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(no category)
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Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gongthese are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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This is the sort of pedantry up with which I will not put.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I have not become the Kings First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars Englandhe should have said Britain, of coursealways wins one battlethe last.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Once upon a time all the animals in the zoo decided that they would disarm, and they arranged to have a conference to arrange the matter. So the Rhinoceros said when he opened the proceedings that the use of teeth was barbarous and horrible and ought to be strictly prohibited by general consent. Horns, which were mainly defensive weapons, would, of course, have to be allowed. The Buffalo, the Stag, the Porcupine, and even the little Hedgehog all said they would vote with the Rhino, but the Lion and the Tiger took a different view. They defended teeth and even claws, which they described as honourable weapons of immemorial antiquity. The Panther, the Leopard, the Puma, and the whole tribe of small cats all supported the Lion and the Tiger. Then the Bear spoke. He proposed that both teeth and horns should be banned and never used again for fighting by any animal. It would be quite enough if animals were allowed to give each other a good hug when they quarreled. No one could object to that. It was so fraternal, and that would be a great step towards peace. However, all the other animals were very offended with the Bear, and the Turkey fell into a perfect panic. The discussion got so hot and angry, and all those animals began thinking so much about horns and teeth and hugging when they argued about the peaceful intentions that had brought them together that they began to look at one another in a very nasty way. Luckily the keepers were able to calm them down and persuade them to go back quietly to their cages, and they began to feel quite friendly with one another again.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will for their own safety and for the good of all walk together side by side in majesty, in justice, and in peace.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valor, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I am most anxious that in dealing with matters which every Member knows are extremely delicate matters, I should not use any phrase or expression which would cause offence to our friends and Allies on the Continent or across the Atlantic Ocean.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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We must never cease to proclaim in fearless tones the great principles of freedom and the rights of man which are the joint inheritance of the English-speaking world and which through Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and the English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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A shadow has fallen upon the scenes so lately lighted by the Allied victory. From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Twenty to twenty-five! These are the years! Dont be content with things as they are. Dont take No for an answer. Never submit to failure. Do not be fobbed off with mere personal success or acceptance. You will make all kinds of mistakes; but as long as you are generous and true, and also fierce, you cannot hurt the world or even seriously distress her. She was made to be wooed and won by youth. She has lived and thrived only by repeated subjugations.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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We have all seen with a sense of nausea the abject, squalid, shameless avowal made in the Oxford Union. We are told that we ought not to treat it seriously. The Times talked of the childrens hour. I disagree. It is a very disquieting and disgusting symptom. One can almost feel the curl of contempt upon the lips of the manhood of Germany, Italy, and France when they read the message sent out by Oxford University in the name of Young England. Let them be assured that it is not the last word. But before they blame, as blame they should, these callow ill-tutored youths, they must be sure that they have not been set a bad example by people much older and much higher up.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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When I warned them the French that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken. Some chicken! Some neck!
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Thus, by every device from the stick to the carrot, the emaciated Austrian donkey is made to pull the Nazi barrow up an ever-steepening hill.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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There is a hush over all Europe, nay, over all the world. Alas! it is the hush of suspense, and in many lands it is the hush of fear. Listen! No, listen carefully, I think I hear somethingyes, there it was quite clear. Dont you hear it? It is the tramp of armies crunching the gravel of the paradegrounds, splashing through rain-soaked fields, the tramp of two million German soldiers and more than a million Italiansgoing on maneuversyes, only on maneuvers!
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Nothing will bring American sympathy along with us so much as American blood shed in the field.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The Chinese said of themselves several thousand years ago: China is a sea that salts all the waters that flow into it. Theres another Chinese saying about their country which is much more modernit dates only from the fourth century. This is the saying: The tail of China is large and will not be wagged. I like that one. The British democracy approves the principles of movable party heads and unwaggable national tails. It is due to the working of these important forces that I have the honour to be addressing you at this moment.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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If we win, nobody will care. If we lose, there will be nobody to care.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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In War: ResolutionIn Defeat: DefianceIn Victory: MagnanimityIn Peace: Good Will
-Sir Winston Churchill
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To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The eagle has ceased to scream, but the parrots will now begin to chatter. The war of the giants is over and the pigmies will now start to squabble.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Civilisation will not last, freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will stand in awe.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except a politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Judged by every standard which history has applied to Governments, the Soviet Government of Russia is one of the worst tyrannies that has ever existed in the world. It accords no political rights. It rules by terror. It punishes political opinions. It suppresses free speech. It tolerates no newspapers but its own. It persecutes Christianity with a zeal and a cunning never equalled since the times of the Roman Emperors. It is engaged at this moment in trampling down the peoples of Georgia and executing their leaders by hundreds.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than live as slaves.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Nothing is more dangerous in wartime than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup Poll, always feeling ones pulse and taking ones temperature. I see that a speaker at the week-end said that this was a time when leaders should keep their ears to the ground. All I can say is that the British nation will find it very hard to look up to leaders who are detected in that somewhat ungainly posture.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilisation.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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For myself I am an optimistit does not seem to be much use being anything else.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Thus, then, on the night of the tenth of May, at the outset of this mighty battle, I acquired the chief power in the State, which henceforth I wielded in ever-growing measure for five years and three months of world war, at the end of which time, all our enemies having surrendered unconditionally or being about to do so, I was immediately dismissed by the British electorate from all further conduct of their affairs.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The substance of the eminent Socialist gentlemans speech is that making a profit is a sin, but it is my belief that the real sin is taking a loss.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Anyone can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, neverin nothing, great or small, large or pettynever give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I am a child of the House of Commons. I was brought up in my fathers house to believe in democracy. Trust the peoplethat was his message.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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There must be what Mr. Gladstone many years ago called a blessed act of oblivion. We must all turn our backs upon the horrors of the past. We must look to the future. We cannot afford to drag forward across the years that are to come the hatreds and revenges which have sprung from the injuries of the past.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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One woman who managed to corner him, the story runs, said in a treacly gushing voice:Doesnt it thrill you, Mr. Churchill, to know that every time you make a speech the hall is packed to overflowing?It is quite flattering, Mr. Churchill replied, but whenever I feel this way I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I was very glad that Mr. Attlee described my speeches in the war as expressing the will not only of Parliament but of the whole nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless and, as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it, and if I found the right words you must remember that I have always earned my living by my pen and by my tongue. It was a nation and race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Action(s)
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I never worry about action, but only inaction.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Adaptability
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In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Adventure
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Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.
-Sir Winston Churchill, from the essay 'Painting as a Pastime', published at the end of Thoughts and Adventures.
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Adversity
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Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.
-Sir Winston Churchill, Speech delivered to the House of Commons 1940 following the collapse of France. Churchill challenged the British people to uncommon efforts to win the Battle of Britain., June 18, 1940
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Advice
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In those days he was wiser than he is now -- he used frequently to take my advice.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Age
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We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Agreement
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No two on earth in all things can agree. All have some daring singularity.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Alcohol/Alcoholism
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I have been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who get drunk.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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America
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You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Animals
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Always remember, a cat looks down on man, a dog looks up to man, but a pig will look man right in the eye and see his equal.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Art
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Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Attitude
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In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Goodwill.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Authors & Writing
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This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Bravery
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Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt. Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Business
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Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Change
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To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Character
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Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Charity
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It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Children
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There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Color
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I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colors. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Commitment
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Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never. Never -- in anything great or small, large or petty -- never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Communication
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No comment is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I have never accepted what many people have kindly said-namely that I inspired the nation. Their will was resolute and remorseless, and as it proved, unconquerable. It fell to me to express it.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Communism
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Socialism is like a dream. Sooner or later you wake up to reality.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The substance of the eminent Socialist gentlemen's speech is that making a profit is a sin. It is my belief that the real sin is taking a loss!
-Sir Winston Churchill
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It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Socialists think profits are a vice; I consider losses the real vice.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Compromise
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An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile -- hoping it will eat him last.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The English never draw a line without blurring it.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Conflict
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Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
-Sir Winston Churchill, Premier's review of the War
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Conscience
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There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The only guide to man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Contradiction
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The reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Criticism
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When I am abroad, I always make it a rule to never criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Danger
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Danger -- if you meet it promptly and without flinching -- you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Nothing is so exhilarating in life as to be shot at with no result.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Deception/Lying
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There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Decisions
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They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Defeat
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The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Democracy
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Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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At the bottom of all the tributes paid to democracy is the little man walking into the little booth with a little pencil, making a little cross on a little bit of paper. No amount of rhetoric or voluminous discussion can possibly diminish the overwhelming importance of that point.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
-Sir Winston Churchill, Speech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1947
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Destruction
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It may be that we shall, by a process of sublime irony, have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation.
-Sir Winston Churchill, Address to the House of Commons regarding the hydrogen bomb, March 1, 1955
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To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Dictatorship
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Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
-Sir Winston Churchill, November 11, 1937
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Difficulty
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Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Dogs
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The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Effort
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It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Faith
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I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Fame
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Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Fanaticism
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A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Fear
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It is better to be frightened now than killed hereafter
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Generosity
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We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Genius
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True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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God
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If the Almighty were to rebuild the world and asked me for advice, I would have English Channels round every country. And the atmosphere would be such that anything which attempted to fly would be set on fire.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Golf
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Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Grammar
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From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Gratitude
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Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Greatness & Great Things
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Twice in my lifetime the long arm of destiny has reached across the oceans and involved the entire life and manhood of the United States in a deadly struggle.There was no use in saying We don't want it; we won
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=424
-Sir Winston Churchill, from an address at Harvard to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, September 6, 1943
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The price of greatness is responsibility.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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History
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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.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Home
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We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Honesty
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It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Humanity
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If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Humility
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He is a modest little man who has a good deal to be modest about.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Humor
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Well, dinner would have been splendid
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Idealism
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No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Justice
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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.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Knowledge
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If you have knowledge, let others light their candles with it.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Leadership
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The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Learning
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Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Life
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The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Logic
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Logic is a poor guide compared with custom.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Loyalty
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It is all right to rat, but you can't re-rat.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Marriage
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If I was your wife Sir, I'd poison you! Madam, if you were my wife, I'd let you!
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Mercy
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We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.
-Sir Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons, July 14, 1940
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Military, the
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The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy and the lash.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Mistakes
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All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Nation, Nationality, Nationalism
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There are few virtues that the Poles do not possess and there are few errors they have ever avoided.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. About Russia
-Sir Winston Churchill
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The maxim of the British people is Business as usual.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Opinion
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There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Opportunity
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The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Optimism
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I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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These are not dark days: these are great days -- the greatest days our country has ever lived.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Persistence
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Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer. You have only to persevere to save yourselves.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Planning
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I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Politics
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In war you can be killed only once. In politics, many times.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Power
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The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Presidency
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Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Prophecy
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The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Purpose
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Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Quotations
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I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.'
-Sir Winston Churchill, quoted in Rudolf Flesch, ed., The New Book of Unusual Quotations (NY: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 311
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It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Responsibility
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Responsibility is the price of greatness.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Revenge
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Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Risk
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No crime is so great as daring to excel.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Play the game for more than you can afford to lose... only then will you learn the game.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Running
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If you are going through hell, keep going.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Satisfaction
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I am easily satisfied with the very best.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Science
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The latest refinements of science are linked with the cruelties of the Stone Age.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Security
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Without a measureless and perpetual uncertainty, the drama of human life would be destroyed.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Service
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Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Silence
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When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Simplicity
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All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Slavery
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It 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.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Socialism
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The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Solitude
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Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Speeches (oratory)
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Haven't you learned yet that I put something more than whisky into my speeches.
-Sir Winston Churchill, to his son Randolph
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Say what you have to say and first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending; sit down.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Opening amenities are often opening inanities.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use the pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time; a tremendous whack.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Success & Failure
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Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Thought
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The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Time
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If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find we have lost the future.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Truth
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The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Victory
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Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Virtue
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He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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War
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War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;we shall never surrender.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Wealth
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We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Words
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Short words are the best and old words when short are best of all.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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I have never developed indigestion from eating my words.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Eating words has never given me indigestion.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Worry
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Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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When I look back on all the worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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We have a lot of anxieties, and one cancels out another very often.
-Sir Winston Churchill
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Books by and about Sir Winston Churchill
