu6)
from the original (https://richardlangworth.com/i-never-worry-about-action-but-only
-about-inaction).
In the bitter and increasingly exacting conflict which lies before us we are resolved to keep
nothing back, and not to be outstripped by any in service to the common cause. Let the great
cities of Warsaw, of Prague, of Vienna banish despair even in the midst of their agony. Their
liberation is sure. The day will come when the joybells will ring again throughout Europe,
and when victorious nations, masters not only of their foes but of themselves, will plan and
build in justice, in tradition, and in freedom a house of many mansions where there will be
room for all.
Broadcast (20 January 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S.
Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 138
I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have
nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.' We have before us an ordeal of the
most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.
You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our
might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous
tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is
our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, 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.
Speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940)
This has often been misquoted in the form: "I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and
tears ..."
The Official Report, House of Commons (5th Series), 13 May 1940, vol. 360, c. 1502.
Audio records of the speech do spare out the "It is" before the in the beginning of the
"Victory"-Part.
I speak to you for the first time as Prime Minister, in a solemn hour of the life of our country, of
our Empire, of our Allies, and, above all, of the cause of Freedom. ... I am sure I speak for all
when I say we are ready to face it; to endure it; and to retaliate against it—to any extent that
the unwritten laws of war permit. There will be many men and women in this Island who
when the ordeal comes upon them, as come it will, will feel comfort, and even a pride, that
they are sharing the perils of our lads at the Front—soldiers, sailors and airmen, God bless
them—and are drawing away from them a part at least of the onslaught they have to bear. Is
not this the appointed time for all to make the utmost exertions in their power?
Broadcast (19 May 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill,
1939–1941 (1983), p. 363
We have differed and quarrelled in the past but now one bond unites us all—to wage war
until victory is won, and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the
cost and the agony must be.
Broadcast (19 May 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill,
1939–1941 (1983), p. 364
Side by side ... the British and French peoples have advanced to rescue ... mankind from the
foulest and most soul-destroying tyranny which has ever darkened and stained the pages of
history. Behind them ... gather a group of shattered States and bludgeoned races: the
Czechs, the Poles, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch, the Belgians -- upon all of whom
the long night of barbarism will descend, unbroken even by a star of hope, unless we
conquer, as conquer we must; as conquer we shall.
Radio broadcast, Be Ye Men of Valour, May 19, 1940 (partial text (http://www.churchill-so
ciety-london.org.uk/BeYeMofV.html)).
I have thought carefully in these last days whether it was part of my duty to consider entering
negotiations with That Man. But it was idle to think that, if we tried to make peace now, we
should get better terms than if we fought it out. The Germans would demand our fleet—that
would be called 'disarmament'—our naval bases, and much else. We should become a
slave state, though a British Government which would be Hitler's puppet would be set up—
under Mosley or some such person. And where should we be at the end of all that? On the
other hand, we had immense reserves and advantages. And I am convinced that every man
of you would rise up and tear me from my place if I were for one moment to contemplate
parley or surrender. If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when
each one of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground.
Speech to the Cabinet (28 May 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S.
Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 420
I believe we shall make them rue the day they try to invade our island. No such discussion
can be permitted.
Minute (1 June 1940) in response to the Foreign Office's suggestion that preparations
should be made for the evacuation of the Royal Family and the British Government to
"some part of the Overseas Empire", quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S.
Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 449
No, bury them in caves and cellars. None must go. We are going to beat them.
Minute (1 June 1940) in response to the suggestion of Kenneth Clark (Director of the
National Gallery) that the National Gallery's paintings should be sent to Canada, quoted
in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 449
Every morn brought forth a noble chance, and every chance brought forth a noble knight.
Speech in the House of Commons, June 4, 1940; passage praising the airmen of the
Royal Air Force and their efforts during the evacuation of Dunkirk. This is a close
paraphrase of Tennyson:
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.

Alfred Tennyson, "Morte d'Arthur" (http://home.att.net/~TennysonPoetry/mort.htm),
stanza 23 (1842), and the expanded "The Passing of Arthur", stanza 36 in Idylls of
the King (1856–1885)
We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall
fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing
strength in the air, 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, and even if, which I
do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and
starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet,
would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power
and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.
Speech in the House of Commons (4 June 1940).
Enterprises must be prepared, with specially-trained troops of the hunter class, who
can develop a reign of terror down these coasts, first of all on the "butcher and bolt"
policy; but later on, or perhaps as soon as we are organised, we could surprise Calais or
Boulogne, kill and capture the Hun garrison, and hold the place until all preparations to
reduce it by siege or heavy storm have been made, and then away. The passive resistance
war, in which we have acquitted ourselves so well, must come to an end. I look to the Joint
Chiefs of the Staff to propose me measures for a vigorous, enterprising and ceaseless
offensive against the whole German-occupied coastline.
Minute to General Ismay, 6 June 1940.
Reproduced in The Second World War, Vol II, Their Finest Hour, 1949, Cassell & Co Ltd,
p. 217.
The news from France is very bad, and I grieve for the gallant French people who have
fallen into this terrible misfortune. Nothing will alter our feelings towards them or our faith that
the genius of France will rise again. What has happened in France makes no difference to
our actions and purpose. We have become the sole champions now in arms to defend the
world cause. We shall do our best to be worthy of this high honour. We shall defend our
Island home, and with the British Empire we shall fight on unconquerable until the curse of
Hitler is lifted from the brows of mankind. We are sure that in the end all will come right.
Broadcast (17 June 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill,
1939–1941 (1983), p. 566
Of this 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.
Speech in the House of Commons, June 18, 1940 "War Situation" (http://hansard.millban
ksystems.com/commons/1940/jun/18/war-situation#column_52).
Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own
British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and
might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us now. Hitler knows that he will have to
break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and
the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the
whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for,
will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more
protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our
duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for
a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'
Speech in the House of Commons, June 18, 1940 "War Situation" (http://hansard.millban
ksystems.com/commons/1940/jun/18/war-situation#column_60).
I certainly shd welcome any approach to Irish unity: but I have 40 years experience of its
difficulties. I cd never be a party to the coercion of Ulster to join the Southern counties: but I
am much in favour of their being persuaded. The key to this is de Valera showing some
loyalty to Crown & Empire.
Letter and Minute (18 June 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S.
Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 433
Here in this strong City of Refuge which enshrines the title-deeds of human progress and is
of deep consequence to Christian civilisation; here, girt about by the seas and oceans where
the Navy reigns; shielded from above by the prowess and devotion of our airmen—we await
undismayed the impending assault. Perhaps it will come tonight. Perhaps it will come next
week. Perhaps it will never come. We must show ourselves equally capable of meeting a
sudden violent shock or—what is perhaps a harder test—a prolonged vigil. But be the
ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parley; we
may show mercy—we shall ask for none.
Broadcast (14 July 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill,
1939–1941 (1983), p. 664
This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of

peoples and of causes. There are vast numbers, not only in this Island but in every land,
who will render faithful service in this war, but whose names will never be known, whose
deeds will never be recorded. This is a War of the Unknown Warrior; but let all strive
without failing in faith or in duty, and the dark curse of Hitler will be lifted from our age.
Broadcast (14 July 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill,
1939–1941 (1983), p. 665
And now go and set Europe ablaze

Entry from Monday 22 July 1940, foundation of the Special Operations Executive (SOE)
Dalton, Hugh (1986). The Second World War Diary of Hugh Dalton 1940-45. Jonathan
Cape. p. 62. ISBN 022402065X
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world,
except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds,
unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World
War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so
much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant
actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time,
night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their
targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the
heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict
shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi
power.
Speech in the House of Commons, also known as "The Few", made on 20 August 1940.
However Churchill first made his comment, "Never in the field of human conflict was so
much owed by so many to so few" to General Hastings Ismay as they got into their car to
leave RAF Uxbridge on 16 August 1940 after monitoring the battle from the Operations
Room.Farewell to RAF Uxbridge (http://www.globalaviationresource.com/reports/2010/u
xbridge.php). Global Aviation Resource (6 April 2010). Retrieved on 12 September
2010. Crozier, Hazel. RAF Uxbridge 90th Anniversary 1917–2007. RAF High Wycombe:
Air Command Media Services. Churchill repeated the quote in a speech to Parliament
four days later complimenting the pilots in the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain.
The speech in the House of Commons is often incorrectly cited as the origin of the
popular phrase "never was so much owed by so many to so few". Queen Elizabeth II
during her speech in Polish Parliament 26.03.1996 said that Churchill said "so few"
about unforgettable and brave Polish pilots from Battle of Britain.
Now that they have begun to molest the capital, I want you to hit them hard − and Berlin is
the place to hit them.
To the Chief of the Air Staff (26 August 1940) after the Luftwaffe bombed London, quoted
in John Colville, The Fringes of Power: Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955 (1985), p.
230
We cannot tell when they will try to come; we cannot be sure that in fact they will come at all;
but no one should blind himself to the fact that a heavy full-scale invasion of this Island is
being prepared with all the usual German thoroughness and method, and that it may be
launched at any time now. ... Therefore, we must regard the next week or so as a very
important week for us in our history. It ranks with the days of the Spanish Armada was
approaching the Channel, and Drake was finishing his game of bowls; or when Nelson
stood between us and Napoleon's Grand Army at Boulogne. We have read all about this in
the history books; but what is happening now is on a far greater scale and of far more
consequence to the life and future of the world and its civilization than these brave old days
of the past. Every man and every woman will therefore prepare himself to do his duty,
whatever it may be, with special pride and care.
Broadcast (11 September 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S.
Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 778
These cruel, wanton, indiscriminate bombings of London are, of course, a part of Hitler's
invasion plans. He hopes, by killing large numbers of civilians, and women and children,
that he will terrorise and cow the people of this mighty imperial city ... Little does he know the
spirit of the British nation, or the tough fibre of the Londoners.
Radio broadcast during the London Blitz, September 11, 1940. Quoted by Martin Gilbert
in Churchill: A Life, Macmillan (1992), p. 675 ISBN 0805023968
This wicked man, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatreds,
this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try to break our
famous Island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction. What he has
done is to kindle a fire in British hearts, here and all over the world, which will glow long after
all traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed. He has lighted
a fire which will burn with a steady and consuming flame until the last vestiges of Nazi
tyranny have been burnt out of Europe, and until the Old World—and the New—can join
hands to rebuild the temples of man's freedom and man's honour, upon foundations which
will not soon or easily be overthrown.
Broadcast (11 September 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S.
Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), p. 779
We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes.

Radio broadcast, London, Dieu Protège La France [God protect France], October 21,
1940 (partial text (http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/LaFrance.html)).
Goodnight then: sleep to gather strength for the morning. For the morning will come. Brightly
will it shine on the brave and true, kindly upon all who suffer for the cause, glorious upon the
tombs of heroes. Thus will shine the dawn. Vive la France! Long live also the forward march
of the common people in all the lands towards their just and true inheritance, and towards
the broader and fuller age.
Radio broadcast, London, Dieu Protège La France [God protect France], October 21,
1940 (partial text (http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/LaFrance.html)).
We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.

Radio broadcast (http://books.google.com/books?id=_YBkWL9XBfcC&q=%22We+do+n
ot+covet+anything+from+any+nation+except+their+respect%22&pg=PA403#v=onepag
e) to German occupied, Vichy, and Free France (21 October 1940)
Hitler, in one of his recent discourses, declared that the fight was between those who have
been through the Adolf Hitler Schools and those who have been at Eton. Hitler has forgotten
Harrow.
Speech to Harrow School (18 December 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour:
When this war is won by this nation, as it surely will be, it must be one of our aims to work to
establish a state of society where the advantage and privileges which hitherto have been
enjoyed only by the few shall be far more widely shared by the many and the youth of the
nation as a whole.
Speech to Harrow School (18 December 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour:
The hour has come; kill the Hun.

How Churchill said he would end his speech if Germany invaded Britain (John Colville's
diary entry for January 25, 1941). In The Churchill War Papers : 1941 (1993), ed. Gilbert,
W.W. Norton, pp. 132–133 ISBN 0393019594
In order to win this war Hitler must destroy Great Britain. He may carry havoc into the Balkan
States; he may tear great provinces out of Russia; he may march to the Caspian; he may
march to the gates of India. All this will avail him nothing. It may spread his curse more
widely throughout Europe and Asia, but it will not avert his doom. With every month that
passes the many proud and once happy countries he is now holding down by brute force
and vile intrigue are learning to hate the Prussian yoke and the Nazi name as nothing has
ever been hated so fiercely and so widely among men before. And all the time, masters of
the sea and air, the British Empire—nay, in a certain sense, the whole English-speaking
world—will be on his track bearing with them the swords of justice.
Broadcast (9 February 1941), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill,
1939–1941 (1983), p. 1009
Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt: Put your confidence in us. ... We
shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle,
nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools
and we will finish the job.
BBC radio broadcast, February 9, 1941. In The Churchill War Papers : 1941 (1993), ed.
Gilbert, W.W. Norton, pp. 199–200 ISBN 0393019594
I must point out ... that the British nation is unique in this respect. They are the only
people who like to be told how bad things are, who like to be told the worst, and like to
be told that they are very likely to get much worse in the future and must prepare themselves
for further reverses.
Speech in the House of Commons, June 10, 1941 "Defence of Crete" (http://hansard.mill
banksystems.com/commons/1941/jun/10/defence-of-crete#column_152), in The
Churchill War Papers : 1941 (1993), Churchill/Gilbert, Norton, p. 785 ISBN 0393019594
If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the
House of Commons.
To his personal secretary John Colville the evening before Operation Barbarossa, the
German invasion of the Soviet Union. As quoted by Andrew Nagorski in The Greatest
Battle (2007), Simon & Schuster, pp. 150–151 ISBN 0743281101
No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last twenty-
five years. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. But all this fades away before the
spectacle which is now unfolding. ... I see the Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of
their native land, guarding the fields which their fathers have tilled from time immemorial. I
see them guarding their homes where mothers and wives pray—ah, yes, for there are times
when all pray—for the safety of their loved ones, for the return of the bread-winner, of their
champion, of their protector. I see the ten thousand villages of Russia where the means of
existence is wrung so hardly from the soil, but where there are still primordial human joys,
where maidens laugh and children play.
Radio broadcast (22 June 1941) on the day Germany invaded the Soviet Union, quoted
I see advancing upon all this in hideous onslaught the Nazi war machine, with its clanking,
heel-clicking, dandified Prussian officers, its crafty expert agents fresh from the cowing and
tying down of a dozen countries. I see also the dull, drilled, docile, brutish masses of the Hun
soldiery plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts. I see the German bombers and
fighters in the sky, still smarting from many a British whipping, delighted to find what they
believe is an easier and a safer prey.
in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983), pp. 1120-1121
I have to make the declaration, but can you doubt what our policy will be? We have but one
aim and one single, irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every
vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us—nothing. We will never parley, we
will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight
him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until, with God's help, we have rid the earth of his
shadow and liberated its peoples from his yoke. Any man or state who fights on against
Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe. That is our
policy and that is our declaration. It follows therefore that we shall give whatever help we
can to Russia and the Russian people.
Hitler is a monster of wickedness, insatiable in his lust for blood and plunder. Not content
with having all Europe under his heel, or else terrorised into various forms of abject
submission, he must now carry his work of butchery and desolation among the vast
multitudes of Russia and of Asia. The terrible military machine — which we and the rest of
the civilised world so foolishly, so supinely, so insensately allowed the Nazi gangsters to
build up year by year from almost nothing — cannot stand idle lest it rust or fall to pieces. ...
So now this bloodthirsty guttersnipe must launch his mechanized armies upon new fields of
slaughter, pillage and devastation.
Radio broadcast on the German invasion of Russia, June 22, 1941. In The Churchill War
Papers : 1941 (1993), W.W. Norton, pp. 835–836 ISBN 0393019594
We ask no favours of the enemy. We seek from them no compunction. On the contrary, if
tonight the people of London were asked to cast their votes as to whether a convention
should be entered into to stop the bombing of all cities, an overwhelming majority would cry,
"No, we will mete out to the Germans the measure, and more than the measure, they have
meted out to us." {applause} The people of London with one voice would say to Hitler: "You
have committed every crime under the sun. Where you have been the least resisted there
you have been the most brutal. It was you who began the indiscriminate bombing. We
remember Warsaw! In the first few days of the war. We remember Rotterdam. We have been
newly reminded of your habits by the hideous massacre in Belgrade. We know too well the
bestial assaults you're making upon the Russian people, to whom our hearts go out in their
valiant struggle! {cheers} We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who
work your wicked will! You do your worst! — and we will do our best! {sustained
cheering} Perhaps it may be our turn soon. Perhaps it may be our turn now."
July 14, 1941, in a speech before the London County Council. The original can be found
in Churchill's The Unrelenting Struggle (English edition 187; American edition 182) or in
the Complete Speeches VI:6448.
The Russian Armies and all the peoples of the Russian Republic have rallied to the defence
of their hearths and homes. ... The aggressor is surprised, startled, staggered. For the first
time in his experience mass murder has become unprofitable. He retaliates by the most
frightful cruelties. As his armies advance, whole districts are being exterminated. Scores of
thousands—literally scores of thousands—of executions in cold blood are being perpetrated
by the German police-troops upon the Russian patriots who defend their native soil. Since
the Mongol invasions of Europe in the sixteenth century, there has never been methodical,
merciless butchery on such a scale, or approaching such a scale. And this is but the
beginning. Famine and pestilence have yet to follow in the bloody ruts of Hitler's tanks. We
are in the presence of a crime without a name.
Broadcast (24 August 1941), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill,
1939–1941 (1983), p. 1173
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. Never yield to force;
never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
Speech given at Harrow School, Harrow, England, October 29, 1941. Quoted in
Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 23 ISBN 1586486381
We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was
closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of
the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated. Very different is the mood
today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our
country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what
seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never
doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have
only to persevere to conquer.
Speech to Harrow School (29 October 1941), quoted in Winston Churchill, Never Give
In!: Winston Churchill's Speeches (2013), p. 255
We have not journeyed all this way across the centuries, across the oceans, across the
mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy.
Speech before Joint Session of the Canadian Parliament, Ottawa (December 30, 1941)
The Yale Book of Quotations, ed. Fred R. Shapiro, Yale University Press (2006), p. 153
ISBN 0300107986
When we consider the resources of the United States and the British Empire compared to
those of Japan, when we remember those of China, which has so long and valiantly
withstood invasion and when also we observe the Russian menace which hangs over
Japan, it becomes still more difficult to reconcile Japanese action with prudence or even
with sanity. What kind of a people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not
realise that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been
taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?
Members of the Senate and members of the House of Representatives, I turn for one
moment more from the turmoil and convulsions of the present to the broader basis of the
future. Here we are together facing a group of mighty foes who seek our ruin; here we are
together defending all that to free men is dear. Twice in a single generation the catastrophe
of world war has fallen upon us; twice in our lifetime has the long arm of fate reached across
the ocean to bring the United States into the forefront of the battle. If we had kept together
after the last War, if we had taken common measures for our safety, this renewal of the curse
need never have fallen upon us.
Do we not owe it to ourselves, to our children, to mankind tormented, to make sure that these
catastrophes shall not engulf us for the third time?
Speech to a joint session of the United States Congress, Washington, D.C. (26
December 1941) (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-c
hurchill/1941-1945-war-leader/288-us-congress-1941)
'It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and
faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will
for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in
justice, and in peace.
Ending of the Speech to a joint session of the United States Congress, Washington, D.C.
(26 December 1941); reported in Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–
1963, ed. Robert Rhodes James (1974), vol. 6, p. 6541. The Congressional Record
reports that this speech was followed by "Prolonged applause, the Members of the
Senate and their guests rising"; Congressional Record, vol. 87, p. 10119
When I warned them that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told
their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, "In three weeks England will have her neck
wrung like a chicken." Some chicken! Some neck!
Reference to the French government; speech before Joint Session of the Canadian
Parliament, Ottawa (http://listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=TJrQuKlktv8#Winston_Churchill
__Some_Chicken%2C_Some_Neck_) (December 30, 1941)
ISBN 0300107986
Let me have the best solution worked out. Don't argue the matter. The difficulties will argue
for themselves.
Memo (May 30, 1942) to the Chief of Combined Operations on the design of floating
piers (which later became Mulberry Harbours) for use on landing beaches; in The
Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952) Chapter 4 (Westward Ho!
Synthetic Harbours)
If Gandhi tries to start a really hostile movement against us in this crisis, I am of the opinion
that he should be arrested, and that both British and United States opinion would support
such a step. If he likes to starve himself to death, we cannot help that.
Minute (14 June 1942) to the Secretary of State for India before Gandhi launched the
Quit India Movement, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill,
1941-1945 (1986), p. 123
It was an experience of great interest to me to meet Premier Stalin ... It is very fortunate for
Russia in her agony to have this great rugged war chief at her head. He is a man of massive
outstanding personality, suited to the sombre and stormy times in which his life has been
cast; a man of inexhaustible courage and will-power and a man direct and even blunt in
speech, which, having been brought up in the House of Commons, I do not mind at all,
especially when I have something to say of my own. Above all, he is a man with that saving
sense of humour which is of high importance to all men and all nations, but particularly to
great men and great nations. Stalin also left upon me the impression of a deep, cool wisdom
and a complete absence of illusions of any kind. I believe I made him feel that we were good
and faithful comrades in this war – but that, after all, is a matter which deeds not words will
prove.
Speech in the House of Commons, September 8, 1942 "War Situation" (http://hansard.mi
llbanksystems.com/commons/1942/sep/08/war-situation#column_95).
I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.

In conversation to Leo Amery, Secretary of State for India. This quotation is widely cited
as written in "a letter to Leo Amery" (e.g., in "Jolly Good Fellows and Their Nasty Ways"
(http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/British/jolly_good.html) by Vinay Lal in
Times of India (15 January 2007)) but it is actually attributed to Churchill as a remark, in
an entry for September 1942 in Leo Amery : Diaries (1988), edited John Barnes and
David Nicholson, p. 832 : "During my talk with Winston he burst out with: 'I hate Indians.
They are a beastly people with a beastly religion'."
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the
end of the beginning.
speech at Lord Mayor's Luncheon, Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942 :
(partial text (http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/EndoBegn.html))
Referring to the British victory over the German Afrika Korps at the Second Battle of El
Alamein in Egypt.
The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less
difficult.
Speech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1942 Debate on the address (http://ha
nsard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1942/nov/11/debate-on-the-address#column_39).
I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the
British Empire.
speech at Lord Mayor's Luncheon, Mansion House, London, November 10, 1942
ISBN 0300107986
You might however consider whether you should not unfold as a background the great
privilege of habeas corpus and trial by jury, which are the supreme protection invented by
the English people for ordinary individuals against the state. The power of the Executive to
cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly
to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the
foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist.
In a telegram (November 21, 1942) by Churchill from Cairo, Egypt to Home Secretary
Herbert Morrison; cited in In the Highest Degree Odious (1992), Simpson, Clarendon
Press, p. 391 ISBN 0198257759
The maxim Nothing avails but perfection may be spelt shorter: 'Paralysis.'
Minute [brief note] to General Ismay, December 6, 1942, on proposed improvements to
landing-craft.
In The Second World War, Volume IV : The Hinge of Fate (1951), Appendix C.
I am sure it would be sensible to restrict as much as possible the work of these gentlemen,
who are capable of doing an immense amount of harm with what may very easily
degenerate into charlatanry. The tightest hand should be kept over them, and they should
not be allowed to quarter themselves in large numbers among Fighting Services at the
public expense.
On psychiatrists, in a letter to John Anderson, Lord President of the Council (December
19, 1942)
In The Second World War, Volume IV : The Hinge of Fate (1951), Appendix C.
I personally am very keen that a scheme for the amalgamation and extension of our present
incomparable insurance system should have a leading place in our Four Years' Plan. I have
been prominently connected with all these schemes of national compulsory organized thrift
from the time when I brought Sir William Beveridge into the public service 35 years ago
when I was creating the labour exchanges... I framed the first unemployment insurance
scheme... [I]t fell to me, as Chancellor of the Exchequer 18 years ago, to lower the pensions
age to 65 and to bring in the widows and orphans. The time is now ripe for another great
advance.
Broadcast (21 March 1943), quoted in The Times (22 March 1943), p. 6
The best way to insure against unemployment is to have no unemployment. ... Idlers at the
top make idlers at the bottom.
It is absolutely certain we shall have to grow a larger proportion of our food at home. ... I
hope to see a vigorous revival of healthy village life on the basis of these higher wages and
of improved housing.
We must establish on broad and solid foundations a National Health Service. Here let me
say that there is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies. Healthy
citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.
By its sudden collapse, ... the proud German army has once again proved the truth of the
saying, 'The Hun is always either at your throat or at your feet'.
Speech before a Joint Session of Congress (May 19, 1943), Washington, D.C., in Never
Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill's Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. 352 ISBN
1401300561
The price of greatness is responsibility.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943 (full text (https://www.winstonchurchill.
org/resources/speeches/1941-1945-war-leader/the-price-of-greatness-is-responsibility),
audio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESiuSi8Qp9U)).
To achieve the extirpation of Nazi tyranny there are no lengths of violence to which we
will not go.
Speech to Parliament, September 21, 1943. Quoted in Churchill, Hitler, and the
Unnecessary War (2008) by Patrick J Buchanan, p. 396.
I have nothing to add to the reply which has already been sent.
Response to Dundee Council after refusing to expand on his reasons for not accepting
the Freedom of the City Memo (http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/churchill/6.9.html)
(October 27, 1943).
I hate nobody except Hitler — and that is professional.

Churchill to John Colville during WWII, quoted by Colville in his book The Churchillians
(1981) ISBN 0297779095
Everyone is in favour of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but
some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says
anything back, that is an outrage
"The Coalmining Situation", Speech to the House of Commons (October 13, 1943)[8]
We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.

Speech to the House of Commons (October 28, 1943), on plans for the rebuilding of the
Chamber (destroyed by an enemy bomb May 10, 1941), in Never Give In! : The best of
Winston Churchill's Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. 358 ISBN 1401300561
There are two main characteristics of the House of Commons which will command the
approval and the support of reflective and experienced Members. They will, I have no doubt,
sound odd to foreign ears. The first is that its shape should be oblong and not semi-circular.
Here is a very potent factor in our political life. The semi-circular assembly, which appeals to
political theorists, enables every individual or every group to move round the centre,
adopting various shades of pink according as the weather changes. I am a convinced
supporter of the party system in preference to the group system. I have sewn many earnest
and ardent Parliaments destroyed by the group system. The party system is much favoured
by the oblong form of Chamber. It is easy for an individual to move through those
insensible gradations from Left to Right but the act of crossing the Floor is one which
requires serious consideration. I am well informed on this matter, for I have
accomplished that difficult process, not only once but twice.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1943/oct/28/house-of-comm
ons-rebuilding#column_403) in the House of Commons after a bomb blast (28 October
1943)
The essence of good House of Commons speaking is the conversational style, the facility for
quick, informal interruptions and interchanges. Harangues from a rostrum would be a bad
substitute for the conversational style in which so much of our business is done. But the
conversational style requires a fairly small space, and there should be on great occasions a
sense of crowd and urgency. There should be a sense of the importance of much that is said
and a sense that great matters are being decided, there and then, by the House. ... It has a
collective personality which enjoys the regard of the public, and which imposes itself upon
the conduct not only of individual Members but of parties.
Speech in the House of Commons, October 28, 1943 "House of Commons Rebuilding"
(http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1943/oct/28/house-of-commons-rebuildin
g#column_403).
The House of Commons has lifted our affairs above the mechanical sphere into the human
sphere. It thrives on criticism, it is perfectly impervious to newspaper abuse or taunts from
any quarter, and it is capable of digesting almost anything or almost any body of gentlemen,
whatever be the views with which they arrive. There is no situation to which it cannot
address itself with vigour and ingenuity. It is the citadel of British liberty; it is the foundation of
our laws; its traditions and its privileges are as lively today as when it broke the arbitrary
power of the Crown and substituted that Constitutional Monarchy under which we have
enjoyed so many blessings.
Speech in the House of Commons, October 28, 1943 "House of Commons Rebuilding"
(http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1943/oct/28/house-of-commons-rebuildin
g#column_405).
'In war-time,' I said, 'truth is so precious she should always be attended by a bodyguard of
lies.'
Discussion of Operation Overlord with Stalin at the Teheran Conference (November 30,
1943); in The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952), Chapter 21
(Teheran: The Crux), p. 338
When I make a statement of facts within my knowledge I expect it to be accepted.

To Joseph Stalin in 1944, on the fact that there had been no plot between Britain and
Germany to invade the Soviet Union. The Grand Alliance, Winston S. Churchill.
The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward. This is not a
philosophical or political argument—any oculist will tell you this is true. The wider the span,
the longer the continuity, the greater is the sense of duty in individual men and women, each
contributing their brief life's work to the preservation and progress of the land in which they
live, the society of which they are members, and the world of which they are the servants.
2 March 1944, Speech to the Royal College of Physicians, London. Quoted in Churchill
by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 25 ISBN 1586486381
Often misquoted, see section "Misattributed" below
The Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have
been exhausted.
2008, p. 124, (circa 1944)
The discoveries of healing science must be the inheritance of all. That is clear. Disease
must be attacked whether it occurs in the poorest or the richest man or woman, simply on the
ground that it is the enemy; and it must be attacked just in the same way as the Government
have adopted the policy outlined in the remarks of Lord Beaconsfield, health and the laws of
health, and that is the course upon which we have embarked. Our policy is to create a
national health service in order to ensure that everybody in the country, irrespective of
means, age, sex, or occupation, shall have equal opportunities to benefit from the best and
most up-to-date medical and allied services available.
Speech to the Royal College of Physicians at the Savoy Hotel (2 March 1944), quoted in
The Times (3 March 1944), p. 2
The object of presenting medals, stars, and ribbons is to give pride and pleasure to those
who have deserved them. At the same time a distinction is something which everybody does
not possess. If all have it it is of less value ... A medal glitters, but it also casts a shadow.
Speech in the House of Commons, March 22, 1944 "War Decorations" (http://hansard.mil
lbanksystems.com/commons/1944/mar/22/war-decorations-and-medals#column_872).
There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most horrible crime ever committed in
the whole history of the world, and it has been done by scientific machinery by nominally
civilised men in the name of a great State and one of the leading races of Europe. It is quite
clear that all concerned in this crime who may fall into our hands, including the people who
only obeyed orders by carrying out the butcheries, should be put to death after their
association with the murders has been proved.
Letter (https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/interactive/_html/wc0213_3.html) to Anthony
Eden on the Holocaust (11 July 1944)
I have left the obvious, essential fact till this point, namely, that it is the Russian Armies
who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the German army. In the air and
on the oceans we could maintain our place, but there was no force in the world which could
have been called into being, except after several more years, that would have been able to
maul and break the German army unless it had been subjected to the terrible slaughter and
manhandling that has fallen to it through the strength of the Russian Soviet Armies.
Speech in the House of Commons, August 2, 1944.[9]
I salute Marshal Stalin, the great champion, and I firmly believe that our 20 years' treaty
with Russia will prove to be one of the most lasting and durable factors in preserving the
peace and the good order and the progress of Europe.
Speech in the House of Commons, August 2, 1944.[9]
I don't like standing near the edge of a platform when an express train is passing through. I
like to stand right back and if possible to get a pillar between me and the train. I don't like to
stand by the side of a ship and look down into the water. A second's action would end
everything. A few drops of desperation.
Conversation with Lord Moran, August 14, 1944.
Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965 (London:
Constable & Company, 1966), p. 167.
The Russians will sweep through your country and your people will be liquidated. You
are on the verge of annihilation.
To Stanisław Mikołajczyk in Moscow, October 14, 1944. Quoted in Churchill, Hitler, and
the Unnecessary War (2008) by Patrick J Buchanan, p. 380.
A love of tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their
hour of peril; but the new view must come, the world must roll forward ... Let us have no fear
of the future.
1).
I hope very much that the archway into the Chamber from the Inner Lobby—where the Bar
used to be—which was smitten by the blast of the explosion, and has acquired an
appearance of antiquity that might not have been achieved by the hand of time in centuries,
will be preserved intact, as a monument of the ordeal which Westminster has passed
through in the Great War, and as a reminder to those who will come centuries after us that
they may look back from time to time upon their forbears who "kept the bridge In the brave
days of old."
Rebuilding the House of Commons, Speech to the House of Commons (https://api.parlia
ment.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1945/jan/25/house-of-commons-rebuilding), 25
January 1945
It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German
cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should
be reviewed.
After the devastation of Dresden by aerial bombing, and the resulting fire storm
(February 1945). Quoted in Where the Right Went Wrong (2004) by Patrick J Buchanan,
p. 119 ISBN 0312341156
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a
time.
Speech in the House of Commons, February 27, 1945 "Crimea Conference" (http://hans
ard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1945/feb/27/crimea-conference#column_1294); in
The Second World War, Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy (1954), Chapter XXIII – Yalta:
Finale.
Personally, having lived through all these European disturbances and studied carefully their
causes, I am of the opinion that if the Allies at the peace table at Versailles had not imagined
that the sweeping away of long-established dynasties was a form of progress, and if they
had allowed a Hohenzollern, a Wittelsbach, and a Habsburg to return to their thrones, there
would have been no Hitler. To Germany, a symbolic point on which the loyalties of the
military classes could centre would have been found, and a democratic basis of society
might have been preserved by a crowned Weimar in contact with the victorious Allies.
Telegram to Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, British Ambassador to Turkey (26 April 1945),
quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (1986), p.
1314
We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing; but let us not forget for a moment the toil
and efforts that lie ahead. Japan, with all her treachery and greed, remains unsubdued. The
injury she has inflicted on Great Britain, the United States, and other countries, and her
detestable cruelties, call for justice and retribution. We must now devote all our strength and
resources to the completion of our task, both at home and abroad. Advance, Britannia! Long
live the cause of freedom! God save the King.
Broadcast (8 May 1945) from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street, quoted in Martin
Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (1986), p. 1344
We all of us made our mistakes, but the strength of the Parliamentary institution has been
shown to enable it at the same moment to preserve all the title-deeds of democracy while
waging war in the most stern and protracted form. I wish to give my hearty thanks to men of
all Parties, to everyone in every part of the House wherever they sit, for the way in which the
liveliness of Parliamentary institutions has been maintained under the fire of the enemy, and
for the way in which we have been able to persevere—and we could have persevered much
longer if need had been—till all the objectives which we set before us for the procuring of the
unlimited and unconditional surrender of the enemy had been achieved.
Speech in the House of Commons (8 May 1945), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to
Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (1986), p. 1346
God bless you all. This is your victory! [crowd: "No—it is yours."] It is the victory of the cause
of freedom in every land. In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this.
Everyone, man or woman, has done their best. Everyone has tried. Neither the long years,
nor the dangers, nor the fierce attack of the enemy, have in any way weakened the
independent resolve of the British nation. God bless you all.
Speech to the crowd from the balcony of the Ministry of Health in Whitehall, London (8
May 1945), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945
(1986), p. 1347
Socialism is, in its essence, an attack not only upon British enterprise, but upon the right of
the ordinary man or woman to breathe freely without having a harsh, clumsy, tyrannical hand
clapped across their mouths and nostrils. A Free Parliament—look at that—a Free
Parliament is odious to the Socialist doctrinaire.
Broadcast for the 1945 general election (4 June 1945), quoted in Martin Gilbert, 'Never
Despair': Winston S. Churchill, 1945–1965 (1988), p. 33
No Socialist Government conducting the entire life and industry of the country could afford to
allow free, sharp, or violently-worded expressions of public discontent. They would have to
fall back on some form of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first instance.
And this would nip opinion in the bud; it would stop criticism as it reared its head, and it
would gather all the power to the supreme party and the party leaders, rising like stately
pinnacles above their vast bureaucracies of Civil Servants, no longer servants and no longer
civil. And where would the ordinary simple folk—the common people, as they like to call
them in America—where would they be, once this mighty organism had got them in its grip?
My friends, I must tell you that a Socialist policy is abhorrent to the British ideas of freedom.
Although it is now put forward in the main by people who have a good grounding in the
Liberalism and Radicalism of the early part of the century, there can be no doubt that
Socialism is inseparably interwoven with Totalitarianism and the abject worship of the State.
It is not alone that property, in all its form, is struck at, but that liberty, in all its form, is
challenged by the fundamental conceptions of Socialism.
Despair': Winston S. Churchill, 1945–1965 (1988), pp. 33-34
How is an ordinary citizen or subject of the King to stand up against this formidable machine,
which, once it is in power, will prescribe for every one of them where they are to work; what
they are to work at; where they may go and what they may say; what views they are to hold
and within what limits they may express them; where their wives are to go to queue up for
the State ration; and what education their children are to receive to mould their views of
human liberty and conduct in the future?
I spoke of the melancholy financial position of Great Britain. Half our foreign investments had
been spent in the common cause when we stood alone. There is a great external debt of
three thousand million pounds. We should require time to get on our feet again. The
President listened closely, attentively and sympathetically. He spoke of the immense debt
the Allies owed to Britain for that period when she fought alone. "If you had gone like
France," he added, "we might well be fighting the Germans on the American coast at the
present time."
Churchill's account of his conversation with President Truman (18 July 1945), quoted in
Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965 (1968), p. 298
I am going to tell you something you must not tell to any human being. We have split the
atom. The report of the great experiment has just come in. A bomb was let off in some wild
spot in New Mexico. It was only a thirteen-pound bomb, but it made a crater half a mile
across. People ten miles away lay with their feet towards the bomb; when it went off they
rolled over and tried to look at the sky. But even with the darkest glasses it was impossible. It
was the middle of the night, but it was as if seven suns had lit the earth; two hundred miles
away the light could be seen. The bomb sent up smoke into the stratosphere...It is the
Second Coming. The secret has been wrested from nature...Fire was the first discovery; this
is the second.
Conversation with his doctor, Lord Moran (23 July 1945), quoted in Lord Moran, Winston
Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965 (1968), p. 305
Post-war years (1945–1955)

Peace with Germany and Japan on our terms will not
bring much rest to you and me (if I am still
responsible). As I observed last time, when the war
of the giants is over, the war of the pygmies will
begin.
Telegram to FDR, March 18, 1945 [3] (http://www.
churchillarchiveforschools.com/themes/the-theme
s/anglo-american-relations/just-how-special-was-
the-special-relationship-in-the-Second-World-War
-Part-2-1942-44/the-sources/source-7)
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing We must all turn our backs upon the
of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the horrors of the past. We must look to the
equal sharing of miseries.
future. We cannot afford to drag forward
Speech in the House of Commons (October 22, across the years that are to come the
1945) "Demobilisation" (http://hansard.millbanksy hatreds and revenges which have sprung
stems.com/commons/1945/oct/22/demobilisation from the injuries of the past.
#column_1703)
The most dangerous moment of the War, and the
one which caused me the greatest alarm, was
when the Japanese Fleet was heading for Ceylon
and the naval base there. The capture of Ceylon, the
consequent control of the Indian Ocean, and the
possibility at the same time of a German conquest of
Egypt would have closed the ring and the future
would have been black.
Remarks on the April 5, 1942) Easter Sunday
Raid on Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) on 5 April
1942. From a conversation at the British
Embassy, Washington D.C. in 1946, as described
by Leonard Birchall, RCAF, in Battle for the Skies
The salvation of the common people of
(2004), Michael Paterson, David & Charles, ISBN
0715318152 every race and of every land from war or
servitude must be guarded by the
The Dark Ages may return, the Stone Age may return readiness of all men and women to die
on the gleaming wings of Science, and what might rather than submit to tyranny.
now shower immeasurable material blessings
upon mankind, may even bring about its total
destruction. Beware, I say; time may be short.
The Sinews of Peace (https://www.nato.int/docu/spe
ech/1946/s460305a_e.htm) speech, Westminster
College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.
[Christopher Soames, Churchill's future son-in-law,

remembered] Churchill showing him around Chartwell
Farm [around 1946]. When they came to the piggery
Churchill scratched one of the pigs and said: I am fond
of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Democracy is not a caucus,
Pigs treat us as equals. obtaining a fixed term of office by
promises, and then doing what it
Christopher Soames, speech at the Reform Club (28
likes with the people. We hold that
April 1981), reported in Martin S. Gilbert, Winston S.
there ought to be a constant
Churchill. Volume Eight: Never Despair: 1945–1965.
relationship between the rulers and
p. 304
the people. "Government of the
Meeting Roosevelt was like uncorking your first people, by the people, for the
bottle of champagne. people," still remains the sovereign
definition of democracy.
Winston Churchill's visit to FDR's grave site at Hyde
Park, NY, reflecting on his past and the relationship
he had with FDR, as quoted in PBS series, American Experience [The Presidents: FDR]
I think 'No Comment' is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

After using the phrase when interviewed by reporters in Miami on 12 February, 1946;
quoted in Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech Fifty Years Later by James W. Muller,
University of Missouri Press (1999), p. 20 ISBN 0826261221
The very first thing the President did was to show me the new Presidential Seal, which he
had just redesigned. He explained, 'The seal has to go everywhere the President goes. It
must be displayed upon the lectern when he speaks. The eagle used to face the arrows but I
have re-designed it so that it now faces the olive branches ... what do you think?' I said, 'Mr.
President, with the greatest respect, I would prefer the American eagle's neck to be on a
swivel so that it could face the olive branches or the
arrows, as the occasion might demand.'
An exchange (March 4, 1946) with Harry S. Truman
aboard the Presidential train in Washington, D.C.'s
Union Station before journeying to Fulton, Missouri;
as quoted in "The Genius and Wit of Winston
Churchill" (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/page
s/index.cfm?pageid=825) by Robin Lawson.
When I was a young subaltern in the South African War,

the water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable we
had to put a bit of whiskey in it. By diligent effort I learned
to like it.
Aboard the Presidential train during the journey to
Fulton, Missouri (March 4, 1946); quoted in Conflict
and Crisis by Robert Donovan, University of Missouri
Press (1996), p. 190 ISBN 082621066X Many forms of Government have
been tried and will be tried in this
A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by world of sin and woe. No one
the Allied victory.... From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste pretends that democracy is perfect
in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said
the Continent. that democracy is the worst form of
government except all those other
On Soviet communism and the Cold War, in a
forms that have been tried from time
speech at Fulton, Missouri on March 5, 1946
to time.
(complete text (http://www.churchill-society-london.or
g.uk/Fulton.html)). Churchill did not coin the phrase
"iron curtain", however; the 1920 book Through
Bolshevik Russia by English suffragette Ethel Snowden contained the line "We were
behind the 'iron curtain' at last!" (This fact is mentioned in the article 'Anonymous was a
Woman' (http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2011_01/anon4651.html), Yale
Alumni Magazine Jan/Feb 2011).
We must build a kind of United States of Europe.

Speech at Zurich University (September 19, 1946) (partial text (http://www.churchill-socie
ty-london.org.uk/astonish.html)) ([4] (http://www.peshawar.ch/varia/winston.htm)).
We must all turn our backs upon the horrors of the past. We must look to the future.
We cannot afford to drag forward cross the years that are to come the hatreds and
revenges which have sprung from the injuries of the past.
Is there any need for further floods of agony? Is the only lesson of history to be that mankind
is unteachable? Let there be justice, mercy and freedom. The people have only to will it, and
all will achieve their hearts' desire.
The salvation of the common people of every race and of every land from war or
servitude must be established on solid foundations and must be guarded by the
readiness of all men and women to die rather than submit to tyranny.
Speech at Zurich University (September 19, 1946)
(partial text (http://www.churchill-society-london.org.u
k/astonish.html)) ([7] (http://www.peshawar.ch/varia/wi
nston.htm)).
There is less there than meets the eye.

On Prime Minister Clement Attlee, to President
Truman, in 1946. When Truman defended Attlee ('He
seems a modest sort of fellow'), Churchill replied
'He's got a lot to be modest about.' As cited in The
Origins of the Cold War in Europe (1994), Reynolds,
Yale University Press, p. 93 ISBN 0300105622
I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of

Parliament. The first lesson that you must learn is
that, when I call for statistics about the rate of infant
mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died
when I was Prime Minister than when anyone else
was Prime Minister. That is a political statistic.
When Churchill was in opposition after 1945, he led
the Conservative Party in a debate about the Health
Service. As he listened to Aneurin Bevan's opening
speech, he called for some statistics about infant
mortality ... [which were] supplied, copiously and
accurately, by Iain Macleod, then working in the back
rooms of the Conservative Research Department.
But, in his speech, Churchill made only one bold and
sweeping use ... [of Macleod's detailed research]. In War: Resolution. In Defeat:
Encountering MacLeod afterward, Churchill made the Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity.
above statement. As cited in The Life of Politics In Peace: Good Will.
(1968), Henry Fairlie, Methuen, pp. 203-204.
It is with deep grief I watch the clattering down of the British

Empire, with all its glories and all the services it has rendered
to mankind. ... Many have defended Britain against her foes.
None can defend her against herself.
Speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/common
s/1947/mar/06/india-government-policy#column_678) in the
House of Commons (6 March 1947) on Indian
independence
You may try to destroy wealth, and find that all you have done
is to increase poverty.
Churchill By Himself: The Definitive Collections of
Quotations, ed. Richard Langworth, 2008, p. 29 (1947, 12
When you have to kill a man
March)
it costs nothing to be polite.
When I am abroad I always make it a rule never to criticize or
attack the Government of my country. I make up for lost time
when I am at home.
In the House of Commons (18 April 1947), cited in The Oxford Dictionary of Political
Quotations (1996), Jay, Oxford University Press, p. 93.
When I was younger I made it a rule never to take
strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never
to do so before breakfast.
Reply to King George VI, on a cold morning at the
airport. The King had asked if Churchill would
take something to warm himself. As cited in Man
of the Century (2002), Ramsden, Columbia
University Press, p. 134 ISBN 0231131062
All the greatest things are simple, and many can be

expressed in a single word: Freedom; Justice; How many wars have been averted by
Honour; Duty; Mercy; Hope. patience and persisting good will! ... How
many wars have been precipitated by
United Europe Meeting, Albert Hall, London (May firebrands! How many misunderstandings
14, 1947). Cited in Churchill by Himself, ed. which led to wars could have been
Langworth, PublicAffairs (2008), p. 26 ISBN removed by temporizing!
1586486381
Democracy is not a caucus, obtaining a fixed

term of office by promises, and then doing what it
likes with the people. We hold that there ought to be
a constant relationship between the rulers and the
people. "Government of the people, by the people,
for the people," still remains the sovereign definition
of democracy.
Speech in the House of Commons (11 November
1947), published in 205 The Official Report, House
of Commons (5th Series), 11 November 1947, vol.
444, cc. (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commo
ns/1947/nov/11/parliament-bill#column_205)
Many forms of Government have been tried and will

be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one
pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.
Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst
Personally, I am always ready to
form of government except all those other forms that
learn, although I do not always like
have been tried from time to time; but there is the
being taught.
broad feeling in our country that the people should rule,
continuously rule, and that public opinion, expressed by
all constitutional means, should shape, guide, and
control the actions of Ministers who are their servants and not their masters.
Speech in the House of Commons (11 November 1947), published in 206–07 The
Official Report, House of Commons (5th Series), 11 November 1947, vol. 444, cc. (http://
hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1947/nov/11/parliament-bill#column_206)
I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting
me is another matter.
On his 75th birthday (1947), in reply to a question on whether he was afraid of death,
quoted in the N. Y. Times Magazine on November 1, 1964, p. 40 according to Quote It
Completely! (1998), Gerhart, Wm. S. Hein Publishing, p. 262 ISBN 1575884003
One foggy afternoon in November 1947 I was painting in my studio... when I suddenly felt an
odd sensation. I turned round... and there, sitting in my red leather upright armchair, was my
father. He looked just as I had seen him in his prime...
[towards the end of their conversation] "Papa," I said, "in

each of them about thirty million men were killed in
battle. In the last one seven million were murdered in
cold blood, mainly by the Germans. They made human
slaughter-pens like the Chicago stockyards. Europe is a
ruin. Many of her cities have been blown to pieces by
bombs... Far gone are the days of Queen Victoria and a
settled world order. But, having gone through so much,
we do not despair."... He said:
"Winston, you have told me a terrible tale. I would never

have believed that such things could happen. I am glad I
did not live to see them. As I listened to you unfolding
these fearful facts you seemed to know a great deal
about them. I never expected that you would develop so
far and so fully. Of course you are too old now to think
about such things, but when I hear you talk I really
I am an optimist — it does not seem
wonder you didn't go into politics. You might have done
a lot to help..."
to be much use being anything else.
He gave me a benignant smile. He then took the match
to light his cigarette and struck it. There was a tiny flash.
He vanished. The chair was empty...
The Dream": A Fictional Encounter – by Winston S. Churchill, reprinted from the official
biography, Winston S. Churchill, by Martin Gilbert, vol. 8 Never Despair 1945-1965
(Hillsdale College Press, 2013), pages 365-72. (https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/wi
nston-churchills-dream-1947/)
When losses are made, under the present system those losses are borne by the individuals
who sustained them and took the risk and judged things wrongly, whereas under State
management all losses are quartered upon the taxpayers and the community as a whole.
The elimination of the profit motive and of self-interest as a practical guide in the myriad
transactions of daily life will restrict, paralyse and destroy British ingenuity, thrift, contrivance
and good housekeeping at every stage in our life and production, and will reduce all our
industries from a profit-making to a loss-making process.
2008, p. 394, Belle Vue, Manchester (Europe, p. 212) (1947, 6 December)
For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all Parties to leave the past to
history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.
Speech in the House of Commons (January 23, 1948), cited in The Yale Book of
Quotations (2006), Fred R. Shapiro, Yale University Press, p. 154 ISBN 0300107986
This quote may be the basis for a statement often attributed to Churchill : History will be
kind to me. For I intend to write it.
I am shocked by this wicked crime.

Reaction to the assassination of Gandhi. Ottawa Citizen, Jan. 27, 1948. (https://news.go
ogle.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19480127&id=n_4uAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GNwFAAA
AIBAJ&pg=1578,6285092&hl=en)
We may indeed ask ourselves how it is that capitalism and free enterprise enable the United
States not only to support its vast and varied life and needs, but also to supply these
enormous sums to lighten the burden of others in distress.
2008, p. 124 (1948, 21 April)
The Socialists dilate upon the National Insurance Scheme, Family Allowances, improved
education, welfare foods, food subsidies, and so forth. They point to the benefits flowing to
the people from these schemes and particularly to the housewives and children... All these
schemes were devised and set in motion in days before the Socialists came to office. They
all date from the National Coalition Government of which I was the head. I have worked at
national insurance schemes almost all my life and am responsible for several of the largest
measures ever passed. The main principles of the new Health Schemes were hammered
out in the days of the Coalition Government, before the party and personal malignancy of Mr
Bevan plunged health policy into its present confusion.
Speech to Conservative women (21 April 1948), quoted in Paul Addison, Churchill On
The Home Front, 1900–1955 (1992), p. 399
The Family Allowance Act was passed by the Conservative Caretaker Government. School
milk was started in 1934 by a Conservative Parliament. The idea of welfare foods was
largely developed by Lord Woolton. The Education Act was the work of Mr Butler... These
facts should be repeated on every occasion by those who wish the truths to be known.
Speech to Conservative women (21 April 1948), quoted in Paul Addison, Churchill On
The Home Front, 1900–1955 (1992), pp. 399-400
Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.
Speech (May 28, 1948) at the Scottish Unionist Conference, Perth, Scotland, in Never
Give In! : The best of Winston Churchill's Speeches (2003), Hyperion, p. 446 ISBN
1401300561
When I see the present Socialist Government denouncing capitalism in all its forms,
mocking with derision and contempt the tremendous free enterprise capitalist system on
which the mighty production of the United States is founded, I cannot help feeling that as a
nation we are not acting honourably or even honestly.
2008, p. 124, (1948, 10 July) Woodford, Essex, Europe, 374)
I think the day will come when it will be recognized without doubt, not only on one side of the
House, but throughout the civilized world, that the strangling of Bolshevism at its birth would
have been an untold blessing to the human race.
In the House of Commons, (26 January 1949)[10]
If you make 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law.
In the House of Commons (3 February 1949), as quoted in Churchill by Himself (2008),
ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 17 ISBN 1586486381
The choice is between two ways of life: between individual liberty and State domination;
between concentrations of ownership in the hands of the State and the extension of
ownership over the widest number of individuals; between the dead hand of monopoly and
the stimulus of competition; between a policy of increasing restraint and a policy of liberating
energy and ingenuity; between a policy of leveling down and a policy of opportunity for all to
rise upwards from a basic standard.
Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches 1897-1963, Vol. VII, New York: Chelsea
House/Bowker, (1974), Wolverhampton, (23 July 1949) p. 7835
Broadly speaking, short words are best, and the old words, when short, are best of all.
Speech on receiving the London Times Literary Award November 2, 1949
Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches, Hyperion (2003), p. 453 ISBN
ISBN 1401300561
The reason for having diplomatic relations is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a
convenience.
In the House of Commons (17 November 1949) "Foreign Affairs" (http://hansard.millbank
systems.com/commons/1949/nov/17/foreign-affairs#column_2225), on diplomatic
recognition of the People's Republic of China, as cited in Churchill by Himself (2008),
ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 16 ISBN 1586486381
I cannot conceive that Britain would be an ordinary member of a Federal Union limited to
Europe in any period which can at present be foreseen. We should in my opinion favour and
help forward all developments on the Continent which arise naturally from a removal of
barriers, from the process of reconciliation, and blessed oblivion of the terrible past, and also
from our common dangers in the future and present. Although a hard-and-fast concrete
federal constitution for Europe is not within the scope of practical affairs, we should help,
sponsor and aid in every possible way the movement towards European unity. We should
seek steadfastly for means to become intimately associated with it.
The Schuman Plan, Speech in the House of Commons, June 27, 1950
It excites world wonder in the Parliamentary countries that we should build a Chamber,
starting afresh, which can only seat two-thirds of its Members. It is difficult to explain this to
those who do not know our ways. They cannot easily be made to understand why we
consider that the intensity, passion, intimacy, informality and spontaneity of our Debates
constitute the personality of the House of Commons and endow it at once with its focus and
its strength.
Speech in the House of Commons, October 24, 1950 "Motion for Address in Reply" (htt
p://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1950/oct/24/motion-for-address-in-reply#col
umn_2707).
The object of Parliament is to substitute argument for fisticuffs.

Speech in the House of Commons (June 6, 1951) ; in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed.
Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 22 ISBN 1586486381
Let us look back on the conduct of Mr. Attlee and his friends in the years before the war. The
Labour Party denounced the Baldwin Government for "planning a vast and expensive
rearmament programme"...Mr. Attlee said on November 10, 1935: "The National Government
is preparing a great programme of rearmament which will endanger the peace of the world".
Mr. Morrison, in the same month, said "the Government leaders are all urging a policy of
rearmament, and Mr. Chamberlain is ready and anxious to spend millions of pounds on
machines of destruction". I suppose those must have been the aeroplanes which saved us
in the Battle of Britain. And, again: "Every vote for the Unionists would be a vote for an
international race in arms, and a vote for that was a vote for war". Such was the language of
the Socialist leaders in the years while Hitler's Germany was rearming night and day. ... And
yet...at the election of 1945, the Labour Party gained great credit by denouncing the
Chamberlain Government as guilty men for not having made larger and more timely
arrangements.
Speech in Woodford (12 October 1951), quoted in The Times (13 October 1951), p. 9
I look back with pride to the great measures of social reform—Unemployment Insurance,
Labour Exchanges, Safety in the Coalmines, bringing Old Age Pensions down from seventy
to sixty-five years of age, the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions—for which I have been
responsible both as a Liberal and a Conservative Minister. I find comfort in the broad
harmony of thought which prevails between the modern Tory democracy and the doctrines of
the famous Liberal leaders of the past. I am sure that in accord with their speeches and
writings, men like Asquith, Morley and Grey, whom I knew so well in my youth, would have
regarded the establishment of a Socialist State and the enforcement of the collectivist theory
as one of the worst evils that could befall Britain and her slowly-evolved, long-cherished way
of life.
Speech at Huddersfield Town Hall (15 October 1951), quoted in Winston Churchill,
Stemming the Tide: Speeches 1951 and 1952 (1953), p. 149
The Chinese said of themselves several thousand years ago: "China is a sea that salts all
the waters that flow into it." There's another Chinese saying about their country which is
much more modern—it dates only from the fourth century. This is the saying: "The tail of
China is large and will not be wagged." I like that one. The British democracy approves the
principles of movable party heads and unwaggable national tails. It is due to the working of
these important forces that I have the honour to be addressing you at this moment.
Address to a joint session of Congress, Washington, D.C. (January 17, 1952); reported in
Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963, ed. Robert Rhodes James
(1974), vol. 8, p. 8326.
But now let me return to my theme of the many changes that have taken place since I was
last here. There is a jocular saying: 'To improve is to change; to be perfect is to have
changed often.' I had to use that once or twice in my long career.
Address to a joint session of Congress, Washington, D.C., (17 January 1952) "We Must
Not Lose Hope", in The Great Republic : A History of America (2000), Churchill, Random
House, p. 399 ISBN 0375754407
[T]omorrow the proclamation of her sovereignty will command the loyalty of her native land
and of all other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire. I, whose youth was passed
in the august, unchallenged and tranquil glories of the Victorian Era, may well feel a thrill in
invoking, once more, the prayer and the Anthem, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.
Broadcast upon the accession of Elizabeth II (7 February 1952) , quoted in Winston
Churchill, Stemming the Tide: Speeches 1951 and 1952 (1953), p. 240
I am against the monopoly enjoyed by the BBC. For eleven years they kept me off the air.
They prevented me from expressing views which have proved to be right. Their behaviour
has been tyrannical. They are honeycombed with Socialists—probably with Communists.
Remarks to Lord Moran (3 June 1952), quoted in Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The
Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965 (1966; 1968), p. 416.
Last week I watched the Trooping the Colour and our young Queen riding at the head of her
Guards... Certainly no one of British race could contemplate such a spectacle without pride.
But no thinking man or woman could escape the terrible question: on what does it all stand?
It does indeed seem hard that the traditions and triumphs of a thousand years should be
challenged by the ebb and flow of markets and commercial and financial transactions...and
that we have to watch from month to month the narrow margins upon which our solvency
and consequently our reputation and influence depend. But fifty million islanders growing
food for only thirty millions, and dependent for the rest upon their exertions, their skill and
their genius, present a problem which has not been seen or at least recorded before. In all
history there has never been a community so large, so complex, so sure of its way of life,
posed at such dizzy eminence and on so precarious a foundation.
Speech at the Savoy Hotel, London (11 June 1952), quoted in Winston Churchill,
Stemming the Tide: Speeches 1951 and 1952 (1953), pp. 298-299
Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught, but I
shall not attempt to foreshadow the proposals which will be brought before the House
tomorrow. Today it will be sufficient and appropriate to deal with the obvious difficulties and
confusion of the situation as we found it on taking office.
In debate (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1952/nov/04/debate-on-the-ad
dress) in the House of Commons, 4 Nov 1952
Nicholas Soames: "Is it true, grandpapa, that you are the greatest man in the world?"
Churchill: "Yes I am. Now bugger off."[11]
Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a

corpse.
From a speech given at the Royal Academy of Art in 1953; quoted in Time magazine (11
May 1954).
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

Remarks at a White House luncheon (26 June 1954)
Quoted in "Churchill Urges Patience in Coping with Red Dangers" (http://select.nytimes.
com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00A10FE3458117A93C5AB178DD85F408585F9). The
New York Times. June 27, 1954.
Has been falsely attributed to Otto von Bismarck.
But Churchill's official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, speaking of this quote, noted that
Churchill actually said, "Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war." Four years later, during a
visit to Australia, Harold Macmillan said the words usually—and wrongly—attributed to
Churchill: "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war." Credit: Harold Macmillan.[12]
If I had been properly supported in 1919, I think we might have strangled Bolshevism in its
cradle, but everybody turned up their hands and said, 'How shocking!'
Remarks to the National Press Club, Washington (28 June 1954)[13]
I read with great interest all that you have written me about what is called Colonialism,
namely: bringing forward backward races and opening up the jungles. I was brought up to
feel proud of much that we had done. Certainly in India, with all its history, religion and
ancient forms of despotic rule, Britain has a story to tell which will look quite well against the
background of the coming hundred years... I am sceptical about universal suffrage for the
Hottentots even if refined by proportional representation. The British and American
Democracies were slowly and painfully forged and even they are not perfect yet.
Letter to President Eisenhower (8 August 1954), quoted in Martin Gilbert, 'Never
Despair': Winston S. Churchill, 1945–1965 (1988), pp. 1040-1041. Cf. Lord Salisbury:
"You would not confide free representative institutions to the Hottentots".
We have surmounted all the perils and endured all the agonies of the past. We shall provide
against and thus prevail over the dangers and problems of the future, withhold no sacrifice,
grudge no toil, seek no sordid gain, fear no foe. All will be well. We have, I believe, within us
the life-strength and guiding light by which the tormented world around us may find the
harbour of safety, after a storm-beaten voyage.
At Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, Canada, November 9, 1954 ; as cited at The Churchill
Centre (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/quotations/famous-quotations-an
d-stories).
For myself I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
Lord Mayor's Banquet, Guildhall, London (9 November 1954) The Unwritten Alliance,
page 195, Columbia University, NY (1966),page 195,
I have lived my life in the House of Commons, having served there for 52 out of the last 54
years of this tumultuous and convulsive century. I have indeed seen all the ups and downs
of fate and fortune there, but I have never ceased to love and honour the Mother of
Parliaments, the model of the legislative assemblies of so many lands.
Speech in Westminster Hall for his eightieth birthday (30 November 1954), quoted in
The Times (1 December 1954), p. 11
I was very glad when Mr. Attlee described my speeches in the late war as expressing the will
not only of Parliament but of the whole nation. I have never accepted what many people
have kindly said—namely, that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless
and it proved unconquerable. It fell to me to express it and if I found the right word you must
remember that I have always earned my living by my pen, and by my tongue.
Speech in Westminster Hall (30 November 1954), quoted in The Times (1 December
1954), p. 11
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.
Speech in Westminster Hall (30 November 1954), quoted in The Times (1 December
1954), p. 11
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping it will eat him last.
In Reader's Digest (December 1954).
"Keep England White" is a good slogan.

On Commonwealth immigration, recorded in Harold Macmillan's diary entry (20 January
1955), quoted in Peter Catterall (ed.), The Macmillan Diaries: The Cabinet Years, 1950-
57 (Macmillan, 2003), p. 382
I have worked very hard with Nehru. I told him he should be the light of Asia, to show all
those millions how they can shine out, instead of accepting the darkness of Communism.
18 February 1955, WSC to Eden's private secretary Evelyn Shuckburgh.
There is widespread belief throughout the free world that, but for American nuclear
superiority, Europe would already have been reduced to satellite status and the Iron Curtain
would have reached the Atlantic and the Channel. Unless a trustworthy and universal
agreement upon disarmament, conventional and nuclear alike, can be reached and an
effective system of inspection is established and is actually working, there is only one sane
policy for the free world in the next few years. That is what we call defence through
deterrents. This we have already adopted and proclaimed. These deterrents may at any time
become the parents of disarmament, provided that they deter. To make our contribution to the
deterrent we must ourselves possess the most up-to-date nuclear weapons, and the means
of delivering them.
Speech (https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1955-03-01/debates/ae81a20b-68e7-4
2d0-8cbb-d9589f53fc0d/Defence#1896) in the House of Commons (1 March 1955)
I have a strong admiration for the Russian people—for their bravery, their many gifts, and
their kindly nature. It is the Communist dictatorship and the declared ambition of the
Communist Party and their proselytising activities that we are bound to resist, and that is
what makes this great world cleavage.
Hitherto, crowded countries...like the United Kingdom and Western Europe, have had this
outstanding vulnerability to carry. But the hydrogen bomb, with its vast range of destruction
and the even wider area of contamination, would be effective also against nations whose
population hitherto has been so widely dispersed over large land areas as to make them feel
that they were not in any danger at all. They, too, become highly vulnerable ... Here again
we see the value of deterrents, immune against surprise and well understood by all persons
on both sides—I repeat "on both sides"—who have the power to control events. That is why I
have hoped for a long time for a top level conference where these matters could be put
plainly and bluntly from one friendly visitor to the conference to another. Then it may well be
that we shall by a process of sublime irony have reached a stage in this story where safety
will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation.
The day may dawn when fair play, love for one's fellow men, respect for justice and freedom,
will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in
which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.
I think it is the most important subject facing this country, but I cannot get any of my ministers
to take any notice.
To Sir Ian Gilmour on Commonwealth immigration to England in 1955, quoted in Ian
Gilmour, Inside Right (Hutchinson, 1977), p. 134
It remains for me to wish my colleagues all good fortune in the difficult, but hopeful, situation
which you have to face. I trust that you will be enabled to further the progress already made
in rebuilding the domestic stability and economic strength of the United Kingdom and in
weaving still more closely the threads which bind together the countries of the
Commonwealth or, as I still prefer to call it, the Empire.
Speech to his last Cabinet (5 April 1955), quoted in Henry Pelling, Churchill's Peacetime
Ministry, 1951–55 (1997), p. 175
No, no. I stop in Victoria's reign. I could not write about the woe and ruin of the terrible
twentieth century. We answered all the tests. But it was useless.
His answer to Lord Moran, who asked him whether he would write about the 20th
century in his A History of the English Speaking Peoples (19 June 1956), quoted in Lord
Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965 (1966; 1968), p. 732
Among our Socialist opponents there is great confusion. Some of them regard private
enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Only a
handful see it for what it really is—the strong and willing horse that pulls the whole cart
along.
The Unwritten Alliance: Speeches 1953-1959, London: Cassell, (1961), p. 324,
Woodford, Essex, (1959, 29 September)
We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glow-worm.

As quoted by Violet Bonham-Carter in Winston Churchill as I Knew Him (1965),
according to The Yale Book of Quotations (2006), Fred R. Shapiro, Yale University
Press, p. 155 ISBN 0300107986
I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
As cited in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007), Ed. Goodwin, Black Dog
Publishing, p. 49, ISBN 1579127215
It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.
As cited in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (2007), Ed. Goodwin, Black Dog
Publishing, p. 168, ISBN 1579127215
I am a sporting man. I always give them a fair chance to get away.

Asked why he missed so many trains and aeroplanes, as cited in My Darling Clementine
(1963), Fishman, W.H. Allen : Star Books edition (1974), p. 218 ISBN 0352300191
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
Quoted in Words of Wisdom: Winston Churchill, Students' Academy, Lulu Press (2014),
Section Three : ISBN 1312396598
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.
Quoted by Lord Normanbrook in Action This Day: Working With Churchill. Memoirs by
Lord Norman Brook (And Others) (http://books.google.com/books?id=qxchAAAAMAAJ&
q=%22in+the+course+of+my+life+I+have+often+had+to+eat+my+words+and+I+must+co
nfess+that+I+have+always+found+it+a+wholesome+diet%22&pg=PA28#v=onepage)
(1968)
Often misquoted as: Eating my words has never given me indigestion.[8] (http://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=vbsU21fEhLAC&q=%22Eating+my+words+has+never+given+me+i
ndigestion%22&pg=PA486#v=onepage).
Historians are apt to judge war ministers less by the victories achieved under their direction
than by the political results which flowed from them. Judged by that standard, I am not sure
that I shall be held to have done very well.
Quoted by Robert Boothby in Robert Boothy, Recollections of a Rebel (1978), pp. 183–
84.
Take away that pudding – it has no theme.

As cited in Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Subject (2010), ed. Susan Ratcliffe, Oxford
University Press, p. 193 : ISBN 0199567069 ; reported in The Way the Wind Blows (1976),
Lord Home, Quadrangle, p. 217.
[Magna Carta provided] "a system of checks and balances which would accord the
monarchy its necessary strength, but would prevent its perversion by a tyrant or a fool."
Magna Carta and Man's Quest for Freedom, JW.org (http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/102
002924?q=Churchill&p=par)
This Treasury paper, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.
As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 50, ISBN
1586486389
I want no criticism of America at my table. The Americans criticize themselves more than
enough.
As cited in Churchill By Himself (2008), Ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 128 ISBN
1586486381
My ability to persuade my wife to marry me [was] quite my most brilliant achievement

... Of course, it would have been impossible for any ordinary man to have got through what I
had to go through in peace and war without the devoted aid of what we call, in England,
one's better half.
As cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 511, ISBN
1586489577
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.
As quoted in the United States of America Congressional Record: Proceedings and
Debates of the 105th Congress Second Session, Government Printing Office, Vol. 144,
Part 4, p. 5738 (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nEI6WcjH8ykC&pg=PA5738)

In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.
The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948) Moral of the Work, p. ix
(http://books.google.de/books?id=HzlT3t05OHoC&pg=PR9#v=onepage&q&f=false)
Fascism was the shadow or ugly child of communism... As Fascism sprang from
Communism, so Nazism developed from Fascism. Thus were set on foot those kindred
movements which were destined soon to plunge the world into more hideous strife, which
none can say has ended with their destruction.
The Second World War, Volume 1, The Gathering Storm, Mariner Books (1985), pp. 13-
14. First published in 1948.
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about
what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War'.
The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948).
Their horse cavalry, of which they had twelve brigades, charged valiantly against the
swarming tanks and armoured cars but could not harm them with their swords and lances.
On the Polish defense against Germany, in The Second World War, Volume I : The
Gathering Storm (1948).
I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for
this hour and for this trial.
On his appointment as Prime Minister, May 10, 1940; The Second World War, Volume I :
The Gathering Storm (1948).
Those who are prone, by temperament and character, to seek sharp and clear-cut solutions
of difficult and obscure problems, who are ready to fight whenever some challenge comes
from a foreign power, have not always been right. On the other hand, those whose
inclination is to bow their heads, to seek patiently and faithfully for peaceful compromise, are
not always wrong. On the contrary, in the majority of instances they may be right, not only
morally, but from a practical standpoint. How many wars have been averted by patience
and persisting good will! Religion and virtue alike lend their sanctions to meekness and
humility, not only between men but between nations. How many wars have been
precipitated by firebrands! How many misunderstandings which led to wars could
have been removed by temporizing! How often have countries fought cruel wars and
then after a few years found themselves not only friends but allies!
The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948) Chapter 17 (The
Tragedy of Munich), p .287 (http://books.google.de/books?id=HzlT3t05OHoC&pg=PA28
7&dq=churchill+the+gathering+storm+have+been+averted+by+patience+and+persisting
+good+will!&hl=de&sa=X&ei=1355T-39C4jHsgb0t-mWBA&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=on
epage&q&f=false)
Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you
will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the
moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a
precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to
fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.
The Second World War, Volume I: The Gathering Storm (1948) Chapter 19 (Prague,
Albania, and the Polish Guarantee).
Baldwin, Stanley ... confesses putting party before country, 169-70; ...
Index entry, The Second World War, Volume I: The Gathering Storm (1948)
When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his
deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.
The Second World War, Volume II: Their Finest Hour (1949) Chapter 8 (September
Tensions)
The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril.
The Second World War, Volume II: Their Finest Hour (1949) Chapter XXX (Ocean Peril).
p. 529
No American will think it wrong of me if I proclaim that to have the United States at our side
was to me the greatest joy. I could not foretell the course of events. I do not pretend to have
measured accurately the martial might of Japan, but now at this very moment I knew the
United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all! ...
Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be
ground to powder.
The Second World War, Volume III: The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 32 (Pearl
Harbor).
Some people did not like this ceremonious style. But after all when you have to kill a man
it costs nothing to be polite.
Churchill ended his December 8, 1941 letter to the Japanese Ambassador, declaring
that a state of war now existed between the United Kingdom and Japan, with the courtly
flourish "I have the honour to be, with high consideration, Sir, Your obedient servant".
The Second World War, Volume III: The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 32 (Pearl
Harbor).
Silly people, and there are many, not only in enemy countries, might discount the force of the
United States. Some said they were soft, others that they would never be united. They would
fool around at a distance. They would never come to grips. They would never stand
bloodletting. Their democracy and system of recurrent elections would paralyse their war
horizon to friend or foe. Now we should see the weakness of this numerous but remote,
wealthy, and talkative people. But I had studied the American Civil War, fought out to the last
desperate inch.
The Grand Alliance: The Second World War, Volume 3, (1950) p. 540
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.

On the Soviet Union's failure to form a united Balkan front against Hitler ; in The Second
World War, Volume III: The Grand Alliance (1950) Chapter 20 (The Soviet Nemesis)
This was one of the heaviest blows I can recall during the war....It was a bitter moment.
Defeat is one thing; disgrace is another.
The Fall of Tobruk, 20 June 1942.
The Second World War, Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate (1951) Chapter XII. pp. 343-4
A number of social problems arose. I had been told that neither smoking nor alcoholic
beverages were allowed in the [Saudi] Royal Presence. As I was the host at luncheon I
raised the matter at once, and said to the interpreter that if it was the religion of His Majesty
[Ibn Saud] to deprive himself of smoking and alcohol I must point out that 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. The King
graciously accepted the position. His own cup-bearer from Mecca offered me a glass of
water from its sacred well, the most delicious I had ever tasted.
Discussion of an audience with Saudi King Ibn Saud at the Fayoum oasis, Egypt, on
February 17, 1945; in The Second World War, Volume VI : Triumph and Tragedy (1953),
Chapter 23 (Yalta: Finale), pp. 348-349
Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat.
The Second World War, Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate (1951) Chapter 33 (The Battle of
Alamein)
BBC News story on the 60th anniversary of Alamein (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/23478
01.stm).
I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils
for his final counsel. He replied, "Verify your quotations."
The Second World War, Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate (1951)
Of course, when you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be
right and wise.
In The Second World War, Volume V : Closing the Ring (1952) Chapter 12 (Island Prizes
Lost).
By noon it was clear that the Socialists would have a majority. At luncheon my wife said to
me, 'It may well be a blessing in disguise.' I replied, 'At the moment it seems quite effectively
disguised.'
On the (July 26, 1945) landslide electoral defeat that turned him out of office near the end
of WWII, in The Second World War, Volume VI: Triumph and Tragedy (1953), Chapter 40
(The End of My Account), p. 583.
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956–1958)
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, in four volumes, much of which had been written in the 1930s.
ISBN 0-88029-423-X
Thus ended the great American Civil War, which upon the whole must be considered the
noblest and least avoidable of all the great mass conflicts of which till then there was record.
No one can understand history without continually relating the long periods which are
constantly mentioned to the experiences of our own short lives. Five years is a lot. Twenty
years is the horizon to most people. Fifty years is antiquity. To understand how the impact of
destiny fell upon any generation of men one must first imagine their position and then apply
the time-scale of our own lives.
Vol I; The Birth of Britain
At this point the march of invention brought a new factor upon the scene. Iron was dug and
forged. Men armed with iron entered Britain from the Continent and killed the men of bronze.
At this point we can plainly recognise across the vanished millenniums a fellow-being. A
biped capable of slaying another with iron is evidently to modern eyes a man and a brother.
On the end of the Bronze Age and start of the Iron Age, Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
We see the crude and corrupt beginnings of a higher civilisation blotted out by the ferocious
uprising of the native tribes. Still, it is the primary right of men to die and kill for the land they
live in, and to punish with exceptional severity all members of their own race who have
warmed their hands at the invaders' hearth.
On the sack of Verulamium (St. Albans) by Queen Boadicea
Apparently, as in so many ancient battles, the beaten side were the victims of
misunderstanding and the fate of the day was decided against them before the bulk of the
forces realised that a serious engagement had begun. Reserves descended from the hills
too late to achieve victory, but in good time to be massacred in the rout.
On the Battle of Mons Graupius, which ended British resistance to Roman rule, Vol I; The
Birth of Britain.
Like other systems in decay, the Roman Empire continued to function for several
generations after its vitality was sapped. For nearly a hundred years our Island was one of
the scenes of conflict between a dying civilisation and lusty, famishing barbarism.
The cities are everywhere in decline. Trade, industry and agriculture bend under the weight
of taxation.
The contrast between the morals at the centre of power and those practiced by wide
communities in many subject lands presented problems of ever growing unrest.
On the last years of Rome and Roman Britain; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
And wherever men are fighting against barbarism, tyranny, and massacre, for freedom, law,
and honour, let them remember that the fame of their deeds, even though they themselves
be exterminated, may perhaps be celebrated as long as the world rolls round. Let us then
declare that King Arthur and his noble knights, guarding the Sacred Flame of Christianity
and the theme of a world order, sustained by valour, physical strength, and good horses and
armour, slaughtered innumerable hosts of foul barbarians and set decent folk an example for
all time.
On King Arthur Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
The picture rises before us vivid and bright: the finely carved, dragon-shaped prow; the high,
curving stern; the long row of shields, black and yellow alternately, ranged along the sides;
the gleam of steel; the scent of murder.
On the Viking Long Ships, Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
When we reflect upon the brutal vices of these salt-water bandits, pirates as shameful as any
whom the sea has borne, or recoil from their villainous destruction and cruel deeds, we must
also remember the discipline, the fortitude, the comradeship and martial virtues which made
them at this period beyond all challenge the most formidable and daring race in the world.
On The Vikings, Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
When the next year the raiders returned and landed near Jarrow they were stoutly attacked
while harassed by bad weather. Many were killed. Their "king" was captured and put to a
cruel death, and the fugitives carried so grim a tale back to Denmark that for forty years the
English coasts were unravaged.
On a Viking Raid in 794 A.D.; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
"872, Ivar, King of the Northmen of all Ireland and Britain, ended his life." He had conquered
Mercia and East Anglia. He had captured the major stronghold of the kingdom of
Strathclyde, Dumbarton. Laden with loot and seemingly invincible, he settled in Dublin and
died there peacefully two years later. The pious chroniclers report that he "slept in Christ."
Thus it may be that he had the best of both worlds.
On Ivar, a Viking King (c. 872); Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
A group of pagan ruffians and pirates had gained possession of an effective military and
naval machine, but they faced a mass of formidable veterans whom they had to feed and
manage, and for whom they must provide killings. Such men make plans, and certainly their
descent upon England was one of the most carefully considered and elaborately prepared
villainies of that dark time.
On the Danish invasion of England in 892; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
Without any coherent national organisation to repel from the land on which they had settled
the ever-unknowable descents from the seas, the Saxons, now for four centuries entitled to
be deemed the owners of the soil, very nearly succumbed completely to the Danish inroads.
That they did not was due--as almost every critical turn of historic fortune has been due--to
the sudden apparition in an era of confusion and decay of one of the great figures of history.
On King Alfred the Great; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
It was Twelfth Night, and the Saxons, who in these days of torment refreshed and fortified
themselves by celebrating the feasts of the Church, were off their guard, engaged in pious
exercises, or perhaps even drunk. Down swept the ravaging foe. The whole army of
Wessex, sole guarantee of England south of the Thames, was dashed into confusion. Many
were killed.
On King Alfred's defeat by the Danes in January, w:878; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
Civilisation had been restored to the Island. But now the political fabric which nurtured it was
about to be overthrown. Hitherto strong men armed had kept the house. Now a child, a
weakling, a vacillator, a faithless, feckless creature, succeeded to the warrior throne.
On Ethelred the Unready; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
We have seen that Alfred in his day had never hesitated to use money as well as arms.
Ethelred used money instead of arms. He used it in ever-increasing quantities, with ever-
diminishing returns ... There is the record of a final payment to the Vikings in 1012. This time
forty-eight thousand pounds' weight of silver was extracted, and the oppressors enforce the
collection by the sack of Canterbury, holding Archbishop Alphege to ransom, and finally
killing him at Greenwich because he refused to coerce his flock to raise the money. The
Chronicle states: "All these calamities fell upon us through evil counsel, because tribute was
not offered to them at the right time, nor yet were they resisted; but, when they had done the
most evil, then was peace made with them. And notwithstanding all this peace and tribute
they went everywhere in companies, harried our wretched people, and slew them"
On Ethelred the Unready's policy; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
It is vain to recount further the catalogue of miseries. In earlier ages such horrors remain
unknown because unrecorded. Just enough flickering light plays upon this infernal scene to
give us the sense of its utter desolation and hopeless wretchedness and cruelty.
On a series of Viking raids; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
The lights of Saxon England were going out, and in the gathering darkness a gentle, grey-
beard prophet foretold the end. When on his death-bed Edward spoke of a time of evil that
was coming upon the land his inspired mutterings struck terror into the hearers.
On the death of King Edward the Confessor in January, 1066, months before the Norman
Invasion; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
On September 28 the fleet hove in sight, and all came safely to anchor in Pevensey Bay.
There was no opposition to the landing. The local "fyrd" had been called out this year four
times already to watch the coast, and having, in true English style, come to the conclusion
that the danger was past because it had not yet arrived had gone back to their homes.
On the landing of William the Conqueror at Pevensey; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
Someone once said that history is written by the victors. He probably was not the greatest of
all victors, if only because his name has been utterly forgotten.
On the Norman conquest of England; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
William now directed his archers to shoot high into the air, so that the arrows would fall
behind the shield-wall, and one of these pierced Harold in the right-eye, inflicting a mortal
wound. He fell at the foot of the royal standard, unconquerable except by death, which does
not count in honour. The hard-fought battle was now decided.
On the death of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066; Vol I; The
Birth of Britain.
Joan was a being so uplifted from the ordinary run of mankind that she finds no equal in a
thousand years. She embodied the natural goodness and valour of the human race in
unexampled perfection. Unconquerable courage, infinite compassion, the virtue of the
simple, the wisdom of the just, shone forth in her. She glorifies as she freed the soil from
which she sprang.
On Saint Joan of Arc; Vol I: The Birth of Britain, p. 422
Time after time, history ran over the luddites and romanticists, those who sought to restore
the old and delay the new. And every time, history did it with faster, more reliable and more
advanced vehicles.
On the Luddites ; Vol II: The New World, p. 121
By an uncompleted process of terror, by an iniquitous land settlement, by the virtual

proscription of the Catholic religion, by the bloody deeds already described, he cut new gulfs
between the nations and the creeds. 'Hell or Connaught' were the terms he thrust upon the
native inhabitants, and they for their part, across three hundred years, have used as their
keenest expression of hatred 'The Curse of Cromwell on you.' ... Upon all of us there still lies
'the curse of Cromwell'.
On Oliver Cromwell's policies in Ireland ; Vol II: The New World, p. 232
Disputed
America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you
hadn't entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the Spring of
1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed
by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not
have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America
had stayed out of the war, all these 'isms' wouldn't today be sweeping the continent of
Europe and breaking down parliamentary government — and if England had made peace
early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American, and other
lives.
Published as having been made in an (August 1936) interview (http://www.greatwar.n
l/frames/default-churchill.html) with William Griffin, editor of the New York Enquirer (htt
ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Enquirer), who was indicted for sedition (http://ww
w.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,773366,00.html) by F.D.R.'s (https://www.w
hitehouse.gov/history/presidents/fr32.html) Attorney General Francis Biddle (https://w
ww.usdoj.gov/osg/aboutosg/biddlebio.htm) in 1942. In a sworn statement before
Congress in 1939 Griffin affirmed Churchill had said this; Congressional Record
(1939-10-21), vol. 84, p. 686. In 1942, Churchill admitted having had the 1936
interview but disavowed having made the statement (The New York Times, 1942-10-
22, p. 13).
In his article "The Hidden Tyranny," Benjamin Freedman attributed this quotation to an
article in the isolationist (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,795133,0
0.html) publication Scribner's Commentator in 1936. However, that magazine did not
exist until 1939. He may have gotten the date wrong or might have been referring to
one of its predecessors, Scribner's Monthly (http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.j
ournals/scmo.html) or Payson Publishing's The Commentator (http://www.time.com/ti
me/magazine/article/0,9171,765655,00.html).
This is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.
"Churchill on Prepositions" (http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/churchill.html), and
alt.english.usage at google groups (https://groups.google.com/group/alt.english.usag
e/browse_thread/thread/dbf8ed860d953172/d44fbc9923cd662c?q=ben+zimmer+%22
The+Strand%22&rnum=2#d44fbc9923cd662c) have been the most immediate
sources for much of the information which indicates this remark or others like it were
probably not made by Churchill.
The earliest known version makes no mention of Churchill, and appeared in the Strand
Magazine, later quoted in the "Pepper and Salt" section of the Wall Street Journal on
1942-09-30:
When a memorandum passed round a certain Government department, one

young pedant scribbled a postscript drawing attention to the fact that the sentence
ended with a preposition, which caused the original writer to circulate another
memorandum complaining that the anonymous postscript was "offensive
impertinence, up with which I will not put."
The earliest known attribution of this to Churchill appears to be in Plain Words (1948)
by Sir Ernest Gowers, who writes:
It is said that Mr. Winston Churchill once made this marginal comment against a
sentence that clumsily avoided a prepositional ending: "This is the sort of
English up with which I will not put".
A far more elaborate version also appeared in the Wall Street Journal on the December
9 that same year:
The carping critic who can criticize the inartistic angle of the firemen's hose while
they are attempting to put out the fire, has his counterpart in a nameless individual
in the British Foreign Office who once found fault with a projected speech by
Winston Churchill. It was in the most tragic days of World War II, when the life of
Britain, nay, of all Europe, hung in the balance. Churchill prepared a highly
important speech to deliver in Parliament, and, as a matter of custom, submitted
an advanced draft to the Foreign Office for comment. Back came the speech with
no word save a notation that one of the sentences ended with a preposition, and
an indication where the error should be eliminated. To this suggestion, the Prime
Minister replied with the following note: "This is the type of arrant pedantry up
with which I will not put."
Over the years many variants that seem to have been based on informal anecdotes
have arisen including:
"This is the type of pedantry up with which I will not put."
"This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put."
It is always wise to look ahead – but difficult to look further than you can see.
Appears in Churchill By Himself, ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs , p. 576 ("Appendix I :
Red Herrings") : ISBN 1586489577 , with the following explanatory note ; "Reported by
the usually reliable Graham Cawthorne, but not in Hansard; possibly an aside to a
colleague, however"
You are a small exclamation mark at the end of a very long and insignificant sentence in
the book of history.
a remark made in the House of Commons responding to a Laborite speech; reported
as unverified in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).
Bessie Braddock: Winston, you are drunk, and what's more you are disgustingly drunk.
Churchill: Bessie, my dear, you are ugly, and, what's more, you are disgustingly ugly. But
tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.
Churchill's bodyguard Ronald Golding claims that he witnessed Churchill say this in
1946 to Labour MP w:Bessie Braddock. Golding's claim, made to Churchill expert
Richard Langworth, was reported in Langworth's collection Churchill by himself (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=vbsU21fEhLAC&q=braddock#v=snippet&q=braddock
&f=false). Langworth adds that Churchill's daughter Lady Soames doubted the story.
The basic idea of this joke was published as early as 1882, although it was used to
ridicule the critic's foolishness rather than ugliness: " ... are you Mr. —-, the greatest
fool in the House of Commons?" "You are drunk," exclaimed the M.P. "Even if I am,"
replied the man, "I have the advantage over you – I shall be sober to-morrow, whereas
you will remain the fool you are to-day." (1882 August 05, The Daily Republican-
Sentinel, His Advantage, p. 5, col. 2, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, cited by Quote
Investigator (http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/08/17/sober-tomorrow/)).
Reported as false by George Thayer, The Washington Post (April 27, 1971), p. B6.
Often given in a shorter form, e.g., " Winston, you are drunk." "Indeed, Madam, and
you are ugly—but tomorrow I'll be sober."
Churchill's interlocutor may be given as Lady Astor rather than Braddock.
Democracy means that if the doorbell rings in the early hours, it is likely to be the
milkman.
Widely quoted and attributed, but without a documented source.
Hence, we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.
Allegedly said regarding a Greek victory over Italian invaders, but without a
documented source.
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the
end, there it is. Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up,
brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business, as if nothing happened.
As quoted in, but without a documented source: Joseph Romanella (2012): Adam's
Dream: Is Everything We Think, Believe, and Perceive Real—or Is It All Imaginary? (h
ttps://books.google.de/books?id=vjQvJ1EITDkC&pg=PR30&lpg=PR30&dq=The+truth
+is+incontrovertible.+Malice+may+attack+it,+ignorance+may+deride+it,+but+in+the+e
nd,+there+it+is.+source&source=bl&ots=2z1rN6iBG6&sig=ACfU3U20jzEJtXfaAFYwx
1K2zhzOOFzkog&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQuemItuLpAhUNxqYKHR_LDccQ6A
EwAnoECAUQAQ#v=onepage&q=The%20truth%20is%20incontrovertible.%20Malic
e%20may%20attack%20it%2C%20ignorance%20may%20deride%20it%2C%20but%
20in%20the%20end%2C%20there%20it%20is.%20source&f=false), page xxx. ISBN:
978-1-4525-0823-8 (sc). ISBN: 978-1-4525-0824-5 (e). Bloomington, Indiana, United
States of America: Balboa Press, a division of Hay House.
Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our

potential.
First mentioned as "Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to
unlocking and using our potential." according to Quote Investigator in the 1981 book
The Reflecting Pond: Meditations for Self-Discovery by Liane Cordes, Quote Page 89,
Hazelden Publishing, Center City, Minnesota. For further research on this quote see:
Quote Investigator (August 31, 2013): Continuous Effort — Not Strength or Intelligence
— Is the Key to Unlocking and Using Our Potential Winston Churchill? Liane Cordes?
Liane Cardes? Apocryphal? Archived (http://archive.is/E0M12) on June 2, 2020 from
the original (https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/08/21/effort/).
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and
hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
The earliest published evidence located by Quote Investigator for a similar quote
appeared in Reader's Digest magazine in 1942 (specific source: 1942 April, Reader's
Digest, Volume 40, Picturesque Speech and Patter, Page 92, The Reader's Digest
Association.) and the words were ascribed to Winston Churchill. For further research
on this quote see: Quote Investigator (May 26, 2012): Men Occasionally Stumble Over
the Truth, But They Pick Themselves Up and Hurry Off. Winston Churchill? Simon
Singh? Stanley Baldwin? The Reader's Digest? Apocryphal? Archived (http://archive.i
s/ACmMl) on June 2, 2020 from the original (https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/05/26/
stumble-over-truth/).
Of all the small nations of this earth, perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in
their contribution to mankind.
Widely quoted and attributed, but without a documented source.
Never let a good crisis go to waste.

Purportedly said in reference to the Yalta Conference. Also variously attributed to
others.
Misattributed
The Balkans produce more history than they can consume (also reported in the form:
The peoples of the Balkans produce more history than they can consume, and the weight
of their past lies oppressively on their present.)
Although widely attributed to Winston Churchill (e.g. by the President of the British
Academy, Professor Sir Adam Roberts[14]), the quote is spurious.
The remark was quoted - although without attribution, and concerning East Central
Europe instead - by Margaret Thatcher in her speech, "New Threats for Old," in
Westminster College, Fulton, Mo., at a joint commemoration with the Churchill Centre
of the "Iron Curtain" speech's 50th anniversary, on 9 March 1996: "It is, of course, often
the case in foreign affairs that statesmen are dealing with problems for which there is
no ready solution. They must manage them as best they can. That might be true of
nuclear proliferation, but no such excuses can be made for the European Union's
activities at the end of the Cold War. It faced a task so obvious and achievable as to
count as an almost explicit duty laid down by History: namely, the speedy
incorporation of the new Central European democracies--Poland, Hungary and what
was then Czechoslovakia--within the EU's economic and political structures. Early
entry into Europe was the wish of the new democracies; it would help to stabilize them
politically and smooth their transition to market economies; and it would ratify the post-
Cold War settlement in Europe. Given the stormy past of that region--the inhabitants
are said to produce more history than they can consume locally--everyone
should have wished to see it settled economically."[15]
The sources of Thatcher's quote is likely a passage in the 1911 "Chronicles of
Clovis", by Hector Hugh Munro (Saki), referring actually to Crete: "It was during the
debate on the Foreign Office vote that Stringham made his great remark that "the
people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume
locally." It was not brilliant, but it came in the middle of a dull speech, and the House
was quite pleased with it. Old gentlemen with bad memories said it reminded them of
Disraeli."[16]
Power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues and freebooters. All Indian leaders will be of
low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will
fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles.
Often cited as from a speech "on the eve of Indian Independence in 1947", e.g.
"Anything multiplied by zero is zero indeed!" (http://ia.rediff.com/money/2007/apr/11gu
est.htm) in Rediff India Abroad (11 April 2007), or even from a speech in the house of
Commons, but it does not appear to have any credible source. May have first
appeared in the Annual Report of P. N. Oak's discredited "Institute for Rewriting Indian
History" in 1979, and is now quoted in at least three books, as well as countless
media and websites.
There is no such thing as a good tax.

The correct attribution is Oklahoma Senator Thomas Gore, in his speech to the
National Tax Association in 1935.[17][18]. Though it is often attributed to Churchill,
there is no evidence he ever said it.
If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative
by the time you're 35, you have no brain.
The earliest example of this quotation is found in Jules Claretie's Portraits
Contemporains (1875), where the following remark is ascribed to lawyer and
academic Anselme Polycarpe Batbie: "Celui qui n'est pas républicain à vingt ans fait
douter de la générosité de son âme; mais celui qui, après trente ans, persévère, fait
douter de la rectitude de son esprit" (English: "He who is not a republican at twenty
compels one to doubt the generosity of his heart; but he who, after thirty, persists,
compels one to doubt the soundness of his mind").[19][20]
According to research (http://www.webcitation.org/query?id=1256577474900567&url=
www.geocities.com/Athens/5952/unquote.html) by Mark T. Shirey, citing Nice Guys
Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations by
Ralph Keyes, 1992, this quote was first uttered by mid-nineteenth century French
historian and statesman François Guizot when he observed, Not to be a republican at
20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head. (N'être pas
républicain à vingt ans est preuve d'un manque de cœur ; l'être après trente ans est
preuve d'un manque de tête.) However, this ascription is based in an entry in
Benham's Book of Quotations Proverbs and Household Words (1936): the original
place where Guizot said this has not been located. This quote has been attributed
variously to George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Disraeli, Otto von Bismarck, and others.
Furthermore, the Churchill Centre (http://www.winstonchurchill.org), on its Falsely
Attributed Quotations (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotations/quotes-fal
sely-attributed) page, states "there is no record of anyone hearing Churchill say this."
Paul Addison of Edinburgh University is quoted as stating: "Surely Churchill can't
have used the words attributed to him. He'd been a Conservative at 15 and a Liberal
at 35! And would he have talked so disrespectfully of Clemmie, who is generally
thought to have been a lifelong Liberal?"
Variants: Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man
who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
Show me a young conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an
old liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.
If you are not a socialist by the time you are 25, you have no heart. If you are still a
socialist by the time you are 35, you have no head.
The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists.
According to research[21], it has been attributed to Churchill since the 21st century. A
similar variation has been attributed to Huey Long a year after he died, but it's unclear
if he said it either.[22]
Variants: The Fascists of the future will be the anti-fascists.
The Swiss author François Bondy attributed a similar quote to Ignazio Silone: This
reminded me of what Ignazio Silone said in 1945 soon after he returned to Italy from
his Zurich exile: "The Fascism of tomorrow will never say 'I am Fascism.' It will say: 'I
am anti-Fascism.'"[23] Alternatively quoted as: When I met him in Geneva on the day
of his scheduled return home after the long exile in Switzerland, Silone said abruptly:
"If at a future moment fascism will return, it will not be so stupid as to say: 'I am
fascism.' It will say: 'I am antifascism.'"[24]
There is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.
According to The quote verifier: who said what, where, and when (2006), Keyes,
Macmillan, p. 91 ISBN 0312340044 , the cover of a trade magazine once credited this
observation to Churchill, but it dates back well into the nineteenth century, and has
been variously attributed to Henry Ward Beecher, Oliver Wendell Holmes,
w:Theodore Roosevelt, w:Thomas Jefferson, w:Will Rogers and Lord Palmerston,
among others. One documented use in Social Silhouettes (1906) by George William
Erskine Russell, p. 218 wherein a character attributes the saying to Lord Palmerston.
An empty taxi arrived and out of it stepped Attlee.

A joke about Clement Attlee doing the rounds after World War II, often wrongly
attributed to Churchill. When he heard about that misattribution he said:
Mr Attlee is an honourable and gallant gentleman, and a faithful colleague who
served his country well at the time of her greatest need. I should be obliged if you
would make it clear whenever an occasion arises that I would never make such a
remark about him, and that I strongly disapprove of anybody who does.
Churchill to John Colville (quoted in Nigel Rees, Sayings of the Century
(1987), p. 106).
All this contains much that is obviously true, and much that is relevant; unfortunately, what
is obviously true is not relevant, and what is relevant is not obviously true.
This is not by Churchill, but a paraphrase of Churchill quoting Arthur James Balfour in
Great Contemporaries (1937): 'there were some things that were true, and some
things that were trite; but what was true was trite, and what was not trite was not
true' .
You make a living by what you get; you make a life by what you give.
Variant: We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Extensive research of writings by and about Churchill at the Churchill Centre (http://w
ww.winstonchurchill.org) fails to indicate that Churchill ever spoke or wrote those
words.
Some sites list Norman MacEwen as the originator of the quote.
The further backward you look, the further forward you can see.
In Churchill by Himself (2008), Appendix I: Red Herrings, ed. Langworth,
PublicAffairs, p. 577 ISBN 1586486381; "Commonly ascribed to WSC, even by The
Queen (Christmas Message, 1999). What Churchill actually said was 'The longer you
can look back, the farther you can look forward'".
The attribution of the mistaken form of the quote to Churchill dates from at least 1959
(https://books.google.com/books?id=QN3hAAAAMAAJ&dq=The+farther+backward+y
ou+look%2C+the+further+forward+you+can+see&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22
backward+you+can+look%22).
Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.
According to Churchill's assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne, Churchill had not
coined this phrase, but wished he had.
Resembles an ironic aphorism cited by Langworth from the Oxford Dictionary of
Quotations as 19th-century English naval tradition, "Ashore it's wine, women and
song; aboard it's rum, bum and concertina" or variously "... rum, bum and bacca
[tobacco]".[25][26]
The heaviest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine.

This remark referring to Charles de Gaulle was actually made by General Edward
Louis Spears, Churchill's personal representative to the Free French.
Film producer Alexander Korda asked Churchill in 1948 if he had made the remark,
he replied
No, I didn't say it; but I'm sorry I didn't, because it was quite witty ... and so true!
Quoted in Nigel Rees, Sayings of the Century p. 105.
People often forget that in 1940 there was no guarantee that we were going to win.
This quote is actually from Churchill's daughter, Lady Soames. See "The Beacon of
the Western Way of Life" (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid
=135)
Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential.

This military aphorism has been attributed to both von Moltke and Clausewitz, as well
as Churchill. It was familiar to President and former Supreme Commander of the
Allied Forces in Europe Dwight D. Eisenhower: I tell this story to illustrate the truth of
the statement I heard long ago in the Army: Plans are worthless, but planning is
everything. There is a very great distinction because when you are planning for an
emergency you must start with this one thing: the very definition of 'emergency' is that
it is unexpected, therefore it is not going to happen the way you are planning.
Speech to the National Defense Executive Reserve Conference in Washington,
D.C. (November 14, 1957) ; from Public Papers of the Presidents of the United
States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957, National Archives and Records Service,
Government Printing Office, p. 818 : ISBN 0160588510, 9780160588518
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in
every difficulty.
This quote is commonly attributed to Churchill, but appears in the "Red Herrings:
False Attributions" appendix of Churchill by Himself : The Definitive Collection of
Quotations (2008) by Richard Langworth, without citation as to where it originates.
In American Character, a 1905 address by Brander Matthews, a similar quotation is
attributed to L. P. Jacks (link (http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015059451156?urlapp
end=%3Bseq=238)).
""Our civilization is a perilous adventure for an uncertain prize... Human society is
not a constructed thing but a human organization... We are adopting a false
method of reform when we begin by operations that weaken society, either morally
or materially, by lower its vitality, by plunging it into gloom and despair about itself,
by inducing the atmosphere of the sick-room, and then when its courage and
resources are at a low ebb, expecting it to perform some mighty feat of self-
reformation... Social despair or bitterness does not get us anywhere... Low spirits
are an intellectual luxury. An optimist is one who sees an opportunity in every
difficulty. A pessimist is one who sees a difficulty in every opportunity... The
conquest of great difficulties is the glory of human nature." L. P. Jacks, quoted in
American character, by Brander Matthews, 1906
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your
life.
Often attributed to Churchill, this thought was originally expressed by the French
author Victor Hugo in Villemain (1845), as follows: You have enemies? Why, it is the
story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud
which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light
must have gnats. Do not bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as
you keep your life clear.
Villemain is a brief segment taken from Hugo's Choses Vues (Things Seen), a
running journal Hugo kept of events he witnessed. The original French versions of
these journals were published after Hugo's death.
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.

This slanderous remark was attributed to Churchill, possibly by Nazi propaganda
minister Joseph Goebbels to depict him as a liar.
In German: »Ich glaube nur der Statistik, die ich selbst gefälscht habe«
A joke is a very serious thing.

Sometimes attributed to Winston Churchill, it is in fact a slight misquote of "A joke's a
very serious thing" from the 1763 poem "The Ghost" by Charles Churchill.
The idea that a nation can tax itself into prosperity is one of the cruelest delusions which
has befuddled the human mind.
A misquotation by Ronald Reagan in a 9 March 1982 speech, reported in Paul F.
Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes,
& Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 13-14. In fact, Churchill used a very similar line
("To think you can make a man richer by putting on a tax is like a man thinking that he
can stand in a bucket and lift himself up by the handle.") several times beginning with
a speech at Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 19 February 1904.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Attributed to Winston Churchill in The Prodigal Project : Book I : Genesis (2003) by
Ken Abraham and Daniel Hart, p. 224 and other places, though no source attribution
is given. It actually derives from an advertising campaign for Budweiser beer in the
late 1930s.[27]
Lady Nancy Astor: If I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee.
Churchill: If I were your husband I'd drink it.

Dates to 1899, American humor origin, originally featuring a woman upset by a man's
cigar smoking. Cigar often removed in later versions, coffee added in 1900. Incorrectly
attributed in Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Glitter and Gold (1952).
See various early citations and references to refutations at "If you were my husband,
I'd poison your coffee" (Nancy Astor to Churchill?) (http://www.barrypopik.com/index.p
hp/new_york_city/entry/if_you_were_my_husband_id_poison_your_coffee_nancy_as
tor_to_churchill), Barry Popik, The Big Apple, February 9, 2009
Early examples include 19 November 1899, Gazette-Telegraph (CO), "Tales of the
Town," p. 7, and early attributions are to American humorists Marshall P. Wilder and
De Wolf Hopper.
Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations, by Richard Langworth,
PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 578.
The Yale Book of Quotations, edited by Fred R. Shapiro, New Haven, Connecticut,
Yale University Press, 2006, p. 155.
George Thayer, The Washington Post (April 27, 1971), p. B6.
George Bernard Shaw is said to have told W.S.C.:
Am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come and bring a friend—if you have
one.
W.S.C. to G.B.S.:
Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will attend the second—if there is one.
(Version given in Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill's Wit by Kay
Halle, 1966)
Apocryphal, originally featured Noël Coward and Randolph Churchill (Winston's son);
attested 1946 (columnist Walter Winchell, attributed to anonymous United Press
journalist in London). Originally only featured first half about lack of friend; second half
(retort about lack of second performance) attested 1948, as was replacement of
personages by George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill. Specific plays added in
later variants, ranging from Man and Superman (1903) to Saint Joan (1923), and
appeared in biographies and quote collections from the 1960s.
The quote is presumably apocryphal due to earliest attestations being too different,
less famous personages (easily replaced by more famous ones), the quotation
becoming more elaborate in later versions, the 20+ year gap between putative
utterance and first attestation, and the approximately 50 year gap between putative
utterance and appearance in reference works, all as undocumented hearsay.
Detailed discussion at "Here are Two Tickets for the Opening of My Play. Bring a
Friend—If You Have One (http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/25/two-tickets-shaw/)",
Garson O'Toole, Quote Investigator (http://quoteinvestigator.com/), March 25, 2012.
If you're going through hell, keep going.

True origin unknown. Finest Hour described it as "not verifiable in any of the 50 million
published words by and about him" (Finest Hour, The Journal of Winston Churchill,
Number 145, Winter 2009–10, p. 9 (https://www.winstonchurchill.org/images/finesthou
r/vol.01%20no.145.pdf)). A similar quotation: "If you're going through hell, don't stop!"
is "plausibly attributed" to Oregon self-help author and counselor Douglas Bloch
(1990), according to Quote Investigator.[28]
Americans Will Always Do the Right Thing — After Exhausting All the Alternatives.
This is a modification of a March 1967 quote by Israeli politician Abba Eban who said,
"Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources."
Eban used various versions of this quote over the years. In 1979 he said, "My
experience teaches me this: Men and nations do act wisely when they have
exhausted all the other possibilities."[9] (http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exha
ust-alternatives/)
In a 1970 Congressional hearing, a version of the quote first referenced Americans. It
was attributed to an unnamed Irishman. "And indeed, we often know how to do things
by the philosophy that was expounded by another Irishman I know. He said that you
can depend on Americans to do the right thing when they have exhausted every other
possibility."[10] (http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/)
The earliest known attribution of the quote to Churchill occurred in 1980.[11] (http://qu
oteinvestigator.com/2012/11/11/exhaust-alternatives/)
Gentlemen, We Have Run Out Of Money; Now We Have to Think

This quote, or a minor variation of it ("Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time
to start thinking.") is also attributed to (Sir) Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), the famed
New Zealand chemist and physicist. [12] (http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/ar
chive/2011/November/Pages/%E2%80%98Gentlemen,WeHaveRunOutOfMoney;No
wWeHavetoThink%E2%80%99.aspx)
Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for
directions
This appears to be a variation of a quote often attributed to Caskie Stinnett in 1960, "A
diplomat...is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually
look forward to the trip" [13] (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kcycAQAAQBAJ&p
g=PA90&dq=%22A+diplomat+is+a+person+who+can+tell+you+to+go+to+hell+in+suc
h+a+way+that+you+actually+look+forward+to+the+trip.%22) but which appears to
have been in common use in the 1950s and is first recorded in the Seattle Daily Times
in 1953 as "Diplomat—one who can tell you to go to hades and make you look
forward to the trip".[14] (http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/a_di
plomat_is_a_person_who_can_tell_you_to_go_to_hell_so_that_you_look_forw/)
The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the

average voter
Attribution debunked in Langworth's Churchill by Himself.[29] First known appearance

is in a 1992 usenet post (https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=rec.arts.
comics.misc/EMj3ZowKq1U/E0dsEBwdZEgJ).
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm

Attribution debunked in Langworth's Churchill by Himself. The earliest close match
located by the Quote Investigator is from the 1953 book How to Say a Few Words by
David Guy Powers.[30]
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results
Attribution debunked by Langworth. [31]

Germany's unforgivable crime before the second world war was her attempt to extricate
her economic power from the world's trading system and to create her own exchange
mechanism which would deny world finance its opportunity to profit. We butchered the
wrong pig.
debunked in 2017 (https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/01/9-quotes-from-winston-churc
hill-that-are-totally-fake/), earliest appearance was a 2001 foreword to a reprint of the
1938 book "Propaganda in the Next War"
this is also used appears (minus the last sentence) on 159 (https://books.google.c
a/books?id=taVjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT159page) of the 2018 book "The Spine of
Western Culture" by Carlos Wiggen, who said Churchill wrote this in a letter to
Robert Boothby
Germany's unforgivable crime before WW2 was its attempt to loosen it's economy out of
the world trade system and to build up an own exchange system from which the world-
finance couldn't profit anymore.
page 216 (https://books.google.ca/books?id=gKBQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA216) of
"Distribia: A Society Free of Tribalism" by Ali Cheaib, published 5 March 2018. Claims
the quote comes from a 1960 autobiography called "Winston Churchill - The Second
World War". A permutation of the above false quote.
Germany's unforgivable crime before WW2 was its attempt to loosen its economy out of
the world trade system and to build up an independent exchange system from which the
world-finance couldn't profit anymore ... We butchered the wrong pig
from page 179 (https://books.google.ca/books?id=lNLEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA179) of
"The Economics of War: Profiteering, Militarism and Imperialism" a 2019 book by Imad
A. Moosa, who wrote "Apparently Churchill said the following in 1946 and 1960,
respectively" regarding it and a preceding quote. This version is a combination of the
two preceding ones: combining the "wrong pig" statement and the "second world war"
> "WW2" formats.
Quotes about Churchill

Alphabetised by surname
Having...announced his "Four Years Plan", Churchill was sincere enough in his commitment
to social reform. If a Churchill Government had been elected in 1945 some form of National
Health Service would have been introduced, along with comprehensive social insurance
and policies to maintain full employment.
Paul Addison, Churchill On The Home Front, 1900–1955 (1992), p. 438
Churchill's general conception of British history was also, in a sense, commonplace. It was a
romantic Whig history: the story of the growth of liberty and representative institutions at
home, in parallel with the rise of Britain as a great power overseas. The Glorious Revolution
of 1688 and the Great Reform Act of 1832 were accompanied by Blenheim, Trafalgar and
Waterloo. It was a story, besides, of great men: great parliamentarians like Hampden or Pitt,
and great commanders like Cromwell or Nelson. But this was the point at which the national
myth of Whig history merged into the family myth of Winston Churchill. Among the great men
of history were Churchill's father, Lord Randolph, and his ancestor, John Churchill, the first
duke of Marlborough. It was they who provided the link between Churchill's conceptions of
British history, and his sense of personal destiny. The Glorious Revolution, and the rise of
Britain as a great power, were exemplified for Churchill
by the career of Marlborough. The rise of parliamentary
democracy was exemplified by the career of Lord
Randolph. Churchill came to see his own life as a re-
enactment and continuation of theirs.
Paul Addison, 'Destiny, history and providence: the
religion of Winston Churchill', in Michael Bentley
(ed.), Public and Private Doctrine: Essays in British
History presented to Maurice Cowling (1993), pp.
242-243
The government took the threat of UFOs so seriously in

the 1950s that UK intelligence chiefs met to discuss the
issue, newly-released files show...he papers also
include a wartime account claiming prime minister
Winston Churchill ordered a UFO sighting be kept secret
to prevent "mass panic"... the latest batch of UFO files I wish I knew as much about
released from the Ministry of Defence to the National anything as that young man knows
Archives shows that, in 1957, the committee received about everything. ~ H.H. Asquith
reports detailing an average of one UFO sighting a
week... The files also include an account of a wartime
meeting attended by Winston Churchill in which, it is
claimed, the prime minister was so concerned about a
reported encounter between a UFO and RAF bombers,
that he ordered it be kept secret for at least 50 years to
prevent "mass panic". Nick Pope, who used to
investigate UFO sightings for the MoD, said: "The
interesting thing is that most of the UFO files from that
period have been destroyed... But what happened is that
a scientist whose grandfather was one of his [Churchill's]
bodyguards, said look, Churchill and Eisenhower got It must be a melancholy satisfaction
together to cover up this phenomenal UFO sighting, that to see how right you were... Let's
was witnessed by an RAF crew on their way back from a hope it's not too late. ~ Clement
bombing raid...The reason apparently was because Attlee
Churchill believed it would cause mass panic and it
would shatter people's religious views.
BBC Churchill ordered UFO cover-up, National Archives show (https://www.bbc.com/ne
ws/uk-10853905) (5 August 2010)
[T]he splendid leadership he gave this country and the Commonwealth from the moment he
became Prime Minister in the Second World War—a leadership which not only saved the
freedom and genius of Europe's most civilised peoples from eclipse, but also carried Britain
triumphant with no more than a third of her former sacrifice of life through a Second World
War half as long again as the First... Not one, in fact, of the great Englishmen who have
possessed the priceless combination of political and military sense...has surpassed
Churchill in the distinctive genius for statesmanship in peace and war on which the
greatness of this little island has been built, namely, an infallible instinct for the balance of
power indispensable to its security, alertness to any threatened disturbance of that balance
however far ahead, and imaginative resource, when the balance has been disturbed, in
righting it by the most effective and economical use of our always inadequate strength. It is
due, I repeat, to this, the dominant element in his genius, that Western Europe is not at this
moment a dependency of either Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.
Lord Altrincham, 'Churchill in International Affairs',
Charles Eade (ed.), Churchill By His Contemporaries
(1953), p. 182
[The War] at once raised issues which transcended all

party divisions and, obliterating all the questions of the
passing hour, linked up the England of to-day with the
England that fought the Spanish Armada, that humbled
Louis XIV and wore down Napoleon. In that new, that
eternal England, he by natural right came into his own.
He is to-day the spirit of old England incarnate, with
its unshakeable self-confidence, its grim gaiety, its
unfailing sense of humour, its underlying moral
earnestness, its unflinching tenacity. Against that
inner unity of spirit between leader and nation the ill- Stalin immediately ordered
cemented moral fabric of Hitler's perversion of the construction work to begin on the
German soul must be shattered in the end. Iron Curtain, which was given its
name by Sir Winston Churchill, who,
Leo Amery, BBC broadcast (29 November 1941), in a historic anecdote at a dinner
quoted in The Times (1 December 1941), p. 2 party, said, "Madam, I may be drunk,
but an iron curtain has descended
We have at this moment a much better atmosphere, in
upon BLEAAARRRGGGHHH." ~
which there is far less industrial tension than there was
Dave Barry
sometime back... I hold no brief for the present Minister of
Munitions [Winston Churchill]. I believe he has his
personal and political detractors—I am not concerned
with them one way or the other—but in my opinion he
has brought courage and a certain quality of imagination
to the task of dealing with labour questions since he
became Minister of Munitions. Because of that, the
situation has perceptibly improved, and I hope he will go
on in the same direction.
William Anderson, speech in the House of Commons
(6 November 1917), quoted in David Lloyd George, Look, if Churchill hadn't done what he
War Memoirs, Volume II (1938), p. 1160 did to defeat the Nazis, you wouldn't
be here, none of us would be here.
The world depends on the United States to shape What is more, we have to take a
history. No person recognized this fact better than special interest in him because he,
Winston Churchill, whose nation depended on American
too, led a little island against a great
intervention in the Second World War. At the time, he
enemy. ~ Fidel Castro
wrote, "How heavily do the destinies of this generation
hang upon the government and people of the United
States... Will the United States throw their weight into the
scales of peace and law and freedom while time remains, or will they remain spectators until
the disaster has occurred; and then, with infinite cost and labor, build up what need not have
been cast down?"
Anonymous, A Warning (2019), p. 180
I wish I knew as much about anything as that young man knows about everything.
H. H. Asquith, in response to Churchill's questioning him in the House of Commons (c.a.
1910) as quoted by Freeman Dyson, The Scientist As Rebel (2006).
Compare the remark attributed (1870) to the Marquis of Landsdowne after reading
Thomas Macaulay's History of England: "I wish I could be as certain about anything as
Tom Macaulay is about everything".[32]
It must be a melancholy satisfaction to see how right

you were... Let's hope it's not too late.
Clement Attlee to Churchill after reading his book
Step by Step, 1936-1939 (1 July 1939), quoted in
Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill,
1922–1939 (1979), p. 1078
You may have the best machinery in the world, you may
have adequate supplies of munitions, you may have the
men, you may have the generals; but wars are fought out
eventually always as contests of will, and there are
needed in the responsible positions men who are
prepared to give decisions, who are not afraid to take
risks, men of inflexible will-power. In all these respects, I
say, from very close working with him for the last two
years, that we have in the Prime Minister a leader in war
such as this country has rarely had in its long history. Without you this day could not have
been. ~ Anthony Eden
Clement Attlee, speech (https://api.parliament.uk/hist
oric-hansard/commons/1942/may/19/war-situation#c
olumn_67) in the House of Commons (19 May 1942)
One of these days I'll make a few casual remarks about

Winston. Not a speech—no oratory—just a few words in
passing. I've got it all ready. I am going to say that when
Winston was born lots of fairies swooped down on his
cradle gifts—imagination, eloquence, industry, ability,
and then came a fairy who said "No one person has a
right to so many gifts", picked him up and gave him such
a shake and twist that with all these gifts he was denied
It is fun to be in the same decade
judgment and wisdom. And that is why while we delight
with you. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
to listen to him in this House, we do not take his advice.
Stanley Baldwin in conversation with Thomas Jones
(22 May 1936), quoted in Thomas Jones, A Diary
with Letters. 1931-1950 (1954), p. 204
Stalin's strategy at the end of World War II was to acquire

a small "buffer zone between Russia and Germany,
consisting of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria,
Yugoslavia, Albania, and most of Germany. In an effort to
garner public support in these nations, Stalin mounted a
public-relations campaign around the upbeat theme
"Maybe We Won't Have Your Whole Family Shot," and
in 1945 Eastern Europe decided to join the Communist
bloc by a vote of 28,932,084,164,504,029-0. Heartened
by this mandate, Stalin immediately ordered construction
work to begin on the Iron Curtain, which was given its Remember him, for he saved all of
name by Sir Winston Churchill, who, in a historic you. ~ C.L. Sulzberger
anecdote at a dinner party, said, "Madam, I may be
drunk, but an iron curtain has descended upon
BLEAAARRRGGGHHH."
Dave Barry, Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort-Of History
of the United States (1989), p. 126
Right away Churchill jumped up and said: Our entire

tragedy is that we have a weak government. The
Baldwins are idiots, totally lacking in talent, etc. If
England is to be dependent on them, she is lost. They
are concerned only with deposing and crowning kings,
while Germany is arming and growing stronger, and we
are slipping lower and lower. But this situation will not
last long. England will wake up and defeat Mussolini
and Hitler, and then your hour will also come.
David Ben-Gurion's diary entry after meeting
Churchill (9 June 1937), quoted in Martin Gilbert,
Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939
(1979), pp. 848-849
[O]ne of the greatest Englishmen of our time. He is a great man. He is, of course,
our enemy and has always been the
Tony Benn, diary (24 January 1965), quoted in The
enemy of Communism, but he is an
Benn Diaries, 1940–1990 (1996), p. 123
enemy one must respect, an enemy
[Winston Churchill] does not talk the language of the one likes to have. ~ Tito
20th century but that of the 18th. He is still fighting
Blenheim all over again. His only answer to a difficult
situation is send a gun-boat.
Aneurin Bevan, Speech at Labour Party Conference, Scarborough, 2 October 1951, in
'Daily Herald' 3 October 1951
Lloyd George was a bigger man than Churchill, and one of the biggest things about
Churchill was that he knew it.
Aneurin Bevan, quoted in Michael Foot, 'David Lloyd George', Loyalists and Loners
(1986), p. 141
He stands out from his contemporaries as a great and resplendent figure with none to rival
him in his many-sidedness... The historians will speak of him as one of the greatest of
parliamentarians...they will speak of him as the statesman to whom the whole world looked
for guidance when the very skies seemed about to fall; they will recount his mastery of the
written and the spoken word; they will discuss every element in his many-sidedness; and the
great figure who has dominated our age will take his destined place in the long and noble
line of those who...have been clothed with a kind of immortality... Winston Churchill, it may
be confidently said, will never be forgotten. He will be remembered beyond all other things
as the man who rallied the forces of freedom all over the world when it was confronted by a
"monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime".
Norman Birkett, 'Churchill the Orator', Charles Eade (ed.), Churchill By His
Contemporaries (1953), pp. 223–224
Many of his speeches will live as examples of human speech at its highest and best, and
they will be woven into the fabric of our own history and the history of the world. For many of
these speeches made history before our very eyes. They changed the shape of events. They
proclaimed the greatness of our past and the nature of our great traditions. They shed a clear
light upon the path of duty, and they implanted in ordinary men and women the resolve to
make the day of danger their finest hour. They appealed to the noblest and deepest feelings
of mankind when discouragement and despair besieged their hearts, and brought triumph
out of the jaws of defeat; and many of those speeches will remain a great possession for all
time of the country whose interests they preserved and maintained. They will also remain as
an undying memorial to the man who made them and became the greatest figure of his age.
Norman Birkett, 'Churchill the Orator', Charles Eade (ed.), Churchill By His
Contemporaries (1953), p. 233
Among the many memorable things Churchill said was this: Talking of Dingra, he said that
there had been much discussion in the Cabinet about him. Lloyd George had expressed to
him his highest admiration of Dingra's attitude as a patriot, in which he (Churchill) shared.
He will be remembered 2,000 years hence, as we remember Regulus and Caractacus and
Plutarch's heroes, and Churchill quoted with admiration Dingra's last words as the finest
ever made in the name of patriotism.
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, diary entry (3 October 1909), quoted in Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, My
Diaries: Being a Personal Narrative of Events, 1888–1914. Part Two: 1900 to 1914
(1920), p. 288
Every man who's had to command troops in combat has had to look at the big picture. When
Harry Truman made the decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan, he didn't do that assuming
he wasn't going to be criticized for it. He was looking at ending the war and saving a million
American lives. He provided vision for the nation in spite of the fact that many criticized him
then and even more do now. And what about Winston Churchill? He let the Germans bomb
the British city of Coventry to protect the fact that the Allies had broken the Germans' code.
He allowed the Germans to bomb Coventry because he was looking strategically at ending
the war. And he knew if he let it be known that he was reading the Germans' mail, they
would immediately change their code. That's thinking strategically versus at the tactical
situation. I think everybody who's ever commanded troops has had to look at circumstances
strategically. And that amounts to having vision.
William G. Boykin, Man to Man: Rediscovering Masculinity in a Challenging World
(2020), p. 29
[F]rom the prisoner's point of view—I am speaking from the prisoner's point of view today—
when the Prime Minister [Winston Churchill] was Home Secretary he did more for the
prisoners than any Home Secretary we have had in the last 50 years. The speech to which
my hon. Friend referred was made when the Prime Minister was Home Secretary in the
Liberal Government before the First World War. Anyone who has experienced prison
conditions knows that the reforms which the right hon. Gentleman introduced in that
period...made more difference to the conditions in prisons than any reforms which have been
introduced by other Home Secretaries.
Labour MP Fenner Brockway, speech (https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commo
ns/1954/feb/05/prisons-overcrowding#column_741) in the House of Commons (5
February 1954)
Meetings between Roosevelt and the JCS were impromptu and usually convened to deal
with a specific problem. The President would decide who would attend, presumably those
whom he wanted for advice. The record shows that King was in the White House some
thirty-two times during 1942, although there may have been other meetings that were not on
the President's appointment calendar. The scheduled appointments then diminished for the
remainder of the war: eight in 1943, nine in 1944, and one in 1945. In contrast, Churchill met
with the British Chiefs of Staff almost daily.
Thomas B. Buell, Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King
(1980), p. 242
In the late 1930s, as Britain refused to adapt to the new realities of war, Winston Churchill
observed, "The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients,
of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences."
George W. Bush, in his speech "A Period of Consequences" at The Citadel, the Military
College of South Carolina, on September 23, 1999
I decided to keep the Rembrandt Peale portrait of George Washington that Dad and Bill
Clinton had placed over the mantel. I added busts of Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower,
and Winston Churchill- a gift on loan from the British government courtesy of Prime Minister
Tony Blair. I had told Tony that I admired Churchill's courage, principle, and sense of humor-
all of which I thought were necessary for leadership.
George W. Bush, Decision Points (2010), p. 108
[I]t does seem true, almost a truism, that Churchill's famous phrases – 'blood, sweat, toil and
tears', 'their finest hour', 'we shall never surrender' – did express something inarticulate,
perhaps dormant but perhaps not, in the hearts and minds of his countrymen, of most
classes. They achieved their effect by a heroic yet very simple expression of the will to resist
('we shall fight them in the hills') and by invoking the naïve sense of nationhood and history
which most of his literate subjects shared with him... Churchill clearly achieved and retained
a popularity far greater than – because different in kind from – that of any peacetime leader...
He radiated his courage over the microphone as successfully as he pumped blood into the
sclerotic arteries of the House of Commons... And, whatever their private opinions, all
classes were clear that there nowhere was, nor ever had been, anyone quite like this man
they were cheering. Such singularity, in such a high position, could only amount to
greatness.
Angus Calder, The People's War: Britain, 1939–45 (1969), pp. 96–98
The men were thrilled to see him. I've never seen such enthusiasm. It's not surprising—he
has such presence—such personality—also the man in the street realizes that he has been
right in everything he has said since 1933. Those in high places say he's finished—I don't
believe it. He has a following in the country far bigger than those in Westminster think.
Ronald Cartland to his sister Barbara Cartland after visiting the Austin aeroplane factory
with Churchill (spring 1938), quoted in Neville Thompson, The Anti-Appeasers (1971), p.
171 and Paul Addison, The Road to 1945 (1994), p. 77
Look, if Churchill hadn't done what he did to defeat the Nazis, you wouldn't be here,
none of us would be here. What is more, we have to take a special interest in him
because he, too, led a little island against a great enemy.
Fidel Castro's answer to a student who objected to Castro calling Churchill "a
tremendous man" because he was a colonialist, during his visit to a Havana bookshop
(13 February 1964), quoted in 'Castro Expounds in Bookshop Visit; Premier Outlines
Hopes to University Students', The New York Times (14 February 1964)
The Prime Minister made an important and moving statement. I sat behind him...and he was
eloquent, and oratorical, and used magnificent English; several Labour Members cried. He
hinted that we might be obliged to fight alone, without France, and that England might well
be invaded.
Conservative MP Henry Channon's diary entry after Churchill's "We shall never
surrender" speech (4 June 1940), quoted in Robert Rhodes James (ed.), Chips: The
Diaries of Sir Henry Channon (1967), p. 256
Churchill's associations with Scott's Manchester was part of his education as a Liberal, and
he emerged as not only an eloquent but also an effectual exponent of Scott's kind of
progressivism... From his Manchester base Churchill became, almost at a bound, a Radical
leader... When Churchill was beaten in the Manchester North West by-election, the Guardian
mourned the party loss as less than the "irreparable" personal loss of "a rising and formative
political force which we would gladly have kept for our special help and service".
Peter Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism (1971), pp. 189-190
Churchill showed himself formidably equipped to fulfil a role which Scott had always known
he could not himself: that of inspirational leader, leading, moreover, in the direction which
Scott had mapped out. At its zenith their relationship represented the fusing of such
complementary elements as made progressive achievements possible. Nothing could have
pleased Scott more than that in May 1909 the fate of the Budget should impel Churchill to
come to Manchester to tread out the corn in his best fashion. Here was the right issue and
the right man to rally Lancashire to it; and here was Scott, proud to play host to him – surely
their finest hour? And throughout 1909 Scott gave what help he could in ensuring that
Churchill's important speeches received full-dress treatment in the Guardian.
Peter Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism (1971), pp. 190-191
You had Mr. Churchill on the radio explaining that we'd never surrender, and above
you had the Spitfire, and you couldn't help thinking: Yes, we can win this thing.
Jeremy Clarkson, I Know You Got Soul (2004), p. 276
The little band that Churchill called into his confidence included...myself... All of us were
obsessed with the German peril and the nakedness of our country to meet it, and Winston
was galvanic in collecting the latest information to place before us. I have vivid recollections
of his prophetic warnings couched in such terms of urgency that none of us could fail to
realise that here was a patriot who was prepared to stake everything in rousing his
countrymen to action... I can see the great man now pacing the floor of my drawing
room...delivering short pungent sentences such as, "at this moment all through Germany the
factories are lit up, the clanging of hammers goes on all night, and the only answering British
sound is the snoring of 'X'!"
Lord Croft, My Life of Strife (1948), p. 285
Every day there are four or five columns in the Manchester Guardian consecrated to his
honour.
Lord Curzon, speech in Oldham, reported in The Manchester Guardian (22 December
1909), quoted in Peter Clarke, Lancashire and the New Liberalism (1971), p. 191
He is much more attractive than the Edens and other gentlemanly wishy-washies. He is a
real tough and at the moment talking our language.
Labour MP Hugh Dalton's diary entry (3 October 1938), quoted in Ben Pimlott, Hugh
Dalton (1986), p. 259
He was quite magnificent. The man, and the only man we have, for this hour... As we
separated several of us went up and spoke to him. He had risen from the long table and was
standing in front of the fireplace. I patted him on the back and said: 'Well done, Prime
Minister! You ought to get that cartoon of Low, showing us all rolling up our sleeves and
falling in behind you, and frame it and stick it up there'. He answered with a broad grin, 'Yes,
that was a good one, wasn't it?'
Hugh Dalton's diary entry on Churchill's declaration that Britain would fight on (28 May
1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (1983),
pp. 419-420
A British soldier once described Winston Spencer Churchill as "a pugnacious looking
b[astard]." Others mistakenly regarded Churchill's plump figure as the affirmation of a jolly fat
man. One historian has aptly described him as resembling a cherubic, jumbo-size baby with
a cigar stuck in its mouth. There are hardly sufficient adjectives in the English language to
describe the British wartime prime minister, but a descriptive (and contradictory) few will
suffice. Churchill was brilliant, pampered, petulant, romantic, pragmatic, courageous,
egotistical, eccentric, possessed of enormous perseverance, opinionated beyond measure,
and impossibly demanding; furthermore, he drank too much, suffered from depression (his
"black dog"), "waddled rather than walked," and by any criterion ought to have been too old
to carry the enormous burden of a prolonged war that threatened Britain's very existence.
His mood swings were legion and ranged from tears to jokes- on occasion at one and the
same time. Eisenhower tells the tale of meetings during which "I've seen tears run over his
chin." During one such encounter Eisenhower had just rejected as impossible something
Churchill wanted done in Italy. "He painted a terrible picture if we didn't do it... He said, 'if
that should happen I should have to go to His Majesty and lay down the mantle of my high
office.' And here were tears running down. But within ten seconds he was telling a joke...
The man could use pathos, humor, anecdote, history, anything to get his way." Warts and all,
Winston Churchill nevertheless represented the indomitable spirit of a defiant nation under
siege. His oratory was stirring, and like FDR's, it galvanized an entire nation. In 1939 when
Lord Halifax suggested that Britain make peace with Hitler, Churchill not only declined but
instead vowed to rescue "mankind from the foulest and most soul-destroying tyranny which
has ever darkened the stained pages of history."
Carlo D'Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life (2002), p. 328-329
Winston Churchill was unlike anyone Eisenhower had ever met. Though he was a
megalomaniac on a par with MacArthur, Churchill elicited a wholly contrary response from
Eisenhower, whose aversion to big egos was built on a lifetime of experience with such
men. With Churchill, Eisenhower found himself up against a powerful personality- with a
penchant for the dramatic gesture- in whom were combined politician, statesman, warlord,
and frustrated soldier would much rather have been on the battlefield commanding troops:
The latter he had in common with Eisenhower.
Carlo D'Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life (2002), p.
Winston Churchill, who worried about the "pan-Asian malaise" and the looming "shadow of
Asiatic solidarity," was himself inordinately fond of the racial slurs that were guaranteed to
alienate Asian peoples. His Chinese allies remained "little yellow men" to him, even as the
same phrase became an everyday expression in discussions of the Japanese enemy.
John W. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race & Power in the Pacific War (1986), p. 161-162
All my thoughts are with you on this day which is so essentially your day. It is you who
have led, uplifted and inspired us through the worst days. Without you this day could
not have been.
Anthony Eden's telegram to Churchill (8 May 1945), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to
Victory: Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (1986), p. 1351
A later call on President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, a guest at the White
House, was no more than an informal chat. It had no military significance, but it was the first
time I ever had a personal talk with either of these two men. Tobruk, in the African desert,
had just fallen to the Germans and the whole Allied world was thrown into gloom. These two
leaders, however, showed no signs of pessimism. It was gratifying to note that they were
thinking of attack and victory, not of defense and defeat.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Crusade in Europe (1948), p. 51
An inspirational leader, he seemed to typify Britain's courage and perseverance in adversity

and its conservatism in success... He was a great war leader and he is a great man.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 'Churchill as an Ally in War', Charles Eade (ed.), Churchill By His
Contemporaries (1953), pp. 128–129
His vitality, his brainpower, his endurance, his wit, his eloquence, his industry, his
application were superabundant, superhuman. The first and last impression left by the
Colosseum concerns its size. So with Churchill: the man was huge. Then, also, for the bulk
of the British adult population, the moment which must stand out most proudly in their
collective memory was 1940. More deliberately than at any other time in its history the nation
united in a good cause... That was their finest hour. Churchill was the prime organiser, the
voice, the symbol and the historian of those great days... His precise virtue then was that he
represented his countrymen in that crisis better than at any other moment in his career. He
exemplified, in word and deed – more, in every inflection and gesture – the untiring,
resplendent courage which the hour demanded... Rarely were the needs of a nation and the
chief quality of its leader better matched than in 1940. Nothing can ever take that from him.
No one in his senses will ever try.
Michael Foot, Loyalists and Loners (1986), pp. 168-169
I have got a good recollection of Mr. Churchill when he was in the Colonial Office and
somehow or other since then I have held the opinion that I can always rely on his sympathy
and goodwill.
Mahatma Gandhi in conversation with G. D. Birla, quoted in Birla's letter to Churchill (23
September 1935), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–
1939 (1979), p. 619
As early as 1919, Churchill, then a cabinet minister in Lloyd George's government, foresaw
the potential for German-Soviet collaboration.
James C. Humes, Churchill: The Prophetic Statesman, Regnery History, Washington
DC, 2012, p. 136
Winston Churchill famously claimed that of all human qualities, courage was the most
esteemed, because it guaranteed all others.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein in Grassroots leaders provide the best hope to a troubled world,
The Economist, (https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/08/30/grassroots-leaders-
provide-the-best-hope-to-a-troubled-world) (30 August 2018)
Unfortunately, as he quickly discovered, the governor had fallen prey to the hazard of
“Churchillian Drift,” attributing an aphorism of unknown origin to Winston Churchill.
"Churchillian Drift", International Churchill Society, 2018 (https://winstonchurchill.org/pub
lications/churchill-bulletin/bulletin-122-aug-2018/churchillian-drift/)
He ought to be the Minister of Supply if we are in for a crisis. His energy and fiery brain seem
unimpaired with age. He is certainly not dismayed by our difficulties. He says that our rulers
are now beginning to get frightened... He said that sometimes he couldn't sleep at night
thinking of our dangers, how all this wonderful Empire which had been built up so slowly
and so steadily might all be dissipated in a minute. He was just the stuff required in an
emergency. The thing is to say when the emergency has arrived.
General Ironside's diary entry (6 December 1937), quoted in Colonel Roderick Macleod
and Denis Kelly (eds.), Time Unguarded: The Ironside Diaries, 1937–1940 (1962), p. 42
I keep thinking of Winston Churchill down at Westerham, full of patriotism and ideas for
saving the Empire. A man who knows that you must act to win. You cannot remain supine
and allow yourself to be hit indefinitely. Winston must be chafing at the inaction. I keep
thinking of him walking up and down the room.
General Ironside's diary entry (27 July 1939), quoted in Colonel Roderick Macleod and
Denis Kelly (eds.), Time Unguarded: The Ironside Diaries, 1937–1940 (1962), p. 86
In Winston Churchill we have a man capable of keeping up the courage of the people.
Thank God for that. I know no one else amongst our political leaders who can do it.
General Ironside's diary entry (18 August 1940), quoted in Colonel Roderick Macleod
and Denis Kelly (eds.), Time Unguarded: The Ironside Diaries, 1937–1940 (1962), p.
390
[T]he upsurge of the national spirit was largely his own creation. The great qualities of the
British race had seemed almost dormant until he had aroused them. The people then saw
themselves as he portrayed them. They put their trust in him. They were ready to do anything
that he asked, make any sacrifice that he demanded, and follow wherever he led.
Hastings Ismay, The Memoirs of General The Lord Ismay, K.G., P.C., G.C.B., C.H.,
D.S.O. (1960), p. 155
To the occupied nations in Europe he was already the living symbol of resistance and hope.
Only if Britain was victorious could they regain their freedom, and they felt that if anyone
could bring about that victory, it was Churchill. Travelling in Scandinavia and the Low
Countries after the war, this was the sort of thing that I heard on all sides: "You in England
had no idea what Churchill meant to us. We used to sit in dark cellars with the wireless
turned on as low as possible, and while one of our number patrolling the streets would keep
a look out for the Gestapo, we would strain our ears to catch his every word. His voice was
the only ray of light in an otherwise completely dark and hopeless world."
Hastings Ismay, The Memoirs of General The Lord Ismay, K.G., P.C., G.C.B., C.H.,
D.S.O. (1960), p. 156
I now put Churchill, with all his idiosyncrasies, his indulgences, his occasional
childishness, but also his genius, his tenacity and his persistent ability, right or wrong,
successful or unsuccessful, to be larger than life, as the greatest human being ever to
occupy 10 Downing Street.
Roy Jenkins, Churchill (2001), p. 912
He never over-claimed his part in 1940. Disaster had united rather than disrupted the people
of Britain as he knew it would. Although as a nation we were alone, as individuals we were
all in it together. He felt our temper exactly... But it was not to his eloquence, or even to his
humour, alone that we responded; disaster had struck the scales from our eyes, and
suddenly we saw the towering courage that had been Churchill's all his life. We all knew, in
that instinctive way that tells true from false, that here was a man who would stand to the
last; and in this confidence we could stand with him.
Reginald Victor Jones, Most Secret War (1979), pp. 152–153
Unlike modern military operations, whose names are chosen for their public relations value,
operations in World War II were christened on the governing principle that the name should
give no hint of the objective. To this, Winston Churchill added a second requirement:
operations should not be given boastful or frivolous monikers. As he told Pug Ismay,
"Intelligent thought will already supply an unlimited number of well-sounding names that do
not suggest the character of the operation or disparage it in any way and do not enable
some widow or mother to say that her son was killed in an operation called 'BUNNYHUG' or
'BALLYHOO'.
Johnathan W. Jordan, in his book American Warlords: How Roosevelt's High Command
Led America To Victory In World War II (2016), p. 475.
Perhaps if the British people could speak, they would ask for peace. But since the official
voice of England asks not for peace but for destruction, it is destruction we must provide.
William Joyce, telling to the listeners in 1939, that "England is ripe for invasion", and
England expects the United States for help, in speech, Joyce criticized Churchill. Real-
Time Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era, p. 113.
In the dark days and darker nights when England stood alone--and most men save
Englishmen despaired of England's life--he mobilized the English language and sent it
into battle.
John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, made this remark as he signed a
proclamation conferring honorary status as a United States citizen upon Winston
Churchill, on April 9, 1963. Churchill is one of only eight people to be made an honorary
citizen of the United States of America, and the first to receive it in history.
One day during the conference King lunched alone with Mr. Churchill and enjoyed the
opportunity for an extended conversation. So convincingly did the Prime Minister speak that
King, as he remarked afterward, kept his hand on his watch. Had this cherished personal
belonging been asked of him, he might not have known how to refuse it! Although King was
not in accord with the suggestions of operations in the eastern Mediterranean and an attack
on the soft underbelly of Europe, he was in hearty agreement with Mr. Churchill's desire to
clear the enemy out of North Africa so that Allied shipping might freely use the
Mediterranean and avoid the long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope.
Ernest J. King and Walter M. Whitehill, referring to the Casablanca Conference of
January 1943, in Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record (1952), p. 425
In King's view, there could have been no finer comrades-in-arms for the President and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff than the Prime Minister and the British Chiefs of Staff. King both
respected and enjoyed Mr. Churchill. The two men were similar in their entire frankness and
their determination in pursuing given thoughts and courses of action. From time to time they
collided, but basically they understood one another.
Ernest King and Walter M. Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King: A Naval Record (1952), p. 646
Take Winston Churchill into the Cabinet. Churchill is the only Englishman Hitler is afraid of.
He does not take the PM or Lord Halifax seriously, but he placed Churchill in the same
category as Roosevelt. The mere fact of giving him a leading ministerial post would
convince Hitler that [you] really meant to stand up to him... Churchill's admission to the
Cabinet would be the most effective measure. Otherwise trouble would start again very
soon.
Count Schwerin von Krosigk (German Minister of Finance) in conversation with Colonel
Beaumont-Nesbitt (5 July 1939), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S.
Churchill, 1922–1939 (1979), p. 1085
In twenty-five years' knowledge of our [labour] movement I have known no leader to whom
that faith has been given in greater measure or from a fuller heart.
Harold Laski, Tribune (4 October 1940), pp. 11–12, quoted in Paul Addison, The Road to
1945 (1994), p. 196
As I look at the Europe Hitler has devastated, I know very intimately that, as an Englishman
of Jewish origin, I owe you the gift of life itself.
Harold Laski to Churchill (2 September 1944), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Road to Victory:
Winston S. Churchill, 1941-1945 (1986), p. 972
While vague about the hereafter, Churchill always held that "man is spirit," and believed in a
kind of spiritual connection with his forebears. On 24 January 1953, he told his private
secretary, John Colville, that he would die on that date—the same date his father had died in
1895. Twelve years later Churchill lapsed into a coma on January 10th. Confidently, Colville
assured The Queen's private secretary: "He won't die until the 24th." Unconscious, Churchill
did just that.
Richard M. Langworth Introduction: The Dream": A Fictional Encounter – by Winston S.

Churchill, reprinted from the official biography, Winston S. Churchill, by Martin Gilbert,
vol. 8 Never Despair 1945-1965 (2013), pages 365-72. (https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.
edu/winston-churchills-dream-1947/)
One question about The Dream that tantalized his family is whether the story was really
fiction. When asked this question, Sir Winston Churchill would smile and say, "Not entirely."
Richard M. Langworth Introduction: The Dream": A Fictional Encounter – by Winston S.
Churchill, reprinted from the official biography, Winston S. Churchill, by Martin Gilbert,
vol. 8 Never Despair 1945-1965 (2013), pages 365-72. (https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.
edu/winston-churchills-dream-1947/)
It will take a great deal of patience to undo the harm that Churchill has done.
David L. Lawrence, Don't Call Me Boss: David L. Lawrence, Pittsburgh's Renaissance
Mayor, p. 168
1919: but two years later Mr. Winston Churchill was entrusted by our harassed Cabinet with
the settlement of the Middle East; and in a few weeks, at his conference in Cairo, he made
straight all the tangle, finding solutions fulfilling (I think) our promises [to the Arabs] in letter
and spirit (where humanly possible) without sacrificing any interest of our Empire or any
interest of the peoples concerned. So we were quit of the wartime Eastern adventure, with
clean hands, but three years too late to earn the gratitude which peoples, if not states, can
pay.
T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926; 2000), p. 283
What’s so amazing about the piece is that here is a man, arguably the greatest statesperson
of the 20th century, and in 1939 he not only has the interest, but finds the time, to write an
essay about a purely scientific question” (Nature, 15 February 2017)
Mario Livio, (speaking about an article written by Churchill in 1939, revised during the
1950s but never published, discovered in 2017 in the Churchill Museum in the USA‘Are
we alone in the Universe?’) as quoted in Winston Churchill and UFOs, by Phyllis Power,
Share International (https://share-international.org/magazine/old_issues/2017/2017-04.ht
m#correo), April 2017
He would make a drum out of the skin of his own mother in order to sound his own praises.
David Lloyd George, quoted by Frances Stevenson in A. J. P. Taylor (ed), Lloyd George:
A Diary(1971), p. 253
Only that giant among statesmen, our great Prime Minister, seemed convincing in his role as
an apostle of arms and the Covenant. Of him at least men could feel that when he said arms
he meant arms. The rich versatility of his nature and the varied phases of his career had
equipped him to grasp hold of issues which to narrower men seemed incompatible. The
Liberal in him could talk of the Covenant with propriety, the Tory in him could speak of arms
with conviction. To quote a schoolboy's naïve but telling description of the Younger Pitt: "He
had a broad mind with room in it for many thoughts."
R. B. McCallum, Public Opinion and the Last Peace (1944), pp. 145-146
The truth is that Churchill never was and never had been, in the true sense, a party man. He
would fight the party battle con amore, when necessary. But behind these ephemeral
struggles, he saw always the vision of the nation. He was proud of its great past and was
determined that its future should be no less glorious. Some of the older Members of the party
were surprised and even disturbed at his being given the high post of Chancellor of the
Exchequer immediately after his return to the party fold... But as the Parliament proceeded,
no one could withhold admiration for the wit, humour, ingenuity, and oratorical skill which he
deployed. The Budget speeches were a work of art. None of us had heard anything of the
kind—such mastery of language, such careful deployment of the arguments, such dexterous
covering of any weak point... I am trying to picture the Churchill of 1924–9: unique, wayward,
exciting, a man with a peculiar glamour of his own, that brought a sense of colour into our
rather drab political life... But it is impossible to describe the effect of the continual flow of his
talk. The arresting thoughts were invariably clothed in equally striking phraseology.
Harold Macmillan, Winds of Change, 1914–1939 (1966), pp. 175-177
His countrymen have come to feel that he is saying what they would like to say for
themselves if they knew how.
Lord Moran's diary (24 December 1941), quoted in Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The
Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965 (1966; 1968), p. 28
Stalin told how he had asked Lady Astor [in 1931] about politicians in England.
'"Chamberlain," she said, "is the coming man." 'What about Winston?' '"Oh, he's finished,"
she replied.' Stalin had retorted: 'If your country is ever in trouble, he will come back.'
Lord Moran's diary (14 August 1942), quoted in Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The
Struggle for Survival, 1940–1965 (1966; 1968), p. 76
Many years on, historians will read this and your speeches in Arms and the Covenant. They
will wonder but I doubt if they will decide what devil of pride, unbelief, unselfishness or sheer
madness possessed the English people that they did not ride as one man, depose the blind
guides... and call on you to lead them to security, justice and peace. There is a Polish
proverb about the Poles themselves...'Wise is the Pole after the event'. The English
electorate is growing more Polish daily.
Desmond Morton to Churchill after reading his book Step by Step, 1936-1939 (2 July
(1979), p. 1078
Churchill had the mind of an historian and the courage of a solider. First, Churchill could see
the patterns of the past being repeated in the present, and second, he had no fear of risking
political death by going against the polls or conventional wisdom.
Richard Nixon, as quoted in Churchill: The Prophetic Statesman, James C. Humes,
Regnery History, Washington DC, 2012, p. 9
The man who rallied the nation was Churchill, a gifted and courageous man, but a patriot of
the limited, traditional kind. In effect Churchill said simply, "We are fighting for England," and
the people flocked to follow him... I personally have always admired him as a man and as a
writer, little as I like his politics.
George Orwell, 'Fascism and Democracy', The Left News (February 1941), quoted in
Peter Davison (ed.), The Complete Works of George Orwell, Volume XII: A Patriot After
All, 1940–1941 (1998), p. 380
[T]he political reminiscences which he has published...have always been a great deal above
the average, in frankness as well as literary quality... Churchill's writings are more like those
of a human being than of a public figure... Whether or not 1940 was anyone else's finest
hour, it was certainly Churchill's... [O]ne has to admire in him not only his courage but also a
certain largeness and geniality which comes out even in formal memoirs of this type... The
British people have generally rejected his policies, but they have always had a liking for him,
as one can see from the tone of the stories told about him... At the time of the Dunkirk
evacuation...it was rumoured that what he actually said, when recording the speech for
broadcast, was: "We will fight on the beaches, we will fight in the streets... We'll throw bottles
at the b—s; it's about all we've got left"—but, of course the BBC's switch-censor pressed his
thumb on the key at the right moment. One may assume that this story is untrue, but at the
time it was felt that it ought to be true. It was a fitting tribute from ordinary people to the tough
and humorous old man whom they would not accept as a peace-time leader but whom in the
moment of disaster they felt to be representative of themselves.
George Orwell's review of Churchill's Their Finest Hour in New Leader (14 May 1949),
quoted in Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus (eds.), The Collected Essays, Journalism and
Letters of George Orwell. Volume IV: In Front of Your Nose, 1945–1950 (1968), pp. 491–
495
War not only has its own weapons, it has its own ethic, its own standard of right and wrong...
Do whatever is necessary to win. This fact was emphasized in a recent statement by
Winston S. Churchill, former first lord of the British admiralty: "When all is over, torture and
cannibalism were the only two expedients that the civilized, scientific, Christian states had
been able to deny themselves: and these were of doubtful utility."
Kirby Page, "What is War?" Christian Century 41 (May 15, 1924)
He looked invincible, which he is. Tough, bulldogged, piercing. He made his way through
the smoke, through the City workers all crying "Good old Winston" – "Give 'em socks" –
"Good luck" – and the culminating cry of "Are we down-hearted?" to the heaven-rising
response of "No-o-o-o-o" which echoed around the City, around the world indeed. It was
magnificent, tremendous, stirring, dramatic.
Colin Perry's diary entry recording Churchill's visit to the East End of London during The
Blitz (c. 9 September 1940), quoted in Philip Ziegler, London At War (2015), p. 115
His violent disagreement with Neville Chamberlain did not spring solely from thwarted
ambition or personal dislike. Such motives may have sharpened the phrases and honed his
epigrams, but the long policy of appeasement, the weakening of Britain's world role, the
acceptance of oppression and racialism were to Churchill a denial of England's historical
destiny and, because a denial, bound to end in disaster.
J. H. Plumb, 'The Historian', in Churchill: Four Faces and the Man (1969; 1973), p. 123
One of the reasons for the immense popularity of Churchill in 1940 was the not unfounded
instinct of the common people that, but for him, their rulers would have betrayed them. There
is a certain fallacy in attempting to decide what was Churchill's one crucial contribution to
the survival of Britain. Great historical events are determined by a whole array of causes,
each of which would be entitled in isolation to be regarded as crucial. But I feel sure that
many people besides myself believe it was by being an immovable obstacle to compromise
or surrender in 1940 that Churchill saved his country.
Enoch Powell, 'Churchill and War', BBC Radio (29 July 1983), quoted in Rex Collings
(ed.), Reflections of a Statesman: The Writings and Speeches of Enoch Powell (1991),
p. 298
As a third-degree initiate, the scope of Churchill’s knowledge and talents was huge – he
was well-known as an historian and inspiring orator, even gaining the Nobel Prize for
literature in 1953, as well as a politician. Most importantly, as Prime Minister of Britain, he
helped to lead the allies to victory in World War II. With his first ray make-up (personality, and
mental and physical bodies) he was also physically fearless and indomitable, deliberately
seeking out, early in his career, dangerous military combat, particularly in the Boer war,
though as a war correspondent rather than as a member of the armed forces. He was also
something of a maverick; he never did well at school and was largely self-taught. He
became a Freemason in 1902, which suggests an interest beyond the material. His newly
found article illustrates how he was prepared to enquire into areas beyond contemporary,
conventional thinking. All the same it is telling that, whatever his own view about the
possibility of life outside planet earth, as Prime Minister during the war he appears to have
ordered that a UFO sighting be kept secret to prevent “mass panic”. (https://www.bbc.com/ne
ws/uk-10853905)
Phyllis Power in Winston Churchill and UFOs, Share International (https://share-internati
onal.org/magazine/old_issues/2017/2017-04.htm#correo), April 2017
There is a great longing for leadership and even those who are far apart from you in general
politics realize that you are the one man who has combined full realization of the dangers of
our military position with belief in collective international action against aggression. And if
we fail again now, will there ever be another chance.
Independent MP Eleanor Rathbone to Churchill (10 September 1938), quoted in Martin
It is fun to be in the same decade with you.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), in response to 60th-birthday
greetings from Churchill, as quoted in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993), p.
148.
An analogous process I shall call Churchillian Drift ... Whereas quotations with an
apothegmatic feel are normally ascribed to Shaw, those with a more grandiose or belligerent
tone are, as if by osmosis, credited to Churchill.
Nigel Rees, Brewer's Quotations (London: Cassell, 1994) p. x., also quoted in Why Do
We Quote by Ruth Finnegan (2011), pg. 241 (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Why
_Do_We_Quote/UQezheDQSsYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA241)
[H]e became the greatest leader in war this country has ever had.
A. L. Rowse, 'The Summing-Up—Churchill's Place in History', Charles Eade (ed.),
Churchill By His Contemporaries (1953), p. 345
Even repeated by the announcer, it sent shivers (not of fear) down my spine. I think that one
of the reasons why one is stirred by his Elizabethan phrases is that one feels the whole
massive backing of power and resolve behind them, like a great fortress: they are never
words for words' sake.
Vita Sackville-West to Harold Nicolson (4 June 1940) after Churchill's "We shall never
surrender" speech, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–
1941 (1983), p. 469
Early in the afternoon [of 8 September 1940] I accompanied the Prime Minister on a tour of
the East End, and then I saw the extraordinary spirit with which Londoners fought back...
Although it was still early in the afternoon people were already coming in for the night,
carrying their bedding and belongings, but they dropped them to the ground to cheer the
Prime Minister. Putting his hat on the end of his stick he twirled it round and roared, "Are we
downhearted?" and they shouted back, "No!" with astonishing gusto. "Hit 'em back,
Winston!" the East Enders cried. "Hit 'em hard!" "Never fear," he answered in his most most
bulldog way, "we'll hit back as soon as we can." Pessimists had predicted panic and
bitterness in the East End, but I saw nothing of the kind. Smiles, cheers and grim
determination showed already that "London could take it".
Harold Scott, Your Obedient Servant (1959), p. 126
As we were leaving the House [of Commons] late tonight, he called me into the Chamber to
take a last look round. All was darkness except a ring of faint light all around under the
gallery. We could dimly see the table, but walls and roof were invisible.
"Look at it", he said. "This little place is what makes the difference between us and Germany.
It is in virtue of this that we shall muddle through to success & for lack of this Germany's
brilliant efficiency leads her to final disaster. This little room is the shrine of the world's
liberties."
MacCallum Scott, diary entry (5 March 1917), quoted in Paul Addison, 'Destiny, history
and providence: the religion of Winston Churchill', in Michael Bentley (ed.), Public and
Private Doctrine: Essays in British History presented to Maurice Cowling (1993), p. 245
[H]is ideas are to me reactionary, he is out of touch with modern social trends. But he has
served his country with the highest distinction; in moments of peril he was undaunted; in
majestic phrases, which linger in the memory of those who heard them, he crystallised the
resolution of the whole nation.
Labour MP Emanuel Shinwell, 'Churchill as a Political Opponent', Charles Eade (ed.),
Churchill By His Contemporaries (1953), p. 83
Sir Winston Churchill is the leader of the Conservative Party, but at the root of his many-
sided nature there remains the essence of Liberalism. His tolerance, his sympathy with the
oppressed and the underdog, his courage in withstanding clamour, his belief in the value of
the individual and in self-government for communities sufficiently advanced to use it wisely,
all derive from a heart and a head which made him in his early years of Ministerial office a
Liberal statesman... Now that the ex-Liberal Minister has become leader of the Conservative
Party, has he not carried into that body the reinvigorating spirit of English liberalism and so
brought to fulfilment his father's notion that Toryism could be led into democratic channels?
The content of national policy changes with time, but there is a profound sense in which Sir
Winston Churchill, though a Conservative Prime Minister, is a Liberal still.
John Simon, 'Churchill as a Liberal', Charles Eade (ed.), Churchill By His
Contemporaries (1953), pp. 59, 61
In contrast to the ultimate realization that he was dealing with a formidable enemy in the
east, Hitler clung to the end to his preconceived opinion that the troops of the Western
countries were poor fighting material... His opinions on the Western statesmen had a similar
bias. He considered Churchill, as he often stated during the situation conferences, an
incompetent, alcoholic demagogue. And he asserted in all seriousness that Roosevelt was
not a victim of infantile paralysis but of syphilitic paralysis and was therefore mentally
unsound. These opinions, too, were indications, of his flight from reality in the last years of
his life.
Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs (1970), p. 306-307
Marshal Stalin proposed a toast to the health of the Prime Minister, whom he characterized
as the bravest governmental figure in the world. He said that due in large measure to Mr.
Churchill's courage and staunchness, England, when she stood alone, had divided the
might of Hitlerite Germany at a time when the rest of Europe was falling flat on its face before
Hitler. He said that Great Britain, under Mr. Churchill's leadership, had carried on the fight
alone irrespective of existing or potential allies. The Marshal concluded that he knew of
few examples in history where the courage of one man had been so important to the
future history of the world. He drank a toast to Mr. Churchill, his fighting friend and a brave
man.
Joseph Stalin's toast to Churchill at Yalta (8 February 1945), quoted in Robert
Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History (1948), p. 868. Also quoted in
Lord Moran, Winston Churchill: The Struggle for Survival, 1940-1965 (1968), p. 252
The great aristocrat, the beloved leader, the profound historian, the gifted painter, the superb
politician, the lord of language, the orator, the wit—yes, and the dedicated bricklayer—
behind all of them was a simple man of faith, steadfast in defeat, generous in victory,
resigned in age, trusting in a loving providence, and committing his achievements and his
triumphs to a higher power.
Adlai Stevenson, Washington, D.C. (28 January 1965); as quoted in "Stevenson
Delivers Eulogy to Churchill; 'Simple Faith in God' Cited" (https://news.google.com/news
papers?id=ZmQwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mWwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4314%2C3973257) by the
Associated Press, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (29 January 1965); reproduced in
Adlai Stevenson (1966) by Lillian Ross, p. 47
Remember him, for he saved all of you: pudgy and not very large but somehow
massive and indomitable; baby-faced, with snub nose, square chin, rheumy eyes on
occasion given to tears; a thwarted actor's taste for clothes that would have looked
ridiculous on a less splendid man. He wore the quaintest hats of anyone: tinted
square bowlers; great flat sombreros squashed down on his head; naval officer's
caps rendered just slightly comic by the huge cigar protruding beneath the peak. On
grave and critical occasions he sported highly practical Teddy-bear suits few grown
men would dare to wear in public. He fancied oil painting, at which he was good,
writing, at which he was excellent, and oratory, at which he was magnificent.
C.L. Sulzberger, in his book The American Heritage Picture History of World War II
(1966), p. 97
The saviour of his country.

A. J. P. Taylor, English History, 1914-1945 (1965), p. 4, n. 1
Confidence in the Prime Minister stood at eighty-eight per cent in July [1940]... There is no
doubt that the British were united, nor is there the least doubt that they found in Churchill an
exact expression of their own obstinacy, courage, and refusal to recognise the apparent
logic of facts.
Laurence Thompson, 1940: Year of Legend, Year of History (1966), p. 140
As I saw and knew him his outstanding characteristics are his fearlessness, honesty,
patriotism and his sense of destiny.
Walter H. Thompson, 'Guarding Churchill', Charles Eade (ed.), Churchill By His
Contemporaries (1953), p. 170
He is a great man. He is, of course, our enemy and has always been the enemy of
Communism, but he is an enemy one must respect, an enemy one likes to have.
Tito, as quoted in Jasper Ridley, Tito: A Biography (1994), p. 323.
Winston sent me a peevish telegram to ask why Gandhi hadn't died yet! He has never
answered my telegram about food.
Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, in his diary entry for 4 July 1944 (published in Wavell:
the Viceroy's Journal, ed. Penderel Moon, 1973). Wavell was the Viceroy of India from
1943 to 1947, when the Japanese invasion of Burma, combined with colonial
mismanagement, had caused a famine in Bengal. Often misquoted as "If food is so
scarce, why hasn't Gandhi died yet?"
My dear Winston. That was worth 1,000 guns & the speeches of 1,000 years.
Labour MP Josiah Wedgwood to Churchill (4 June 1940) after his "We shall never
surrender" speech, quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–
1941 (1983), p. 468
Among a stream of visitors to the 9th Division in England, while it was preparing for D-Day in
the early months of 1944, was Prime Minister Winston Churchill. When he arrived to address
the assembled troops, he went at first not to the speaker's stand but behind a small
outbuilding. He reappeared minutes later buttoning his fly, making sure no one missed the
reason for the delay. The troops loved it.
William Westmoreland, in his memoirs A Soldier Reports (1976), p. 20
Tonight our nation mourns the loss of the greatest man any of us have known... It was his
leadership...and that response which saved Britain and saved freedom... It was his courage,
his humanity, the response he evoked in our people, that wrote in those wartime years, that
imperishable chapter in our history, a chapter which will always bear the title he gave to one
part of that chapter, "Our Finest Hour". For over-riding and sustaining those qualities which
marked his years of leadership was his great sense of history—of, in his words, walking with
destiny—thinking not so much perhaps of himself but of his country, of the Commonwealth.
Harold Wilson, broadcast (24 January 1965), quoted in The Times (25 January 1965), p.
8
The book is a record of perspicacity and courage on your part. England owes you many
apologies.
Lord Wolmer to Churchill after reading his book Step by Step, 1936-1939 (5 July 1939),
quoted in Martin Gilbert, Prophet of Truth: Winston S. Churchill, 1922–1939 (1979), p.
1079
Churchill's Finest Hour (November 27, 2009)
Mark Riebling, "Churchill's Finest Hour," City Journal (November 27, 2009). Full essay online (http://www.city-journal.org/2
009/bc1124mr.html)
Winston Churchill led the life that many men would love to live. He survived 50
gunfights and drank 20,000 bottles of champagne. [...] And of course, by resisting
Hitler, he saved Europe and perhaps the world.
Following the pattern set by Julius Caesar in The Gallic War, Churchill wrote books to
vindicate policy; but he may also have made policy with an eye toward writing books. If so,
the implications are alarming. Did Churchill conceive bold operations, such as the
disastrous 1915 Dardanelles offensive, because these would make exciting episodes in the
text of his life? A. J. Balfour once joked that Winston had written an enormous book about
himself and called it The World Crisis. Was there more truth in that joke than we have so far
known?
He was the outlier of a new type: the first twentieth-century personality to be famous for
being famous. If he toured Africa with 17 pieces of matched luggage, or got hit by a car
crossing Fifth Avenue in New York, he wrote about it. His life became a forerunner of reality
TV; in today's terms, he did everything to seek celebrity but release a sex tape. A great
question of Churchill biography, therefore, is how this Paris Hilton of British politics became
the second coming of King Arthur.
What then is the moral of Churchill's life? He was the twentieth century's great man, but we
must sharply circumscribe his greatness. Because he drew the sword from the stone in
1940, what he did before and after seems admirable. Through his steadfast stance, Churchill
rallied the English to die with honor—therefore they deserved to win. Whoever shall seek to
save his life shall lose it; and whoever shall lose his life shall preserve it (Luke 17:33). Yet
were it not for this one courageous triumph, we might now say of him: Never had one man
done so little with so much.
References
1. Churchill, Winston (13 April 1905). "Chapter 1: Why I am a Free Trader" (https://archive.org/d
etails/comingmenoncomin00stea). in Stead, W.T.. Coming Men on Coming Questions.
2. Churchill, Winston (1974). Rhodes James, Robert. ed. Winston S. Churchill: His Complete
Speeches 1897-1963. Chelsea House Publishers / R.R. Bowker Company. ISBN
0835206939.
3. Robert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches 1897-1963 vol. 3,
1914-1922, vol. 3 (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1974), 2671.
4. Norman Rose: "Churchill: An Unruly Life", pg 146
5. Barczewsk, Stephanie, John Eglin, Stephen Heathorn, Michael Silvestri, and Michelle
Tusan. Britain Since 1688: A Nation in the World, p. 301
6. Toye, Richard. Churchill's Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made, p.
172
7. Matters, Military History (2010-11-20). Winston Churchill Quotes | Military History Matters (htt
ps://www.military-history.org/feature/winston-churchill-quotes.htm) (in en-US). www.military-
history.org. Retrieved on 2022-03-09.
8. Google books link (https://books.google.com/books?id=hc8pAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT373&lpg=P
T373&dq=%22if+anyone+says+anything+back+that+is+an+outrage%22&source=bl&ots=v
QG7eKCVNO&sig=FgGJGUVc7MSNY3-hyQrYpC8tiOY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFEQ6AEw
DWoVChMI-J-rpoiWyQIVF9tjCh2cLAel#v=onepage&q=%22if%20anyone%20says%20anyt
hing%20back%20that%20is%20an%20outrage%22&f=false)
9. Churchill, Winston (2013). The Dawn of Liberation, 1945. Rosetta Books. ISBN
9780795329494.
10. Winston S. Churchill, Churchill in His Own Words, ed. Richard M. Langworth (London:
Ebury, 2012), 148; and James, His Complete Speeches vol. 8, 7774.
11. Hoggart, Simon (4 June 2001). "Hats off to Soames, Off Message but on Majestic Form (http
s://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/04/election2001.politicalcolumnists)". The
Guardian.
12. https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/quotes-falsely-attributed/
13. Churchill, Churchill by Himself, 381.
14. Reinventing the Wheel (http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/reinventing-the-whee
l-the-cost-of-neglecting-international-history). Footnote #5
15. The speech is in James W. Muller, ed., Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech Fifty Years
Later (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999), which collects the papers from that
occasion. A readable .pdf is on the Churchill Centre website (scroll to pages 18-24):
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/images/finesthour/Vol.01%20No.90.pdf
16. Full text available here:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Clovis/The_Jesting_of_Arlington_Stringham
17. http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/there_is_no_such_thing_as_a_good
18. http://newspaperarchive.com/san-antonio-express/1935-10-17/page-2
19. https://books.google.com/books?
id=nIuaBX8moLkC&q=%22fait+douter%22#v=snippet&q=%22fait%20douter%22&f=false
20. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/24/heart-head/
21. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/04/anti-fascism/
22. http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/9-quotes-from-winston-churchill-that-are-totally-fake-
1790585636
23. François Bondy (1976), "European Notebook", Encounter, vol. 47, p. 51.
24. François Bondy (1979), "Ignazio Silone: In Memoriam", The Washington Quarterly, vol. 2,
issue 2.
25. Robert Deis. Churchill's alleged quip about British naval tradition (http://www.thisdayinquote
s.com/2010/08/rum-sodomy-and-lash-winston-churchills.html). This Day in Quotes.
26. Richard Langworth. Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations (https://boo
ks.google.com/books/about/Churchill_by_Himself.html?id=vbsU21fEhLAC). p. 577. ISBN
1586489577. "In dinner conversation ca. 1955, private secretary Anthony Montague Browne
confronted WSC with this quotation. 'I never said it. I wish I had,' responded Churchill. (AMB
to the editor.) 'Compare "Rum, bum, and bacca" and "Ashore it's wine women and song,
aboard it's rum, bum and concertina", naval catchphrases dating from the nineteenth century'
-- Oxford Dictionary of Quotations"
27. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/09/03/success-final/
28. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/09/14/keep-going/
29. Google books link (https://books.google.com/books?id=vbsU21fEhLAC&q=average+voter#v
=snippet&q=average%20voter&f=false)
30. 1953, How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers, Quote p. 109, Doubleday &
Company, Garden City, New York. Referenced by Quote Investigator (http://quoteinvestigato
r.com/2014/06/28/success)
31. Published by Richard Langworth online: https://richardlangworth.com/quotes
32. link (https://books.google.com/books?id=sgEDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR14&dq=%22about+anyth
ing+as%22+%22about+everything%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAGoVChMI1tKfwc
X8yAIVF9tjCh0h2wK4#v=snippet&q=Marquis&f=false)
External links
The Churchill Centre website (http://www.winstonchurchill.org)
Audio of Churchill's "finest hour" speech (http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/s
peech_52.html)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Winston_Churchill&oldid=3180569"
This page was last edited on 21 October 2022, at 11:40.
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Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG OM CH TD FRS

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

The quarrel between a tremendous democratic electorate and a one-sided hereditary

There is no difficulty in vindicating the principle of a hereditary monarchy. The experience of

As long as it effects working men in England or Nationalist peasants in Ireland, there is no

Like chasing a quinine pill around a cow pasture.

One might as well legalise sodomy as recognise the Bolsheviks.

Mansion House speech (19 February 1919)[3][4]

(A note: Churchill viewed Bolshevism as a heavily Jewish phenomenon. He

Frightfulness is not a remedy known to the British Pharmacopaeia.

I yield to no one in my detestation of Bolshevism, and of the revolutionary violence which

Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.

The enthronement in office of a Socialist Government will be a serious national misfortune

The follies of Socialism are inexhaustible... Even among

A sheep in sheep's clothing.

The World Crisis (1923–1931)

My Early Life: A Roving Commission (1930)

No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.

What is the dominant fact of the situation? Germany is arming...Germany is arming

If [Hitler's] proposal means that we should come to an understanding with Germany to

The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of

Fascism and Communism... Polar opposites—no, polar the same!"

The shores of History are strewn with the wrecks of Empires.

Everything is overshadowed by the impending trial of will-power which is developing in

It is the end of the British Empire.

I venture to think that in future the Czechoslovak State cannot be maintained as an

To say that an arms race always leads to war seems to

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is

First, Poland has been again overrun by two of the

The traditional British view is that character is what

The whole world is against Hitler and Hitlerism. Men of

I never "worry" about action, but only about inaction.

And every chance brought out a noble knight.

This is no war of chieftains or of princes, of dynasties or national ambition; it is a war of

And now go and set Europe ablaze

We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes.

We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.

The hour has come; kill the Hun.

I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

I hate nobody except Hitler — and that is professional.

We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.

When I make a statement of facts within my knowledge I expect it to be accepted.

Speech in the House of Commons, August 2, 1944.[9]

Speech in the House of Commons, August 2, 1944.[9]

Post-war years (1945–1955)

[Christopher Soames, Churchill's future son-in-law,

I think 'No Comment' is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.

When I was a young subaltern in the South African War,

We must build a kind of United States of Europe.

There is less there than meets the eye.

I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of

It is with deep grief I watch the clattering down of the British

All the greatest things are simple, and many can be

Democracy is not a caucus, obtaining a fixed

Many forms of Government have been tried and will

[towards the end of their conversation] "Papa," I said, "in

"Winston, you have told me a terrible tale. I would never

I am shocked by this wicked crime.

In the House of Commons, (26 January 1949)[10]

The object of Parliament is to substitute argument for fisticuffs.

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