Winston Churchill

Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, neverin nothing, great or small, large or pettynever give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

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

The only guide to man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.

We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.

If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.

Fame is proof that the people are gullible.

Genius always finds itself a century too early.

People are much more willing to lend you books than bookcases.

Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

Being is the great explainer.

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.

He is great who confers the most benefits.

What we learn only through the ears makes less impression upon our minds than what is presented to the trustworthy eye.

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot; for I owe my conscience to no mortal man.

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men’s manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.