As a sentimental Romantic<\/a>, he was able to imbue his words with genuine emotion, conviction, and sincerity. As a man with a thoroughgoing sense of humor, he knew how to leaven the serious with the witty. And as a thick-skinned individualist, he was unafraid to ruffle feathers and be strikingly direct. <\/p>\nFor these reasons, Churchill\u2019s words continue to stir us today. Whether on the topics of war and politics, the necessity of action, the importance of history, or the theme which overarched his entire life and career — resilience — his quotes spur reflection, elicit a chuckle, and strengthen the backbone. While it\u2019s impossible to include all his worthy gems, below you\u2019ll find a collection of many of his very best to read, ponder, and enjoy. As Churchill, who himself intently studied the quotations of others, said: \u201cquotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Note: Not only is Churchill one of the most quoted figures in history, he is also one of the most mis<\/span>quoted. Many of people\u2019s favorite supposed Churchillisms were not in fact said by him at all. Others were originally said by Churchill, but have been passed along in distorted form. We have done our best to vet all the quotes below as being authentically sourced and accurately worded.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow-worm.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “I never worry about action, but only about inaction.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Study history, study history\u2014in history lie all the secrets of statecraft.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “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.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Change is the master key. A man can wear out a particular part of his mind by continually using it and tiring it\u2026{and this tired part} can be rested and strengthened, not merely by rest, but by using other parts.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “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.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Ambition, not so much for vulgar ends, but for fame, glints in every mind.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “It is the people who control the Government\u2014not the Government the people.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Honors should go where death and danger go.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “the counsels of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Let it not be thought that the age of chivalry belongs to the past.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Don\u2019t be content with things as they are.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “No one is compelled to serve great causes unless he feels fit for it, but nothing is more certain than you cannot take the lead in great causes as a half-timer.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “This is the company I should like to find in heaven. Stained perhaps, but positive. Not those flaccid sea anemones of virtue who can hardly wiggle an antenna in the turgid waters of negativity.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Books, in all their variety, offer the human intellect the means by which civilization may be carried triumphantly forward.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “youth is for freedom and reform, maturity for judicious compromise, and old age for stability and repose.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “{An appeaser} hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “We must beware of trying to build a society in which no one counts for anything except a politician or an official, or a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “The only way a man can remain consistent amid changing circumstances is to change with them while preserving the same dominating purpose.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities...because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “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.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Our difficulties and dangers will not be removed by closing our eyes to them.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “the world does not end with the life of any man.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “When the notes of life ring false, men should correct them by referring to the tuning fork of death.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “For defeat there is only one answer...victory.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are often no longer strong.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “It is a crime to despair. We must learn to draw from misfortune the means of future strength.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “when you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “The most important thing about education is appetite.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Of course, I am an egotist. Where do you get if you aren\u2019t?”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “The Socialist dream is no longer Utopia but Queuetopia.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Cheap popularity can prove itself very dearly bought.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “To act by half-measures, with a lack of conviction miscalled \u2018caution,\u2019 is to run the greatest risks and lose the prize.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Expert knowledge, however indispensable, is no substitute for a generous and comprehending outlook upon the human story with all its sadness and with all its unquenchable hope.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “I hope that I shall never see the day when the Force of Right is deprived of the Right of Force.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “The idea that nothing is true except what we comprehend is silly, and that ideas which our minds cannot reconcile are mutually destructive, sillier still.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened, and maintained.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “Defeat is one thing; disgrace is another.”<\/div>\n
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\n \n <\/svg>\n “A nation without a conscience is a nation without a soul. A nation without a soul is a nation that cannot live.”<\/div>\n
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