The Legacy of Winston Churchill

Churchill is, perhaps, most revered in his native Great Britain, where he was voted The Greatest Britain of All Time in a poll conducted by the BBC. The contribution he made to the world history as we know it today is immeasurable and it is certain that he will never be forgotten.

When we think of Winston Churchill we inevitably think of World War 2 and the great leadership Churchill showed. He is often cited for the rhetoric he used to help keep Great Britain fighting with the will to win despite the odds stacked against her.

Winston Churchill the Writer

Churchill was a very accomplished writer, penning many accounts of battles including the Sudan. He wrote biographies of his Father, Lord Randolph Churchill and his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough. His account of the First World War entitled, The World Crisis, is a must read for anyone interested in the period. 

Great Quotes from the Great Winston Churchill

• “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.”

• Bessie Braddock, “Sir, you are drunk.”

Churchill, “Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.”

• Nancy Astor, “Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.”

Churchill, “If I were your husband I would take it.”

• “I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”

• “A joke is a very serious thing!”

• “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

• “A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”

• “Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.”

• “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

• “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

• “Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.”

• “If you are going to go through hell, keep going.”

• “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.”

• “He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”

• “Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”

• “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”

• “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

• “If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.” (Referring to Britain and America’s alliance with Russia.)

• “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him.”

• “Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.”

• “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.”

• “I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.”

• “I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.”

• “I like a man who grins when he fights.”

• “I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.”

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

• “If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.”

• “If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time with a tremendous whack.”

• “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

Winston Churchill Quotes Directly Related to World War Two

• “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: 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 with one word: 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.”

• “If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.”

• “Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But, if we fall, 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 lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, this was their finest hour!”

• “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

• “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, 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.”