Sir Winston Churchill
Quotations
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, and died on January
24, 1965. If you get over the initial abruptness of these quotations, you could begin to
see a deep underlying meaning. Churchill comments on human nature, society, and the world
in general.
Winston Churchill Quotations

Supporting "well medleys" are presupposed
throughout:
The idea that custum makes perfect is erroneous and fanatic. And the most amusing
erroneous ones tend to grow strong. It merely seems like a good thing.
The most amusing tend to
grow strong
GENIUS resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting
information. [Winston Churchill]
If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material
prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another
[Winston Churchill]
If you recognize anyone it does not mean you like them. [Winston Churchill]
You cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you also understand the
most amusing. [Winston Churchill]
I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
[Winston Churchill]
My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the
drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals
between them. [Winston Churchill]
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong. [Winston Churchill]
All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom,
justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. [Winston Churchill]
There is [one] duty . . . and that is to try to be right. [Winston Churchill]
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin,
keep out of the way till you can. [Winston Churchill]
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue
of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. [Winston Churchill]
A joke is a very serious thing. [Winston Churchill] (2)
When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite. [Winston Churchill on formal
declaration of war]
The idea that custum makes
perfect is erroneous and fanatic
THEY SAY that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish
they'd make up their minds. [Winston Churchill] (3)
Logic can be a poor guide compared with custom. [Winston Churchill]With WC [Winston
Churchill]
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. [Winston Churchill, Roving Commission: My Early Life, 1930,
Chapter 9] (4)
It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. [Winston
Churchill]
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject. [Winston
Churchill]
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion. [Winston
Churchill]
Wise men fight with grins
and searching eyes
A PRISONER of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to
kill him. [Winston Churchill] (5)
It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive. [Winston Churchill]
I am easily satisfied with the very best. [Winston Churchill] (6)
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself
up and continue on. [Winston Churchill]
If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble
bounce. [Winston Churchill]
Wise men learn from their mistakes. [Winston Churchill]
I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. [Winston
Churchill]
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. [Winston
Churchill]
Let it be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye. [cf. Winston
Churchill] (7)
I like a man who grins when he fights. [Winston Churchill]
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
[Winston Churchill]
It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right. [Winston
Churchill]
To improve is to change; to be perfect [can be] to change often. [Winston Churchill]
We must beware of needless innovation, especially when guided by logic. [Winston
Churchill]
For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
[Winston Churchill, speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet, London, November 9, 1954]
The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of
being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.
[Winston Churchill] (8)
Writing a book is an adventure. [Winston Churchill]
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps,
the end of the beginning. [Winston Churchill, speech in November 1942]
When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber. [Winston Churchill]
- The most amusing tend to grow strong.
- The idea that adhering or conforming to various custums makes perfect is
fanatic and wrong.
- Wise men fight with grins and searching eyes. You can do the same.
One of the most amusing idea is that adhering to customs talks of no fights.
Mark Twain met Winston Churchill in 1900, when Churchill was just becoming prominent as
a young statesman. The occasion was a dinner in London. Churchill and Twain went out for a
brief time to have a smoke. Sir William Harcourt observed when they departed that whichever
one got the floor first would keep it. He speculated that, since as Twain was an older and
more experienced hand, Churchill's voice would get the first good rest that it had had in
years.
When the two men returned, Harcourt asked Churchill whether he had enjoyed himself,
and the young man replied, "Yes," very enthusiastically.
Turning to Twain Sir William put the same question. Twain hesitated and said, "I
have had a good smoke."
CLICK on 'Literature' for the references of about 2000 works.
ANNOTATIONS: Acronym letters in square brackets in the text refer to works. Click on
'Literature' above for examples. Page references are put right after reference letters.
The abbreviation cf. means "compare". [MORE].
SEARCH THE SITE: Click on the rose in the upper left column for site
searches, access to dictionaries, and further.
REFER to the page by its 'location' address (above).
PILOTING: Some pictures and texts on top of the pages are clickable, to ease
navigation. [MORE]
|