Winston Churchill

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 gongthese are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

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.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

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.

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

Repose and cheerfulness are the badge of the gentleman – repose in energy.

Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous.

Whatever limits us we call fate.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

There’s a great joy in my giving. It’s thrilling. It’s exhilarating. It’s important to be a part of sharing. It is my love. It is my joy.

The idea of perfection always gives one a chance to talk without knowing facts.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Zeal ever follows an appearance of truth, and the assured are too apt to be warm; but it is their weak side in argument; zeal being better shown against sin than persons, or their mistakes.

Philosophers make imaginary laws for imaginary commonwealths, and their discourses are as the stars, which give little light because they are so high.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

We mustn’t be stiff and stand-off, you know. We must be thoroughly democratic, and patronize everybody without distinction of class.

To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.