Category: Quotations

best
Churchill plants a boutonniere on President Truman before dining at the British Embassy, Washington, 8 January 1953. Six months later he was not sending bouquets. (Library of Congress, public domain)
Churchill Quotations: The Best Telegram He Ever Sent

Churchill Quotations: The Best Telegram He Ever Sent

Comments 0 Comments
"I warned the Americans before Potsdam not to withdraw from any of the part of Germany we occupied until we had a satisfactory understanding. They would not listen. And they will not listen now when I warn them about Germany. At Potsdam I wanted Prussia isolated and Germany divided horizontally and not vertically." —Churchill according to Moran

Read More Read More

Tax
Young Winston haranguing the electors, Manchester, 1908. (Wikimedia Commons)
“A Nation Cannot Tax Itself into Prosperity”: Churchill’s Quote?

“A Nation Cannot Tax Itself into Prosperity”: Churchill’s Quote?

Comments 0 Comments
Question: "Did Churchill say this? '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.' I can't find it in your 'Churchill by Himself.'" Answer: Indeed he did—and he liked that “bucket” gag so much that he used it at least five times. Someone with courage should pick it up again today.

Read More Read More

Memoirs
An immaculate set of the true first edition, by Houghton Mifflin, Boston. WSC, insisting that the UK edition be definitive, held up British proofs with last-minute corrections, allowing the Americans into print first—much to the discomfort of Cassell in London. (Photo courtesy Marc Kuritz, churchillbookcollector.com)
Churchill’s War Memoirs: Aside from the Story, Simply Great Writing

Churchill’s War Memoirs: Aside from the Story, Simply Great Writing

Comments 1 Comment
"No other wartime leader in history has given us a work of two million words written only a few years after the events and filled with messages among world potentates which had so recently been heated and secret. The Memoirs are not just a unique revelation of the exercise of power from atop an empire in duress but also one of the fascinating products of the human spirit, both as an expression of a personality and as a somewhat anomalous epic tale filled with the depravities, miseries and glories of man." —Manfred Weidhorn

Read More Read More

JFK
President John F. Kennedy signs a proclamation declaring Sir Winston an honorary US citizen, Oval Office, 9 April 1963. L-R: possibly Kay Halle, who had much to do with it; unidentified; Rep. Frances P. Bolton (R.-Oh.); Sen. Olin D. Johnston (D.-S.C.); Sylvia Ormsby-Gore: British Ambassador David Ormsby-Gore; Rep. Michael A. Feighan (D.-Oh.); Sen. J. William Fulbright (D.-Ark.); Rep. Carl Vinson (D.-Ga.); Sen. Leverett Saltonstall (R.-Mass.). (JFK Library, public domain)
Churchill Meets JFK, 1958: “He thought you were a waiter, Jack”

Churchill Meets JFK, 1958: “He thought you were a waiter, Jack”

Comments 0 Comments
Churchill rarely nursed a grudge. Though Joe Kennedy had upset him with defeatism when the war began, he quickly forgot. He sent condolences and flowers to the funeral of Kathleen Kennedy in 1948 and admired JFK from what he read about the young man and mutual acquaintances. He was anxious to meet Jack in 1959.

Read More Read More

Garibaldi
Meeting between Garibaldi and King Victor Emmanuel II on the bridge of Teano, 26 October, painting by Pietro Aldi, 1860. Sala del Risorgimento, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. (Public domain)
Winston Churchill on Giuseppi Garibaldi

Winston Churchill on Giuseppi Garibaldi

Comments 0 Comments
Churchill had profound respect for the Italian 19th century democratic revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, and once hoped to write his biography. But it is unlikely that his famous lines, "blood, toil, tears and sweat" were adapted by something Garibaldi said—they date back quite a bit farther.

Read More Read More

legacy
Presentation of Churchill’s honorary citizenship, 9 April 1963. L-R: Acting Secretary of State George Ball, Lady Ormsby Gore, British Ambassador Sir David Ormsby Gore, Winston Churchill (grandson), Naval Aide Tazewell Shepard, President Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Randolph Churchill. Photo by Cecil Stoughton.
Enduring Legacy: U.S. National Churchill Day April 9th

Enduring Legacy: U.S. National Churchill Day April 9th

Comments 1 Comment
"In this century of storm and tragedy, I contemplate with high satisfaction the constant factor of the interwoven and upward progress of our peoples.... Our comradeship and our brotherhood in war were unexampled. We stood together, and because of that fact the free world now stands.  Nor has our partnership any exclusive nature." —WSC

Read More Read More

Peace
Heston Aerodrome, 30 September 1938. Mr. Chamberlain returned from Munich with his bit of paper: “My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time.” (Ministry of Information, public domain)
Winston Churchill on Peace with Hitler

Winston Churchill on Peace with Hitler

Comments 0 Comments
"You’re only saying that to be provocative. You know very well we couldn’t have made peace on the heels of a terrible defeat. The country wouldn’t have stood for it. And what makes you think that we could have trusted Hitler’s word—particularly as he could have had Russian resources behind him? At best we would have been a German client state, and there’s not much in that." —WSC

Read More Read More

Bristol
After receiving an honorary degree and addressing “Anglo-American Unity,” Harvard, 6 October 1943. At left are Harvard President James B. Conant and WSC’s ubiquitous bodyguard, Detective Inspector Walter Thompson. (Capt. Horton, War Office, public domain)
“The Most Important Thing about Education” —Churchill at Bristol

“The Most Important Thing about Education” —Churchill at Bristol

Comments 0 Comments
"Education does not begin with the university, and it certainly ought not to end there. I have seen a lot of people who got cleverer until about 21 or 22 years of age, then seemed to shut down altogether.... Take full advantage of these years...but do not spend too much time in buckling on your armour in the tent. The battle is going on in every walk and sphere of life." —WSC, Bristol, 1929

Read More Read More

champagne
Dinner marking WSC’s 69th birthday, with Roosevelt and Stalin, Teheran, 30 November 1943. (Crown Copyright expired, public domain)
“Churchill Drank 42,000 Bottles of Champagne”?

“Churchill Drank 42,000 Bottles of Champagne”?

Comments 0 Comments
WSC: "Prof! Pray calculate the total quantity of champagne, wine and spirits I have consumed thus far in my life and tell us how much of this room it would fill." Professor Lindemann (pretending a slide rule calculation): "I'm sorry, Winston, it would only reach our ankles." WSC: "How much to do—how little time remains."

Read More Read More

European Court
“A high and a solemn responsibility rests upon us here this afternoon in this Congress of a Europe striving to be reborn.” In one of his classic speeches, Churchill addressed the Congress of Europe at The Hague, 9 May 1948. (© Dutch National Archives, Creative Commons)
Q&A: Human Rights Tried by European Court

Q&A: Human Rights Tried by European Court

Comments 0 Comments
"The European Assembly is now on the point of being achieved.... We have now to take the second step forward and try to establish, as the practical result of our meeting here, the setting up of a European Court of Human Rights." —WSC, Brussels, 1949

Read More Read More

RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
Links on this page may earn commissions.