Winston Churchill Quotes: 41 Verified from Speeches

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

You ask, what is our policy? I will 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.

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road 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.

We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

A miracle of deliverance, achieved by valor, by perseverance, by perfect discipline, by faultless service, by resource, by skill, by unconquerable fidelity, is manifest to us all.

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

If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'

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

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home.

We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.

Never give in, 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.

Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

These are not dark days; these are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived.

This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

They should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road.

This is only the beginning of the reckoning.

Europe is confronted with a programme of aggression, nicely calculated and timed, unfolding stage by stage.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the continent.

Neither the sure prevention of war, nor the continuous rise of world organization will be gained without what I have called the fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples. This means a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States.

The war in Europe is over. It is finished in the complete and overwhelming triumph of the Allies.

This is your victory! It is the victory of the cause of freedom in every land.

We were the first, in this ancient island, to draw the sword against tyranny.

In all our long history we have never seen a greater day than this.

In the days to come the British and American peoples will, for their own safety and for the good of all, walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.

The fact that my American forebears have for so many generations played their part in the life of the United States makes this experience one of the most moving and thrilling in my life.

In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Goodwill.

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.

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

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.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.

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

We can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer.

Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination.

To wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy.

Some people seem to forget that we have a Navy.

Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.

One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once 'The Unnecessary War.'

I do not describe it as a history, for that belongs to another generation. But I claim with confidence that it is a contribution to history which will be of service to the future.

If you persevere—and we shall persevere—we shall come through these dark and dangerous valleys into a sunlight broader and more genial and more lasting than mankind has ever known.

May it not also be that the cause of civilisation itself will be defended by the skill and devotion of a few thousand airmen?

Painting is complete as a distraction. I know of nothing which, without exhausting the body, more entirely absorbs the mind.

Happy are the painters for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end, or almost to the end, of the day.