Quotes from Winston S. Churchill

The goddess of Battles visits warriors only once. He who does not grasp her at such a moment never reaches her again.

The Australians plunged through the apertures and slew or captured the defenders of the galleries.

He is no better than an epileptic corpse.

there is in time of peace organized opposition which with tireless industry assembles all the worst possible facts, draws from them the most alarming conclusions, and imputes the most unworthy motives.

I give my testimony according to the lights I follow. Every possible care has been taken to verify the facts; but much is constantly coming to light from the disclosure of captured documents or other revelations which may present a new aspect to the conclusions which I have drawn. This is why it is im¬portant to rely upon authentic contemporary records and the expressions of opinion set down when all was obscure.

It is baffling to reflect that what men call honour does not correspond always to Christian ethics. Honour is often influenced by that element of pride which plays so large a part in its inspiration.

This was the darkest hour of Alfred's fortunes. It was some months before he could even start a guerrilla. He led "with thanes and vassals an unquiet life in great tribulation…. For he had nothing wherewith to supply his wants except what in frequent sallies he could seize either stealthily or openly, both from the heathen and from the Christians who had submitted to their rule." He lived as Robin Hood did in Sherwood Forest long afterwards.

The Boers were the most humane people where white men were concerned.

We often hear military experts inculcate the doctrine of giving priority to the decisive theatre. There is a lot in this. But in war this principle, like all others, is governed by facts and circumstances;

London had heavy attacks on the sixteenth and seventeenth; over twenty-three hundred people were killed, more than three thousand seriously injured.

The Truths of War are absolute, but the principles governing their application have to be deduced on each occasion from the circumstances, which are always different; and in consequence no rules are any guide to action. Study of the past is invaluable as a means of training and storing the mind, but it is no help without selective discernment of the particular facts and of their emphasis, relation and proportion.

All are invited to the headquarters. Babel, tempered by skilful lobbying, is all that has resulted up to the present. But we must persevere.

At once slovenly and uxorious, [the Sudanese soldier] detested his drills and loved his wives with equal earnestness.

The veils of the future are lifted one by one, and mortals must act from day to day.

I lived in fact from mouth to hand.

It is not every councillor who, like the Bastard in 'King John,' will say to his sovereign: 'But if you be afeared to hear the worst, Then let the worst unheard fall on your head.

I have heard of wars for the defence of the Protestant religion: our enemies in this instance are equally enemies of all religion—of Lutheranism, of Calvinism; and desirous to propagate everywhere, by the force of their arms, that system of infidelity which they avow in their principles. I

Siempre se dice que no hay que tratar de hacer más de lo que uno puede y que hay que estar seguros de lo que uno trata de conseguir, pero este principio, como tantos otros en la vida y en la guerra, tiene excepciones. Hay

My children, it is permitted you in time of grave danger to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge.

Las ciencias mecánicas ofrecen en tierra, en el aire, en las costas, posibilidades ilimitadas de novedad y de sorpresa, salidas de la forja o del laboratorio.

The rectors of Berkshire published a manifesto denying the right of Rome to tax the English Church, and urging that the Pope, like other bishops, should "live of his own".

The climax came on May 1, when Liverpool and the Mersey were attacked for seven successive nights. Seventy-six thousand people were made homeless and three thousand killed or injured. Sixty-nine out of a hundred and forty-four berths were put out of action, and the tonnage landed for a while was cut to a quarter.

The story of the human race is War.

Nothing leads more surely to disaster than that a military plan should be pursued with crippled steps and in a lukewarm spirit in the face of continual nagging within the executive circle.