Winston Churchill

It is remarkable that Lord Esher should be so much astray...We must conclude that an uncontrollable fondness for fiction forbade him to forsake it for fact. Such constancy is a defect in an historian.

I wanted us to go to the Tories when we were strong...not in misfortune to be made an honest woman of.

The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

The most formidable people in the world, and now the most dangerous, people who... lay down the doctrine that every frontier must be the starting out point for invasion.

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

Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.

A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.

What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes.

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

Study history, study history. In history lie all the secrets of statecraft.

When you are going through hell, keep on going. Never never never give up.

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

The malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous.

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

It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.

We are waiting for the long-promised invasion. So are the fishes.

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage.

I let the argument rip healthily between the departments. This is a very good way to finding out the truth.

This truth may be unfashionable, unpalatable, no doubt unpopular, but, if it is the truth, the story of mankind shows that war was universal and unceasing for millions of years before armaments were invented or armies organized. Indeed, the lucid intervals of peace and order only occurred in human history after armaments in the hands of strong governments have come into being, and civilization in every age has been nursed only in cradles guarded by superior weapons and superior discipline.

Unless some effective world supergovernment for the purpose of preventing war can be set up ... the prospects for peace and human progress are dark ....If .... it is found possible to build a world organization of irresistible force and inviolable authority for the purpose of securing peace, there are no limits to the blessings which all men enjoy and share.

You create your own universe as you go along.