George
Bernard Shaw (Telegram inviting Churchill to opening night
of Pygmalion): Am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere.
Come and bring a friend - if you have one.
Winston Churchill wired back: Impossible to be present
for the first performance. Will attend the second - if there
is one. |
The
Prime Minister has nothing to hide from the President of the
United States.
Winston Churchill
On stepping from his bath in presence of
startled President Roosevelt
|
We
make this wide encircling movement in the Mediterranean, having
for its primary object the recovery of the command of that vital
sea, but also having for its object the exposure of the under-belly
of the Axis, especially Italy, to heavy attack.
Winston Churchill |
It
[Chinese Labour in South Africa] cannot, in the opinion of His
Majesty's Government, be classified as slavery in the extreme
acceptance of the word without some risk of terminological inexactitude.
Winston Churchill
Speech in House of Commons |
To
build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To
destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
Winston Churchill |
You
see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets
of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. Yet in
their hearts there is unspoken - unspeakable! - fear. They are
afraid of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts
stirring at home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden.
These terrify them. A little mouse - a little tiny mouse! -of
thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates
are thrown into panic.
Winston Churchill |
To
jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
Winston Churchill |
I
must point out that my rule of life prescribed as an absolutely
sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol
before, after, and if need be during all meals and in the intervals
between them.
Winston Churchill
Said during lunch with Arab leader Ibn Saud,
when he heard the king's religion forbade smoking and alcohol |
I
did not suffer from any desire to be relieved of my responsibilities.
All I wanted was compliance with my wishes after a reasonable
discussion.
Winston Churchill |
Let
us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, 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."
Winston Churchill
On Battle of Britain, June 18, 1940 |