101 Inspiring Winston Churchill Quotes That Touch On Everything—From Politics to Human Nature

This list of 101 Winston Churchill quotes is by no means comprehensive, but undoubtedly features some of his most notable lines. As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955, Winston Churchill was a highly respected figure whose legacy and attributions live on today.

While Churchill's political career as a wartime leader is generally what he is best known for, he was also a social reformer and well-known writer—which is why so many famous Winston Churchill quotes reach beyond politics.

From political commentary to inspirational thoughts on humanity to lighthearted humor and much more, these 101 Winston Churchill quotes are the cream of the crop.

101 Winston Churchill Quotes

1. If you are going through hell, keep going.

2. Never, never, never give up.

3. Time and money are largely interchangeable terms.

4. Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

5. Vengeance is the most costly and dissipating of luxuries.

6. Harsh laws are at times better than no laws at all.

7. Everyone has his day, and some days last longer than others.

8. Success is not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.

9. It is not in our power to anticipate our destiny.

10. All the greatest things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.

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11. Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

12. My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the best.

13. To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to change often.

14. All wisdom is not new wisdom.

15. Every man should ask himself each day whether he is not too readily accepting negative solutions.

16. If you destroy a free market you create a black market.

17. The price of greatness is responsibility.

18. All I can say is that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

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

20. When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.

21. In finance, everything that is agreeable is unsound and everything that is sound is disagreeable.

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

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

24. The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

25. One ought to be just before one is generous.

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26. To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

27. It is wonderful what great strides can be made when there is a resolute purpose behind them.

28. Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.

29. Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, it’s also what it takes to sit down and listen.

30. 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-a tremendous whack.

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31. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

32. I never worry about action, but only about inaction.

33. War never pays its dividends in cash on the money it costs.

34. Continuous effort—not strength or intelligence—is the key to unlocking our potential.

35. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.

36. Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library.

37. You will never get to the end of the journey if you stop to shy a stone at every dog that barks.

38. For myself I am an optimist—it does not seem to be much use being anything else.

39. The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.

40. One always measures friendships by how they show up in bad weather.

41. There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.

42. You must look at facts because they look at you.

43. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

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

45. Nourish your hopes, but do not overlook realities.

46. To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real.

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

48. It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.

49. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

50. Craft is common both to skill and deceit.

51. In a war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

52. It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.

53. Evils can be created much quicker than they can be cured.

54. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.

55. Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace, and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

56. Broadly speaking short words are best and the old words when short, are best of all.

57. We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.

58. Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

59. There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right and not to fear to do or say what you believe to be right.

60. What is adequacy? Adequacy is no standard at all.