100+ Inspirational Winston Churchill Quotes That Will Change Your Perspective

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

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

“Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”

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

“Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.”

“When you're going through hell, keep going.”

“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.”

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”

“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty.”

“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”

“We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.”

“There is no such thing as defeat unless you accept it.”

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

“Never, never, never give up.”

“Kites rise highest against the wind—not with it.”

“It is no use saying ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”

“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 at terrible odds.”

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

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”

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

“Failure is a teacher, not a master.”

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

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

“The further backward you look, the further forward you are likely to see.”

“A leader is a dealer in hope.”

“We are all worms. But I believe I am a glow-worm.”

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

“A man does what he must—in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures—and that is the basis of all human morality.”

“I lead the people only to where they want to go.”

“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.”

“Great men are almost always bad men.”

“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”

“Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.”

“It is better to be making the news than taking it. To be an actor rather than a critic.”

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”

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

“After all, there may be someone worse off than yourself.”

“There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful.”

“Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge.”

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.”

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”

“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.”

“You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”

“We sometimes stumble over the truth, but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”

“In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity; in peace, goodwill.”

“The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.”

“The longer we delay, the more we shall have to suffer.”

“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”

“I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”

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

“My motto is 'never complain, never explain'.”

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body.”

“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”

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

“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of the unsaid ones.”

“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”

“Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.”

“I didn't think the human body could hold so much whiskey.”

“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be… we shall never surrender.”

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

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

“War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.”

“Peace begins with a smile.”

“In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

“Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.”

“Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be.”

“The destiny of man is not measured by material computations.”

“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”

“We shape our foreign policies not by fear, but by foresight.”

“The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.”

“Appeasement feeds aggression.”

“No one would do such a thing, but if I did, the world would know it.”

“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 mood of Britain is now so grim and resolute that no fears can touch her.”

“Hope is a good breakfast, but it's a bad supper.”

“There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.”

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

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.”

“We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of the unsaid ones.”

“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.”

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings.”

“We make a life by what we give.”

“The future belongs to the prepared.”

“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.”

“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”

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

“The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.”

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

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

“I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. I always feel the need to act.”

“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.”

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”

“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.”

“The truth is incontrovertible.”

“Liberty is the supreme possession of man.”

“Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.”

“Where there is great power, there is great responsibility.”

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

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

“The price of greatness is responsibility.”

“Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount.”

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings.”

“The future is unknowable, but the past should give us hope.”

“We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.”

“Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.”

“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something.”

“We are all inventing the future.”

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

“The further backward you look, the further forward you are likely to see.”

“I have always believed that a sense of duty is the highest virtue.”

“Great and good are seldom the same man.”

“The years teach much which the days never know.”

“We shape our lives, and then our lives shape us.”

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

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

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents.”

“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”