"We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out."

"In the long years to come, not only will the people of this island but of the world, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, look back to what we've done, and they will say 'do not despair, do not yield...march straightforward."

"The maxim "Nothing avails but perfection" may be spelled "Paralysis.""

"Really I feel less keen about the Army every day. I think the Church would suit me better."

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

"No crime is so great as daring to excel."

"My wife and I tried to breakfast together, but we had to stop or our marriage would have been wrecked."

"Never give in never give in never never never never - in nothing great or small large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense."

"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."

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

"I have never accepted what many people have kindly said namely that I have inspired the nation. It was the nation and the race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar."

"We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us."

"I decline utterly to be impartial between the fire brigade and the fire."

"There are two things that are more difficult than making an after-dinner speech: climbing a wall which is leaning toward you and kissing a girl who is leaning away from you."

"We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."

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

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."

"I am a man of simple tastes easily satisfied with the best."

"I am easily satisfied with the very best."

"There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true."

"That long (Canadian) frontier from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean guarded only by neighbourly respect and honourable obligations as an example to every country and a pattern for the future of the world."

"The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all."

"Politics is 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."

"A joke is a very serious thing."

"If you are going through hell, keep going."

"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

"Churchill kept perspective on the crowds that gathered to hear him speak by conceding they would be twice as big if gathered to see him hanged."

"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong."

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

"I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting."

"Mr. Attlee is a very modest man. Indeed he has a lot to be modest about."

"Delight in smooth sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts ... genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation ... the utter devotion of the Liberals to sentiment apart from reality ...though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in the unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries."

"Do not let spacious plans for a new world divert your energies from saving what is left of the old."

"I have never developed indigestion from eating my words."

"Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham."

"Continuous effort-not strength or intelligence-is the key to unlocking our potential."

"A lady came up to me one day and said 'Sir! You are drunk', to which I replied 'I am drunk today madam, and tomorrow I shall be sober but you will still be ugly."

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."

"It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right."

"If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or as it were, fondle them " peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition."

"It is more agreeable to have the power to give than to receive."

"When I am abroad I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home."

"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities " but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world."

"Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times."

"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it."

"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law."

"Terminological inexactitude."

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

"Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught."

"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without vicory there is no survival."