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

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

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

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

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.

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

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

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

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

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

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

One does not leave a convivial party before closing time.

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

When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.

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

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.

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

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

War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.

Great and good are seldom the same man.

If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.

I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.

Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.

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

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

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

I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.

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

Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

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

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

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

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

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.

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

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

The price of greatness is responsibility.

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

Politics is 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.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

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

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

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

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.

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

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

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

History is written by the victors.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

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

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

It is a fine game to play - the game of politics - and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

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

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.