Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

Bessie Braddock: Sir, you are drunk.
Churchill: And you, madam, are ugly. But in the morning, I shall be sober.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Lady Nancy Astor: Winston, if you were my husband, I'd poison your tea.
Churchill: Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.

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

The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative.

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

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

This paper by its very length defends itself against the risk of being read.

The biggest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter.

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.' We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940).

I am prepared to meet my maker; whether my maker is prepared to meet me is entirely another matter.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast.

I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.

For myself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else. Speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet in London (1954-11-09).

The water was not fit to drink. To make it palatable, we had to add whisky. By diligent effort, I learnt to like it.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events… incompetent or arrogant commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant fortune, ugly surprise, awful miscalculations.

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

If Hitler invaded Hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons. Speech after the German invasion of the Soviet Union (June 1941).

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. On Soviet communism and the Cold War.

We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes. (1940-10-21)

The honourable gentleman should not really generate more indignation than he can conveniently contain. To an MP who kept standing and interrupting him.