Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.
(attributed)

We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire...Give us the tools and we will finish the job.
BBC radio broadcast, Feb 9, 1941

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.
Hansard, June 10, 1941

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."
Hansard, May 13, 1940

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 form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
Hansard, November 11, 1947


So they [the Government] 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.
Hansard, November 12, 1936

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.
My Early Life, 1930

I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
on the eve of his 75th birthday

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.'
quoted in Rudolf Flesch, ed., "The New Book of Unusual Quotations" (NY: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 311


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.
Radio speech, 1939

Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt... 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.
Radio speech, 1941

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.
Roving Commission: My Early Life, 1930, Chapter 9


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'.
Second World War (1948)


The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet, London, November 9, 1954


From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
Sir Winston Churchill, Speech in March 1946
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 in November 1942

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
speech in the House of Commons, July 14, 1940

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.
speech in the House of Commons, November 29, 1944

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, 1941, Harrow School